FREE TIME ACTIVITIES PREFERENCES OF STUDENTS OF DIFERENT COUNTRIES IN PRE-SESSIONAL ENGLISH COURSE IN THE LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Background

Free time after class is always important to students because is an opportunity of know people, relax or study. Students of different countries have different cultural backgrounds and different problems about the life abroad. In the English pre-sessional course the time after class is very important because this course has 15 hours of self study and the students have to manage well their time and know better how the different students use this time the university can give some advice to these students for improve the English learning.


Aim

The purpose of this research is to find out if different nationalities of pre-sessional students have the same use of their free time after class or their cultural background affects the student life in England. This research also wants to know how the pre-sessional students manage their time after class.

Methods

The sample size was 34. The respondents were different nationality pre-sessional English students of London Metropolitan University.
First of all an initial questionnaire was made based on the main aim, then this questionnaire was probed in a small group of five people, after that a new questionnaire was elaborated. The questionnaire join mostly questions about the life style, accommodation and hobbies. Finally the questionnaire was filled by the English pre-sessional students of London Metropolitan University in a special activity.


Findings

Regarding the nationality of respondents don´t exist a significant differences between the activities on the free time and their countries of origin. Also differences between students of similar countries were found.

As for their choice of “what to do after class” go to home was, unsurprisingly, the most common election with 60%. 33% of this respondents said that they went to home to study. A seen on figure 2 a significant of number students 16% mentioned that the university doesn´t have activities to do.
On the topic of work surprising only 1 of three of the students have a job. Also of these students 50% said that they work in order to save money and 33% work to improve their English.
When asked if free activities in London are different from free time activities on their countries, half of students said that in their countries have different activities on the free time. On the other hand the other half said that in their countries have the same activities. Almost 25% of the students didn´t answer.
When asked about friends on the free time 35% of the respondents said friends of different countries. Additionally 30% of the respondents cited Flat with friends of different countries as the most common election in accommodation

Discussion
The nationalities of the respondents do not affect their activities significantly in a different country. This could indicate that the cultural activities are not an important aspect in the free time activities of the students life. Although this also suggest that in the cosmopolite city of London the students does not have any problem with cultural issues.
The majority of the students said that prefer go to home to study rather than other activities. Perhaps this means that they feel more comfortably studying in a familiar environment in opposite to an academic environment in the university.
The results reveal that only 1 of three the students have a part time job. This would seem to indicate that money is not a main problem for pre-sessional students.
A significant number of the respondents cited that prefers spend their time with people of different countries. This could indicate that the students wants to improve their English


Conclusion

The research was intended to explore the differences or similarities about pre-sessional students free time activities. Additionally wanted to know the students time manage.
It was discovered that people of different nationality have similar preferences about free time activities. Unexpected the findings show a low percentage of students who worked despite the expensive of the city.
The findings show that 1 of 6 of the students said that the university does not have free time activities. A further research could be interested on why even with different options offered by the University the students feel absence of free time activities.