Jane Thomas
Teaching International Students:
An Annotated Bibliography
One thing that I have noticed while researching International Student’s learning is that the vast majority of the scholarly articles written lump all international students into one large group. While this is probably very beneficial for teaching methods, I think it severely oversimplifies the issues at hand. Even when the authors acknowledge the problems that arise with the varying levels of English comprehension and cultural implications of international students, they rarely if ever offer advice on how to properly instruct a wide range of cultures in the classroom. I think more research on the topic could help to solidify tools for assisting International Students. In addition, I think more recent studies are needed in order to see the influence that technology has on these students as well as an examination of the range of student's abilities when they enter into regular classrooms. For teachers that may not have international students, every student comes from their own diverse background and there are likely many cultures present in every class at KU. Becoming better teachers for international students allows us to be better teachers for all students. I think understanding some of the varying ways students think and relate to material allows us as the teachers to push our students and incorporate many different projects and activities in the classroom.
Booth, Margaret Zoller, and Claudia Nieto. "Cultural Competence: Its Influence on the Teaching and Learning of International Students." Journal of Studies in International Education 14.406 (2010): Sage Publication. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.sagepublications.com>.
Booth’s study is based on the interconnectedness of language and culture. This is followed by the necessity of instructors being educated in a variety of worldviews. Booth acknowledges the fact that no instructor could possibly have all of the worldviews of their students and lays out a number of activities and writing assignments to elicit the students to define their own worldview for the instructor. From this point, instructors are much more capable of tailoring their course, or certain aspects of the course, to particular students or groups. Moving forward, a statistical analysis of intercultural sensitivity was conducted for students compared with instructors. The instructors had a significantly higher intercultural sensitivity when compared with their students. The article shows how this correlation points to a better learning experience for international students when their instructors strive for a larger worldview and better cultural understanding. However, with this emphasis on instructors with larger worldviews, this also applies pressure to the instructor to encourage their native students to welcome the international students into the classroom discourse. The conclusion of Booth’s article points to the two main areas to focus on when educating international students: language and culture. Using these two concepts in conjunction with one another lead to a more successful outcome for the students. I found this article to be extremely important and useful in my research. As it was an analytical study, the facts and statistics could be quantified. I also found the practical applications of writing assignments to be particularly useful. I also felt Booth and Nieto did exemplary in establishing the importance of the instructor as responsible for the incorporation of international students into their classrooms.
Chiang, Yuet-Sim D. and Schmida, Mary. “Language Identity and Language Ownership: Linguistic Conflicts of First-Year University Writing Students.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 89-102. Print.
This article focuses specifically on the differences between ESL (English Second Language) and NES (Native English Speaker) students in a first year writing class. One of the main problems that is cited is the ramification of not possessing ownership of the language being used. This makes international students shy and unwilling to participate as readily due to the stark differences between their capacity to use written and spoken English compared with their NES classmates. This forces international students to view themselves as separate, or unequal with the others in their class. Identity is delved into in this article as well. This establishes how international students maintain an identity that is at one time covering both their American college student identity with their identity as a member of another cultural that is not the same as the previously stated. Chiang and Schmida cite this as a roadblock that must be broken through before the student is able to be successful in an American university. While this article had some interesting discussions on the implications of ESL students in relation with their NES classmates, I am not sure of the practical use in the classroom. As no practical uses are cited to overcome the identity barrier or the level of empowerment with the English language, the article seems to be lacking in concrete examples of how these problems can be solved. As a theoretical or investigative article, Language Identity and Language Ownership is a strong piece of writing.
Fischer, Karin. "China Props up Foreign Students’ Numbers in U.S.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (2010).
In the article “China Props up Foreign Students’ Numbers in U.S.,” Fischer discusses the status of international students present in the United States in 2010 and the implications this has on American colleges as well as the students’ native countries. Her main focus in this article is why there are so many Chinese students and why they choose the United States as their college education country of choice. One of the main focuses Fischer has in this article is the vast range of majors and areas of focus that the United States’ college campuses offer as verse as other countries. She speaks specifically to the new influx of international students into the humanities where teachers are ill prepared and uninformed on pedagogical instruction methods for them. Fischer also discusses the large sums of money that international students are currently bringing to the United States and American colleges’ new dependence on foreign students’ tuition. She solidifies for the reader the juxtaposition of the difficulty of teaching international students while maintaining their necessity in our current culture. While Fischer does an excellent job of showing the diverse students and the cultural differences of students, she offers little to no advice on how to better manage or instruct professors who are thrown into situations with large numbers of international students. Her article is helpful in getting a basis for the cultural background of the students and understanding the status of international students in today’s American colleges.
Fischer, Karin. "Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students From Abroad." The Chronicle of Higher Education (2011).
The focus of this article is on the influences that create problems, but also opportunities for international students coming to the United States for their undergraduate college educations. Fischer distinguishes between undergraduate and graduate students. She also focuses on a number of different countries from which international students come from, with a heavy emphasis on Chinese students. Fischer then continues to guide instructors on various ways in which to assist these students in acclimating and succeeding in higher education in the United States. One of the ways she documents leads to higher performance in the classroom is through extracurricular activities with native English speakers. According to Fischer, an international student that is close friends or are regularly involved with native speakers enhances not only his or her social experience, but also his or her collegiate experience in the United States. This article also depicts the ways that instructors can push American students to aide in the acculturation of international undergraduate students. Finally, this article handles may of the social and societal differences in the lives of international students that create problems that are sometimes out of the reach for instructors. These include helicopter parents, extreme pressures, nerves, communication with friends and family and the culture shock that comes with moving to the United States. Fischer paints a complicated picture of how best to assist these students and instead offers differing ways to approach the subject. I found “Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students From Abroad” to be extremely important in terms of understanding the difficulties and struggles that typical international students face. Fischer also calls for a sympathetic and understanding response from instructors. Though her article is written for the general public, I found the contents to be extremely useful, particularly in utilizing it for the application portion of the assignment.
Land Jr., Robert E. and Whitley, Catherine. “Evaluating Second-Language Essays in Regular Composition Classes: Toward a Pluralistic U.S. Rhetoric.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 324-32. Print.
One of the first points made in this article is what instructors state that they expect from students versus what they actually grade on when reading a paper. Land and Whitley found that based on the number of ESL students in American colleges and the number of instructors actually trained and qualified to instruct these students, our current colleges don’t wish to help international students learn to write better, but rather wish they were already fluent. Along with this yearning for a fluent students comes a hidden agenda for grading that is typically not apparent to the student and may not even be apparent to the evaluator. Even in papers that have little to no grammatical errors, other formal features will jut out as faulty in international students’ papers that few native students struggle with. The main feature that is usually found at fault in international students’ papers is the organization of ideas. According to peer reviews and grade norming between native and international students, the native students consistently graded the international students’ papers with lower grades, citing among other things organization. In contrast, international students graded other international students’ papers as on par with their classmates. This brings up an interesting point on whether organization is really as important as native English speakers tent to make it. I found this article very important in terms of understanding the tendencies of grading and the ways that culture influences the organization of thoughts and writing. Land and Whitley suggest the best means in which to overcome these discrepancies is through exposure to more fluid organizations as well as more experience grading papers different from the expected format.
Matsuda, Paul Kei and Silva, Tony. “Cross-Cultural Composition: Mediated Integration of U.S. and International Students.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 246-59. Print.
Matsuda and Silva lay out the importance of two main challenges that writing teachers and writing administrators are expected and necessitated to overcome. The first of these challenges is to create a welcoming and productive environment for a classroom that is getting increasingly more international and diverse. The second problem they highlight is based on the ability for writing instructors to teach their students how to write for international and interconnected audiences. One interesting case study that Matsuda and Silva offered as an option to address these challenges is through the use of a cross-cultural journal. In this continued assignment, the students were to respond weekly to the impacts they had seen in their life or the examples they had of a cross-cultural experience. This forced international students and native English speaking students alike to respond to international cultures consistently in their composition classroom. Perhaps the strongest point of their article is a discussion of the importance of bringing the difficulties of instructing international students to the foreground. In addressing the differences and difficulties involved, Matsuda and Silva state that a more productive and enriching result will ensue. I thought this article brought about some really interesting ideas of establishing different ways to incorporate the difficulties into the classroom setting. I’m not sure if I would actually do this in my classroom, as I would be feel like I was further ostracizing the students. I would also worry that they would then feel as if they were a burden on the class, which would obviously never be the intention. The real strength and usefulness of the article came in the practical application of the journal. I thought this was an interesting idea that could help both the international and native English speakers overcome the cultural differences present in the classroom setting.
Parker, Randall D. Teaching, Learning, and Working with International Students: A Case Study., 1999. ERIC. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.
Parker conducted a study of the integration of Taiwanese students into an American classroom in order to discover the complications and benefits of having international students in an undergraduate classroom. In the article, Parker highlights a number of issues that arose with having international students unfamiliar with American culture in an integrated classroom. One of the main problems he found was the competition aspect of classrooms, particularly group work. Instead of helping one another and having assistance from classmates be beneficial, these international students viewed it as competition for their grade with others. Many of the international students viewed their classmates as their competition instead of multiple students moving towards the same goal. While this posed some interesting dilemmas in the classroom, the international students also had positive affects on their classmates. To begin with, based on the polls, all of the students grew to a better global awareness and understanding. In addition, the international students were able to better communicate and verbalize their opinions as the class continued throughout the semester. While this article seemed helpful in articulating the benefits of having international students in the classroom, it didn’t help in explaining how to help students have a better experience within the classroom. It was mostly a listing of negatives and positives, which is nice to be aware of, but not very helpful in determining what to do about the negative aspects. Parker was also very thorough with his research, which helped to establish this article as based not only on opinions, but also on facts.
Ramanathan, Vai and Atkinson, Dwight. “Individualism, Academic Writing, and ESL Writers.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 159-85. Print.
This article details much of the history of beliefs on the implications that an emphasis on individualism in American colleges has on international students. They begin with a discussion of what a personal voice is and the juxtaposition of international students coming from a distinct foreign culture and language, and yet lacking voice according to American standards. Ramanathan and Atkinson also discuss the irony that many international students learn best from imitation, and yet Western colleges frown upon the use of outside materials as taking away from personal, individual voice. They also touch on peer-review in the college writing classroom. The implications that peer-review holds for international students is that they are in fact peers with their classmates in terms of their writing and ideas. More often than not, according to Ramanathan and Atkinson, international students will give only positive feedback to papers even when they find errors due to their view of themselves as not commanding authority over the language. This has an interesting influence on the relationship of the international students to the class and the project at hand, but also on the relationship between international students and their native classmates. In conclusion, Ramanathan and Atkinson ask instructors to expand their concept of individual to incorporate differing cultures, ideas and English lexicons. While this really helps theoretically explain some of the major differences between the way that instructors view international students versus native students, I don’t think there is enough of a conclusion or solution to the problem. Clearly the teaching method that is currently in place favors the native students who have been raised in American culture with predatory schooling for a Western college. I have a hard time believing that by simply altering a definition of what is considered an individual, a new wave of inclusion and acceptance will overcome the previously held favorability. If only it could be so simple.
Rienties, Bart, et al. “Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity, academic and social integration.” Web. July 24, 2011. www.springerlink.com
Rienties, et al. suggests in his article that the single largest influence on international students’ success in Western institutions is the integration of academics in the new culture in which the student is studying. This fact seems to contradict what other researchers had discovered to be true: that the true key to success was through the social integration of students. Rienties, et al. showed through their research that many international students experienced feelings of shock and helplessness in American classrooms due to the lack of understanding of expectations and criteria in Western colleges. This fact was exacerbated by the fact that few had specific people in which to get in contact for assistance when struggling. While social integration is still important to a happy educational experience, the full integration into American culture is not as important as the assimilation into American academics. This article also offered some very practical ways for enhancing the current systems in place for international students. One of the suggestions for Rieties et al. was to have a pre-acceptance meeting or brochure that allows students to get an idea of what the educational system will be like prior to enrolling. This is key because often times recruitment from international countries focuses so strongly on encouraging students to attend that they rarely give the logistics of the daily expectations. Another idea posed in this article is to somehow mandate a course over the summer to help students with basic needs that will be expected in Western colleges. While this wouldn’t give them all of the material they needed beforehand, it would allow students to have a grasp on what is absolutely necessary to enter college knowing. This article has many practical and helpful ideas on how to help international students situate themselves before entering their first classroom. In addition, it could be beneficial in understanding the hierarchy of needs for international students when trying to help our students succeed.
Silva, Tony. “On the Ethical Treatment of ESL Writers.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 154-58. Print.
Silva’s article lays out nicely not only who are considered international students, but also what characterizes them as writers and students. He cites some of the differences as more simplistic word choice, shorter sentences, more grammatical errors, and, according to American standards, less sophistication in their writing capabilities. Silva also emphasizes the importance of clear, purposeful instruction that takes into account our international students’ agendas. This fact encourages instructors to view each of our students’ as individuals that necessitate varying reasons for assignments and activities in class. As he sees it, as long as there is a specific purpose with logical results, there will be students willing to put in the time and efforts. Finally, Silva discusses the importance of fair evaluation in the class. One of the key points he makes in discussing evaluation is that not only is language acquisition an extremely gradual process, but some of the linguistic choices our international students make are based on their cultural background. This is an important point because this has ramifications not just in their writing, but also their relation to course material and the verbal responses they give in the classroom. I found Silva’s discussion of international students to be particularly helpful in terms of understanding differing ways in which to approach students. One of the main ways in which his article is helpful is through the importance of instructions given within the classroom. Many instructors, especially new ones, get very caught up in the goals they have laid out for class, not focusing hardly at all on the students in their class, or what they hope to achieve. In shifting the focus onto the students, instructors are better able to assist more of their students. I also thought Silva’s explanation of culture influencing the ways in which international students learn, think and act was very interesting and useful. Silva doesn’t give many practical applications, but does a great job of establishing the views of the differences of learning between international students and native English speakers.
Teaching International Students:
An Annotated Bibliography
One thing that I have noticed while researching International Student’s learning is that the vast majority of the scholarly articles written lump all international students into one large group. While this is probably very beneficial for teaching methods, I think it severely oversimplifies the issues at hand. Even when the authors acknowledge the problems that arise with the varying levels of English comprehension and cultural implications of international students, they rarely if ever offer advice on how to properly instruct a wide range of cultures in the classroom. I think more research on the topic could help to solidify tools for assisting International Students. In addition, I think more recent studies are needed in order to see the influence that technology has on these students as well as an examination of the range of student's abilities when they enter into regular classrooms. For teachers that may not have international students, every student comes from their own diverse background and there are likely many cultures present in every class at KU. Becoming better teachers for international students allows us to be better teachers for all students. I think understanding some of the varying ways students think and relate to material allows us as the teachers to push our students and incorporate many different projects and activities in the classroom.
Booth, Margaret Zoller, and Claudia Nieto. "Cultural Competence: Its Influence on the Teaching and Learning of International Students." Journal of Studies in International Education 14.406 (2010): Sage Publication. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.sagepublications.com>.
Booth’s study is based on the interconnectedness of language and culture. This is followed by the necessity of instructors being educated in a variety of worldviews. Booth acknowledges the fact that no instructor could possibly have all of the worldviews of their students and lays out a number of activities and writing assignments to elicit the students to define their own worldview for the instructor. From this point, instructors are much more capable of tailoring their course, or certain aspects of the course, to particular students or groups. Moving forward, a statistical analysis of intercultural sensitivity was conducted for students compared with instructors. The instructors had a significantly higher intercultural sensitivity when compared with their students. The article shows how this correlation points to a better learning experience for international students when their instructors strive for a larger worldview and better cultural understanding. However, with this emphasis on instructors with larger worldviews, this also applies pressure to the instructor to encourage their native students to welcome the international students into the classroom discourse. The conclusion of Booth’s article points to the two main areas to focus on when educating international students: language and culture. Using these two concepts in conjunction with one another lead to a more successful outcome for the students. I found this article to be extremely important and useful in my research. As it was an analytical study, the facts and statistics could be quantified. I also found the practical applications of writing assignments to be particularly useful. I also felt Booth and Nieto did exemplary in establishing the importance of the instructor as responsible for the incorporation of international students into their classrooms.
Chiang, Yuet-Sim D. and Schmida, Mary. “Language Identity and Language Ownership: Linguistic Conflicts of First-Year University Writing Students.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 89-102. Print.
This article focuses specifically on the differences between ESL (English Second Language) and NES (Native English Speaker) students in a first year writing class. One of the main problems that is cited is the ramification of not possessing ownership of the language being used. This makes international students shy and unwilling to participate as readily due to the stark differences between their capacity to use written and spoken English compared with their NES classmates. This forces international students to view themselves as separate, or unequal with the others in their class. Identity is delved into in this article as well. This establishes how international students maintain an identity that is at one time covering both their American college student identity with their identity as a member of another cultural that is not the same as the previously stated. Chiang and Schmida cite this as a roadblock that must be broken through before the student is able to be successful in an American university. While this article had some interesting discussions on the implications of ESL students in relation with their NES classmates, I am not sure of the practical use in the classroom. As no practical uses are cited to overcome the identity barrier or the level of empowerment with the English language, the article seems to be lacking in concrete examples of how these problems can be solved. As a theoretical or investigative article, Language Identity and Language Ownership is a strong piece of writing.
Fischer, Karin. "China Props up Foreign Students’ Numbers in U.S.” The Chronicle of Higher Education (2010).
In the article “China Props up Foreign Students’ Numbers in U.S.,” Fischer discusses the status of international students present in the United States in 2010 and the implications this has on American colleges as well as the students’ native countries. Her main focus in this article is why there are so many Chinese students and why they choose the United States as their college education country of choice. One of the main focuses Fischer has in this article is the vast range of majors and areas of focus that the United States’ college campuses offer as verse as other countries. She speaks specifically to the new influx of international students into the humanities where teachers are ill prepared and uninformed on pedagogical instruction methods for them. Fischer also discusses the large sums of money that international students are currently bringing to the United States and American colleges’ new dependence on foreign students’ tuition. She solidifies for the reader the juxtaposition of the difficulty of teaching international students while maintaining their necessity in our current culture. While Fischer does an excellent job of showing the diverse students and the cultural differences of students, she offers little to no advice on how to better manage or instruct professors who are thrown into situations with large numbers of international students. Her article is helpful in getting a basis for the cultural background of the students and understanding the status of international students in today’s American colleges.
Fischer, Karin. "Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students From Abroad." The Chronicle of Higher Education (2011).
The focus of this article is on the influences that create problems, but also opportunities for international students coming to the United States for their undergraduate college educations. Fischer distinguishes between undergraduate and graduate students. She also focuses on a number of different countries from which international students come from, with a heavy emphasis on Chinese students. Fischer then continues to guide instructors on various ways in which to assist these students in acclimating and succeeding in higher education in the United States. One of the ways she documents leads to higher performance in the classroom is through extracurricular activities with native English speakers. According to Fischer, an international student that is close friends or are regularly involved with native speakers enhances not only his or her social experience, but also his or her collegiate experience in the United States. This article also depicts the ways that instructors can push American students to aide in the acculturation of international undergraduate students. Finally, this article handles may of the social and societal differences in the lives of international students that create problems that are sometimes out of the reach for instructors. These include helicopter parents, extreme pressures, nerves, communication with friends and family and the culture shock that comes with moving to the United States. Fischer paints a complicated picture of how best to assist these students and instead offers differing ways to approach the subject. I found “Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students From Abroad” to be extremely important in terms of understanding the difficulties and struggles that typical international students face. Fischer also calls for a sympathetic and understanding response from instructors. Though her article is written for the general public, I found the contents to be extremely useful, particularly in utilizing it for the application portion of the assignment.
Land Jr., Robert E. and Whitley, Catherine. “Evaluating Second-Language Essays in Regular Composition Classes: Toward a Pluralistic U.S. Rhetoric.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 324-32. Print.
One of the first points made in this article is what instructors state that they expect from students versus what they actually grade on when reading a paper. Land and Whitley found that based on the number of ESL students in American colleges and the number of instructors actually trained and qualified to instruct these students, our current colleges don’t wish to help international students learn to write better, but rather wish they were already fluent. Along with this yearning for a fluent students comes a hidden agenda for grading that is typically not apparent to the student and may not even be apparent to the evaluator. Even in papers that have little to no grammatical errors, other formal features will jut out as faulty in international students’ papers that few native students struggle with. The main feature that is usually found at fault in international students’ papers is the organization of ideas. According to peer reviews and grade norming between native and international students, the native students consistently graded the international students’ papers with lower grades, citing among other things organization. In contrast, international students graded other international students’ papers as on par with their classmates. This brings up an interesting point on whether organization is really as important as native English speakers tent to make it. I found this article very important in terms of understanding the tendencies of grading and the ways that culture influences the organization of thoughts and writing. Land and Whitley suggest the best means in which to overcome these discrepancies is through exposure to more fluid organizations as well as more experience grading papers different from the expected format.
Matsuda, Paul Kei and Silva, Tony. “Cross-Cultural Composition: Mediated Integration of U.S. and International Students.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 246-59. Print.
Matsuda and Silva lay out the importance of two main challenges that writing teachers and writing administrators are expected and necessitated to overcome. The first of these challenges is to create a welcoming and productive environment for a classroom that is getting increasingly more international and diverse. The second problem they highlight is based on the ability for writing instructors to teach their students how to write for international and interconnected audiences. One interesting case study that Matsuda and Silva offered as an option to address these challenges is through the use of a cross-cultural journal. In this continued assignment, the students were to respond weekly to the impacts they had seen in their life or the examples they had of a cross-cultural experience. This forced international students and native English speaking students alike to respond to international cultures consistently in their composition classroom. Perhaps the strongest point of their article is a discussion of the importance of bringing the difficulties of instructing international students to the foreground. In addressing the differences and difficulties involved, Matsuda and Silva state that a more productive and enriching result will ensue. I thought this article brought about some really interesting ideas of establishing different ways to incorporate the difficulties into the classroom setting. I’m not sure if I would actually do this in my classroom, as I would be feel like I was further ostracizing the students. I would also worry that they would then feel as if they were a burden on the class, which would obviously never be the intention. The real strength and usefulness of the article came in the practical application of the journal. I thought this was an interesting idea that could help both the international and native English speakers overcome the cultural differences present in the classroom setting.
Parker, Randall D. Teaching, Learning, and Working with International Students: A Case Study., 1999. ERIC. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.
Parker conducted a study of the integration of Taiwanese students into an American classroom in order to discover the complications and benefits of having international students in an undergraduate classroom. In the article, Parker highlights a number of issues that arose with having international students unfamiliar with American culture in an integrated classroom. One of the main problems he found was the competition aspect of classrooms, particularly group work. Instead of helping one another and having assistance from classmates be beneficial, these international students viewed it as competition for their grade with others. Many of the international students viewed their classmates as their competition instead of multiple students moving towards the same goal. While this posed some interesting dilemmas in the classroom, the international students also had positive affects on their classmates. To begin with, based on the polls, all of the students grew to a better global awareness and understanding. In addition, the international students were able to better communicate and verbalize their opinions as the class continued throughout the semester. While this article seemed helpful in articulating the benefits of having international students in the classroom, it didn’t help in explaining how to help students have a better experience within the classroom. It was mostly a listing of negatives and positives, which is nice to be aware of, but not very helpful in determining what to do about the negative aspects. Parker was also very thorough with his research, which helped to establish this article as based not only on opinions, but also on facts.
Ramanathan, Vai and Atkinson, Dwight. “Individualism, Academic Writing, and ESL Writers.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 159-85. Print.
This article details much of the history of beliefs on the implications that an emphasis on individualism in American colleges has on international students. They begin with a discussion of what a personal voice is and the juxtaposition of international students coming from a distinct foreign culture and language, and yet lacking voice according to American standards. Ramanathan and Atkinson also discuss the irony that many international students learn best from imitation, and yet Western colleges frown upon the use of outside materials as taking away from personal, individual voice. They also touch on peer-review in the college writing classroom. The implications that peer-review holds for international students is that they are in fact peers with their classmates in terms of their writing and ideas. More often than not, according to Ramanathan and Atkinson, international students will give only positive feedback to papers even when they find errors due to their view of themselves as not commanding authority over the language. This has an interesting influence on the relationship of the international students to the class and the project at hand, but also on the relationship between international students and their native classmates. In conclusion, Ramanathan and Atkinson ask instructors to expand their concept of individual to incorporate differing cultures, ideas and English lexicons. While this really helps theoretically explain some of the major differences between the way that instructors view international students versus native students, I don’t think there is enough of a conclusion or solution to the problem. Clearly the teaching method that is currently in place favors the native students who have been raised in American culture with predatory schooling for a Western college. I have a hard time believing that by simply altering a definition of what is considered an individual, a new wave of inclusion and acceptance will overcome the previously held favorability. If only it could be so simple.
Rienties, Bart, et al. “Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity, academic and social integration.” Web. July 24, 2011. www.springerlink.com
Rienties, et al. suggests in his article that the single largest influence on international students’ success in Western institutions is the integration of academics in the new culture in which the student is studying. This fact seems to contradict what other researchers had discovered to be true: that the true key to success was through the social integration of students. Rienties, et al. showed through their research that many international students experienced feelings of shock and helplessness in American classrooms due to the lack of understanding of expectations and criteria in Western colleges. This fact was exacerbated by the fact that few had specific people in which to get in contact for assistance when struggling. While social integration is still important to a happy educational experience, the full integration into American culture is not as important as the assimilation into American academics. This article also offered some very practical ways for enhancing the current systems in place for international students. One of the suggestions for Rieties et al. was to have a pre-acceptance meeting or brochure that allows students to get an idea of what the educational system will be like prior to enrolling. This is key because often times recruitment from international countries focuses so strongly on encouraging students to attend that they rarely give the logistics of the daily expectations. Another idea posed in this article is to somehow mandate a course over the summer to help students with basic needs that will be expected in Western colleges. While this wouldn’t give them all of the material they needed beforehand, it would allow students to have a grasp on what is absolutely necessary to enter college knowing. This article has many practical and helpful ideas on how to help international students situate themselves before entering their first classroom. In addition, it could be beneficial in understanding the hierarchy of needs for international students when trying to help our students succeed.
Silva, Tony. “On the Ethical Treatment of ESL Writers.” Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom: A Critical Sourcebook. By Paul Kei Matsuda, Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, and Christina Ortmeier-Hooper. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 154-58. Print.
Silva’s article lays out nicely not only who are considered international students, but also what characterizes them as writers and students. He cites some of the differences as more simplistic word choice, shorter sentences, more grammatical errors, and, according to American standards, less sophistication in their writing capabilities. Silva also emphasizes the importance of clear, purposeful instruction that takes into account our international students’ agendas. This fact encourages instructors to view each of our students’ as individuals that necessitate varying reasons for assignments and activities in class. As he sees it, as long as there is a specific purpose with logical results, there will be students willing to put in the time and efforts. Finally, Silva discusses the importance of fair evaluation in the class. One of the key points he makes in discussing evaluation is that not only is language acquisition an extremely gradual process, but some of the linguistic choices our international students make are based on their cultural background. This is an important point because this has ramifications not just in their writing, but also their relation to course material and the verbal responses they give in the classroom. I found Silva’s discussion of international students to be particularly helpful in terms of understanding differing ways in which to approach students. One of the main ways in which his article is helpful is through the importance of instructions given within the classroom. Many instructors, especially new ones, get very caught up in the goals they have laid out for class, not focusing hardly at all on the students in their class, or what they hope to achieve. In shifting the focus onto the students, instructors are better able to assist more of their students. I also thought Silva’s explanation of culture influencing the ways in which international students learn, think and act was very interesting and useful. Silva doesn’t give many practical applications, but does a great job of establishing the views of the differences of learning between international students and native English speakers.