Academic Honesty, Linguistic Dishonesty: How International Students Are Linguistically Marginalized by Institutional Academic Policy

• In Event: 66.089 - Sheraton Roundtable Session 13 - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 66.089-2 - International Student Experiences and Success in Higher Education

Abstract

A large body of research has indicated international students in the U.S. experience difficulties understanding academic integrity (Bista, 2011; Gullifer & Tyson, 2014). While most studies focus on academic misconduct (Macfarlane, Zhang, & Pun, 2014), this study analyzes the length, English-language readability, and translation of academic integrity policies of 453 four-year U.S. institutions of higher education. Findings indicate average academic integrity policies are over 2,000 words long, are written above the 16th-grade reading level, and are very rarely translated into a language other than English (0.06% of the sample). In addition, no institutions published their academic integrity policies in full on their institutional international student website, possibly rendering the policy difficult to locate on the institution’s website for international students.

Authors

• Zach Taylor, University of Southern Mississippi

• Ibrahim Bicak, University of Chicago