Writing themselves : using creative writing to facilitate international student accounts of their intercultural experience

With large numbers of international and/or migrant students and teachers at Australian universities the classroom is now a linguistically complex arena and, as a result, the textual performances of learners can be complex, and even controversial, in terms of the expectations of academic staff as well as the employers of these graduates once they complete their studies. As, however, the notions of ‘Global English’ and ‘English as a Lingua Franca’ become more widely accepted and understood, learners and writers of English as a Second or Alternative Language have greater opportunity to construct unique texts in their authentic voice for an increasing, and increasingly interested, English language readership. Alongside this, there is a growing recognition that, while international students tend to be concentrated in certain discipline streams such as management and commerce, there is also interest in creative and other arts areas, including creative writing. This paper reports on a research project that sought to promote the creative writing interests and capacities of a small group of LEAL (Learners of English as an Additional Language) at an Australian university campus through a personalised creative writing workshop and mentoring program.