Languaging Myths and Realities: Journeys of Chinese International Students

Group Submission Type: Book Launch

Description of Session

Higher education institutions in Anglophone countries often rely on standardized English language proficiency exams to assess the linguistic capabilities of their multilingual international students. However, there is often a mismatch between these scores and the initial experiences of international students in both academic and social contexts. Drawing on a digital ethnography of Chinese international students' first semester languaging practices, this book examines their challenges, needs and successes on their initial languaging journeys in higher education. It analyzes how they use their rich multilingual and multi-modal communicative repertories to facilitate languaging across contexts, in order to suggest how university support systems might better serve the needs of multilingual international students.

This book targets a wide range of readers, including researchers, practitioners, students and a general audience who are interested in applied linguistics, multilingualism/multiliteracies, higher education administration, digital ethnography methods as well as international higher education in Anglophone countries. While the study introduced in this book is grounded in the US higher education context with a specific focus on Chinese international students, many of its implications may facilitate deeper understanding of the languaging journeys and ways to support multilingual international students in other Anglophone contexts.

This book is organized in three parts. Part 1 introduces the rationale, focus, background information and study design of my project. Chapter 1 presents the overarching research problem, detailed guiding research questions, the educational significance of the study and a glimpse of the findings and implications by answering three key background questions: (1) Who are Chinese international students? (2) Why do I study newly arrived Chinese international students? (3) What do I want to explore about Chinese international students’ initial college experiences? Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature on the gap between Chinese international students’ language and education experiences in China and the linguistic demands they face studying in American higher education. Based on the review and discussion, I propose an integrated theoretical framework for this project. In Chapter 3, I introduce the details of my study design and provide detailed examples to illustrate my multimodal data collection methods.

Parts 2 and 3 present the key findings of my study. In Part 2 (Chapters 4 through 7), I draw attention to within-group variabilities among Chinese international students by zooming in on five focal participants’ first-semester languaging journeys in college. In Chapter 4, I propose a continuum to capture how nuances regarding participants’ previous language and educational experiences could play a role in their different degrees of readiness in pursuing overseas studies in American higher education. To illustrate each of the five categories proposed in the continuum, in Chapters 5 and 6, I present the languaging journeys of five focal students through storytelling. To conclude Part 2, Chapter 7 synthesizes the findings from the five focal cases (see Chapters 5 and 6) in reference to the continuum proposed in Chapter 4 and calls for a developmental perspective in understanding multilingual international students’ initial college experiences.

Part 3 of the book (Chapters 8 through 14) shifts attention from selected focal cases back to all 12 participants in the study and presents their initial college experiences in the format of debunking five commonly held myths. In Chapter 8, I present an overview of my research findings and introduce five commonly held myths/misconceptions about Chinese international students studying in American higher education. These myths, which are elaborated in detail in Chapters 9 through 13, include:

• Myth 1: TOEFL results accurately predict international students’ abilities to function linguistically on college entry
• Myth 2: An English-only policy is necessary in college classrooms to help international students improve their linguistic functioning in English
• Myth 3: First-Year Writing guarantees international students’ successful writing performances in content-area courses
• Myth 4: English is responsible for all the challenges facing Chinese international students
• Myth 5: Chinese international students are well supported in American higher education, linguistically and academically

Finally, in Chapter 14, I revisit and revise the theoretical framework based on the research findings as presented in Parts 2 and 3. Informed by the updated theoretical framework, I discuss implications for Chinese international students, for American higher education support systems as well as for research methodological innovation. In closing, I discuss the research implications and end the book with directions for future research.

Below are reviews of my book from experts who specialize in supporting multilingual students in higher education:
Employing various ethnographic methods as well as conducting high-quality discourse analysis, the author offers important and indispensable ways to really engage and teach Chinese students from their own perspectives. For those of us interested in diverse languaging practices, educational equity for international students and progressive pedagogies for English language users from various linguistic backgrounds, this book is very necessary.
Vershawn Ashanti Young, University of Waterloo, Canada

Through a vigorous study of Chinese undergraduate students' translingual lives in the United States, the author debunks five assumptions held by administrators about these students' academic preparedness. Her study helps raise critical issues of social justice for international students, contributing to discussions on monolingualism and racism in American higher education.
Xiaoye You, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Sub Unit

• Pre-Conference Workshops, Book launches, and Visual Art Exhibits / Book Launch

Chair

• Qianqian Zhang-Wu, Northeastern University

Book Launch Presenter

• Qianqian Zhang-Wu, Northeastern University