International students making sense of their learning in an American culture and language program in higher education

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Student mobility reflections on learning

Proposal

With a growing number of international students seeking education in western universities, developing a better understanding of international students and accommodating their needs are urgent tasks facing all globalized universities. By far, much research in the area has been conducted around international students’ English language competences, social adaptations, as well as psychological well-being. Yet little is known about their inner world—how they make sense of their learning experience, what reflective thoughts come across their mind as they resume learning, what adaptation strategies they pursue in this new environment, and what they have gained throughout the journey.
Drawing on the sociocultural perspectives on learning and identity, and constructions of a community of practice (CoP), the present research explores how international students make sense of their learning in an American Culture and Language Program (ACLP) in a US university. Research participants include 14 international members and an instructor of the ACLP. Data were collected from 60 hours classroom participant observations, 4 semi-structured focus group interviews with students and 1 with the instructor, each lasting around 40-50 minutes, a post-semester survey, and curricular materials. The thematic network analysis approach was adopted for analysis. Most salient topics concerning classroom cooperation, power relations, learning techniques, agency, translanguaging, cross-cultural communications, identities, and good rapport, were finalized and discussed in the current paper.
Results show that the international students tended to collaboratively build up knowledge with peers as well as the instructor. They extended linguistic, cultural, and regional boundaries and supported each other while constructing a multilingual identity. In addition, they developed and initiated agency to take care of their own learning, actively sought supplementary resources, and worked hard towards the development of imagined identities. As the instructor created and maintained a supportive and culturally inclusive milieu via incorporating learners’ past experiences and home culture, as well as the translanguaging pedagogy to assist their sense-making, students expanded opportunities with increased language skills, better understood the US society, constructed a cosmopolitan identity, and gained rapport with the members of the CoP. Yet, unbalanced involvement in classroom conversations could not be neglected, as students with higher English proficiency and better discussion skills or those who had previous experiences studying or working abroad tended to be more active. In addition, a more critical classroom participation could be promoted if higher-order thinking skills and sharing manners could be harnessed. Besides, gaps between students’ aspiration and those of the instructor need to be negotiated.
The research findings could help better understand international students’ learning processes, offer practical implications for how to further improving teaching and learning, and facilitate teachers’ and university’s accommodations of students’ needs. In addition, the findings may be instructive to international students as well, in terms of enhancing learning, building rapport, and adapting to US academic life. Future studies may examine how teacher’s belief and values impact international students’ cultural and language learning, and how cultural and linguistic background of international students shape and influence their experiences abroad.

Author

• Xinyue Zuo, University of Massachusetts, Amherst