Introduction

In the past decade, Australian universities 1) see/saw/have seen a significant growth in the number of international ESL students, mainly from South East and North East Asia. In the period from 2002-2007 there 2) is/was/has been a 52.8 percent increase in enrolments by students from North-east Asia and a 112.3% increase in students from Southern and Central Asia, 31.5% of whom 3) come/came/have come from South East Asia, 35.1% from North East Asia and 12.8% from Central and Southern Asia (Department of Employment, 2007, 2002). Currently, international students 4) make up/made up/have made up over 25% of all students enrolled in Higher Education institutions in Australia.

This large growth in the number of International ESL students in Australian universities 5) leads/led/has led to increased attention on the level of students’ English language skills and growing concern about the lowering of standards (Birrell, 2006; Watty, 2007). Recent studies 6) show/showed/have shown that even when international ESL students 7) achieve/achieved/have achieved the minimum English language entry requirements, many of them 8) struggle/struggled/have struggled to meet the demands of their mainstream university courses (Birell, 2006; Bretag, 2007). According to Birell (2006:61) there 9) is/was/has been “wide spread recognition of the English problem” in Australia, and universities 10) cope/coped/have coped by “lowering the English demands in the courses they teach.”