Despite their high level of English language proficiency in IELTS or TOEFL exams, many Korean students still struggle hard with academic studies in an English-speaking country. It has been hypothesized that cross-cultural difficulties account for much of these difficulties, as ‘using a second language in a school setting also involves sociocultural norms’ (Major, 2005), and students need to deal with a range of sociocultural factors. Prior to conducting a national survey which aimed at investigating cultural and language issues of Korean students at UK universities, a series of preliminary interviews as a preparatory work were undertaken with 12 Korean students at a north of England. This papers reports what are the problematic areas in a new academic context that Korean university students would often face in the UK. The data from the validation work showed that all the 12 interviewees perceived cultural differences between the Korea and UK universities in the areas of academic culture such as supervision, writing academic essays, feedback system. With the face-related reasons, they experienced difficulty contacting and interacting with supervisors. They also had problems with structuring an argument in their English academic essay. It gave a clearer reason for investigating how far the cultural factors can affect their academic study and learning English.
I. Introduction
II. Literature Review
III. Methods
IV. Results and Discussion
V. Conclusion
Works Cited