Professional Documents
Culture Documents
English Is Vehicle To Communicate
English Is Vehicle To Communicate
School of Education
by
Roopa Rawjee
May 2010
UMI Number: 3449104
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Copyright © 2010 Roopa Rawjee
Vita ..................................................................................................................................... vi
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................. vii
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ix
Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1
Background to the Study..........................................................................................2
Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................4
Research Question ...................................................................................................5
Significance of the Study .........................................................................................5
Limitations ...............................................................................................................6
Delimitations ............................................................................................................6
Definition of Key Terms ..........................................................................................8
Summary ..................................................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Review of the Literature...................................................................................10
Language and Culture ............................................................................................11
TOEFL as a Measure of English Proficiency ........................................................15
Education of Non-native Speakers of English .......................................................16
Comprehensible Input ............................................................................................18
Socio-linguistic Competence .................................................................................19
Learning Strategies ................................................................................................20
Influence of Learning Styles ..................................................................................21
English Language Proficiency in International Students .......................................22
Cultural Factors ......................................................................................................23
Impediments to Academic Success ........................................................................24
Achieving Academic Success ................................................................................27
Limitations of the Research ...................................................................................28
Summary ................................................................................................................29
Chapter 3: Methodology ....................................................................................................31
Research Design.....................................................................................................31
The Site ..................................................................................................................32
The Participants .....................................................................................................32
Participant Profiles ..............................................................................................34
Role of the Researcher ...........................................................................................37
Data Collection ......................................................................................................37
Triangulation of Data .............................................................................................42
Data Analysis .........................................................................................................43
iv
Chapter 4: Findings ............................................................................................................44
Influence of Native Languages and Culture ..........................................................45
Differences in Educational Experiences ................................................................49
Relationships with American Instructors ................................................................51
Experiences with Spoken English..........................................................................55
Experiences with Reading......................................................................................59
Experiences with Written English .........................................................................62
Perception about English Language Proficiency and Academic Success .............71
Chapter 5: Summary, Discussion of Findings, Conclusion, and Recommendations.........76
Background and Setting .........................................................................................76
Methodology ..........................................................................................................77
Discussion of Findings and Conclusions ...............................................................78
Influence of Native Languages and Cultures .....................................................78
Differences in Educational Experiences ............................................................80
Relationships with American Instructors ...........................................................82
Experiences with Spoken English ......................................................................84
Experiences with Reading..................................................................................85
Experiences with Written English .....................................................................86
Perceptions of the Connection between English Proficiency
and Academic Success .......................................................................................89
Recommendations for Site of Study and Educators ............................................. 93
Limitations of this Study and Recommendations for Further Research ................97
Summary ..............................................................................................................100
References ........................................................................................................................102
Appendix A: Preliminary Survey.....................................................................................111
Appendix B: Letter of Informed Consent for Participants...............................................113
Appendix C: Interview Protocol ......................................................................................115
Appendix D: Writing Prompt...........................................................................................117
Appendix E: Sample Exam ..............................................................................................120
Appendix F: Scoring Rubric ............................................................................................122
v
VITA
Roopa Rawjee earned a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient Indian Culture in 1984 followed by a
Bachelor of Education in 1986 and a Master of Education in 1987 from the University of
Bombay, India. She taught high school English and History in Bombay from 1987 to
1998. She moved to the United States in 1998 to attend California State University,
2002. She started working as a graduate assistant with the office of Student Development
and International Programs at CSUN in her first semester as an international student. She
coordinated Student Panels for an International Curriculum and Education (SPICE) and
the International Student Mentor Program and volunteered her time as an English teacher
for other international students. In 2001, she became a full time Student Services
orientation for international students. She has been a Foreign Student Advisor since 2005.
Her current responsibilities include maintaining student records for the Department of
international students. She is a part time instructor of English as a Second Language. She
is an educator at heart and believes that all interactions are learning experiences.
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First to Dr. Karin Duran, who agreed to be the third member of my dissertation
committee so close to the end of my study. Thank you Karin, your generosity and
Deborah Erickson, for her numerous and thoughtful contributions to my work over the
years. Dr. James Valadez, for his time, his understanding and willingness to help at every
stage of the doctoral program. Dr. Henri Mondschein for being a wonderful classmate
and colleague, and Linda Nausin, Doctoral Program Coordinator for her calm and
The family of Fred H. and Esther E. Nusz and California Lutheran University for
(Postscripts Federated Club) for scholarships awarded to me in May 2004, May 2005,
Ellen and Tom Small my “American parents” for their unconditional love. Mama
Attorney Nadadur Kumar for his kind and gracious support of my learning
experiences as a foreign student and advisor as well as for easing my path towards
vii
Desmond Henry, for his quiet friendship, his patience, and the countless
Northridge for supporting my educational pursuits. You all helped in your unique ways to
viii
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
This case study was conducted at a large four year institution of higher education located
in southern California. The purpose was to answer the question, “What are international
and academic success?” The participants were six international graduate students from
Asia. Data were collected through a preliminary survey, individual interviews, a journal
based on the researcher’s reactions to the interviews, and two anonymous readers’
evaluations of the participants’ responses to a writing prompt. Data were triangulated and
member checks validated the information. Seven themes emerged from the data. They
relationships with instructors in the United States, participants’ experiences with spoken
English, reading, and written English, and their perceptions of the connection between
English language proficiency and academic success. The researcher concluded that
ix
although the participants perceived that a positive connection exists between their
proficiency in English and their academic success, their abilities to write in English
needed significant improvement. The researcher proposed recommendations for the site
x
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The numbers of students coming to the United States for the sole purpose of
obtaining a higher education has been increasing in recent years. Foreign students
comprised 2.8 % of the total student population at universities in the United States in
1985-86. That number increased to 3.2 % by 2005-06, 3.3 % in 2006-7 and 3.5 % in
they contribute to their host campuses with their intellectual and cultural diversity as well
& Biggs, 1992). After completing their studies, some international students stay in the
United States and contribute to the economy and society, while others return to their
home countries with a high regard for their host country (Lee & Rice, 2007). These
students enter the United States from many different countries. India, China, South
Korea, and Japan were the leading countries of origin in 2005-06 as well as in 2006-07
and 2007-08 (Institute of International Education, 2009). These countries of origin do not
have English as their primary language. Their cultures are significantly different from
(Hofstede, 2001).
International students have been the subject of many research studies. Since they
come from many different countries where the languages and cultures are significantly
different from those of the United States, issues such as their use of English as a second
1
language (Oxford & Shearin, 1994), their native cultures (Quinn, 2001), native
languages (Lucas & Katz, 1994), socio-linguistic competence (Baker, 1990; Krase,
2003), learning
strategies (Anderson, 1991; Griffiths, 2003; Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1996) and resulting
academic challenges (Shenoy, 2000) have been studied in different settings and contexts.
Since English is the primary language used to impart education in the United
States, knowledge of English skills in reading, writing and speaking is crucial to foreign
students’ success in academics. They are required to pass the Test of English as a Foreign
this test is not always a strong indicator of their English skills in reading, writing and
speaking, nor is it a reliable indicator of their success at the university (Lo, 2002).
Cultural influences, teaching strategies and learning styles play a vital role in the
educational experience.
Education at every level in the United States attempts to respond to the language
needs of non-native speakers of English. Bilingual education (Cummins, 1980) has been
a key component of K-12 education for many years. Educators have debated the issue of
providing continuing instruction in students’ native languages while they learn English as
a second language (Cummins, 1980, 1983, 1999). Some educators see value in utilizing
students’ prior knowledge (Chamot & O’Malley, 1996) and acknowledging their native
cultures so as to maximize their learning experiences (Quinn, 2001) while others either
support the use of native languages to supplement English as the primary language of
instruction (Lucas & Katz, 1994) or argue that bilingual education is not a uniform
2
solution for all English language learners (Faltis & Arias, 1993).
Mouw and Xie (1999) found that fluent bilinguals do not necessarily do better in
academics than students who are fluent speakers only in English. It is important that
Non-immigrant students who come to the United States for the purpose of higher
education are required to demonstrate fluency in English reading, writing, listening, and
speaking through tests of proficiency such as the International English Language Testing
System (IELTS) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL); however,
studies have shown that TOEFL scores are not a reliable predictor of academic
(Johnson, 1988; Light, Xu, & Mossop, 1987; Lo, 2002) and the TOEFL does not
institutions where English is the medium of instruction (Vinke & Jochems, 1993). The
Educational Testing Service (ETS) states that the TOEFL computer based test measures
skills in reading, writing and listening and the TOEFL iBT (Internet Based Test)
often come from countries such as those in Asia, where standard English is not spoken or
used (Kachru, 1990). It is possible that this is the reason why the TOEFL has also been
accused of being unfair to non native speakers of English (Hamp-Lyons & Davies, 2008).
3
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this qualitative study was to answer the question, “What are
I was born and raised in Bombay, India. I moved to the United States as an
international graduate student in 1998. I had been a teacher of high school English and
history for eleven years in Bombay, but when I stepped into American classrooms, I
discovered that my command over the English language did not transfer completely into
the new context. I learned that “American English” was quite different from “Indian
English” (Kachru, 1990). I was also not prepared for the intercultural experiences that
class discussions. I also perceived that my reticence to speak was often interpreted by my
public, I am always at a loss for words when I find myself in situations where I feel
do with my language skills, yet I can feel or perceive that my knowledge and my
linguistic abilities are being judged. My current work as advisor to international students
4
situations where students, advisors and educators have different perceptions of English
points of view so that I can become a better student and an empathetic educator.
Research Question
The purpose of this qualitative study was to answer the question, “What are
Specifically, what are international students’ experiences with spoken and written
English? What are international students’ perceptions about the English language? What
United States are identified by them? What strategies are utilized by international
academic success?
who are proficient in English will experience academic success in American schools
(Nelson, Nelson & Malone, 2004). This study will provide educators and students with a
factors as well as with information about prior and current teaching-learning experiences
and strategies used by some international students to succeed in their academic endeavors
in the United States. The researcher hopes that this study will assist students to enhance
and enrich their academic experiences in the United States. The researcher also hopes that
educators and service providers for international students such as academic advisors,
5
immigration advisors, etc. will use the findings of this study to give international students
appropriate support and advice in order to make their learning experiences more
meaningful.
Limitations
The researcher was aware that international students tend to be reticent and
therefore may hesitate to participate in the study. She was aware of the possibility that
they may not be completely candid when responding to the interview protocol. The
researcher was mindful of the fact that as a result of her role as a foreign student advisor
at the site of the study, she worked closely with the students who would effectively
participate in the study. In addition, she was also aware that her experiences as an English
teacher were likely to lead to possible biases in her observations. The area of greatest
concern with regard to researcher bias was with regard to her assessment of the
participants’ English proficiency. The use of the writing prompt served to provide
intended to elicit students’ perceptions about English proficiency and academic success.
Participants would be self reporting their experiences, opinions and thoughts. The
researcher could not control for complete truthfulness from the participants. She
recognized that they may not have intentionally withheld information, but may have
forgotten to answer all questions completely due to the stress of being interviewed.
Delimitations
This study was limited in scope since it was a case study focusing on a small
group of international students at one large four year institution of higher education in
southern California. The researcher does not intend to generalize the findings of this
6
study to other populations. She also did not include the findings of the pilot study in the
final results. The researcher is a foreign student advisor at the site of the study and
provides immigration and related advice to the students she studied. This site was
The researcher decided to interview six graduate students since she felt that this
would be a manageable number which would yield sufficient and appropriate data for the
study. Her personal experiences as a graduate student in the United States showed her
that the undergraduate classes she took to fulfill the requirements for her teaching
credential did not require advanced writing skills the way her graduate level classes did.
In addition to her personal interest in exploring the experiences of graduate students, she
found that research studies that included both undergraduate and graduate students for the
purpose of understanding their educational experiences, did not discuss any specific
differences between the two levels of education (Poyrazli, Arbona, Bullington & Pisecco,
2001; Yeh & Inose, 2003). The researcher chose to focus on graduate students for this
study since their experiences and perceptions are likely to be very unique and different
from those of undergraduate students possibly due to their age, previous education, travel
or other life experiences. Although the sample was designed to include students from
Asian countries, the researcher did not include any students from India because the
researcher was born and raised in the same country. She intended to minimize researcher
bias by refraining from the inclusion of students from her native country. A qualitative
study was deemed to be the most appropriate for the purpose of eliciting students’
7
Definitions of Key Terms
The following terms have been operationally defined to clarify their meaning and
English language proficiency has been defined as the ability to read, write, speak,
and comprehend spoken and written English. Proficiency and competence will be used
Fluency
Fluency in English or any language has been described as the ability to speak
Academic Success
the traditional four point grading system where zero equals grade F and four equals grade
A (Patkowski, 1991).
Academic Language
2000).
International Students
The term international students will refer to individuals who are nationals of
countries other than the United States, and present in the United States on F-1 or non-
immigrant student visas for the purpose of study (Epstein, 1996). The terms international
8
Summary
This chapter introduced the study, identified the background to the study, purpose
of the study, research questions, significance of the study, limitations, delimitations and
operational definitions for key terms which will be utilized throughout the present study.
9
CHAPTER 2
academic success. A review of the literature in this chapter will first show how language
information about the education of non-native speakers of English in the United States
and some stereotypes of foreign students. The need to provide comprehensible input will
then be discussed followed by a review of research that explored issues that influence
and some psychological issues that impede academic success for international students.
Finally, limitations and gaps in the literature will be identified and discussed.
The United States continued to be the most popular destination for international students
students are consistently attracted to higher education in the United States by the high
quality of the academic programs. These students in turn enrich their host campuses with
their cultural diversity (Rice, Tira, Alton & Krantz, 2003) and global perspective (Nelson
et al., 2004). The Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report for 2008
10
institutions as well as to local communities are so greatly valued that the U.S.
Department of State now provides support for after-school English language classes for
high school students in many countries where additional help is needed, therefore
allowing them to pursue the possibility of an education in the United States. This report
also states that the total enrollment of international students went up by 7% in 2007-2008
with India, China, South Korea and Japan leading the top 20 places of origin for
international students. Business and Management was the most popular field of study
population in the United States in 2007-2008 and 61 % of the total international student
population in the United States in 2007-2008 came from Asia (Institute of International
Education, 2009).
Non-immigrant students who come to the United States for the purpose of higher
or use of a language” (Yashima, 2002, p. 62). They are required to do this because
Language and culture are generally the two distinguishing features of most
countries. Language allows humans to communicate with each other. When a message is
received from the environment, the receiver decodes it or perceives and interprets it based
on his or her experiences which may be individual or shared with the group or culture. A
11
perception can be described as a “subjective description” of a situation (Hofstede, 2001,
p. 48). Messages can be transmitted from one person to another, but the meaning of the
message sent will always be different from the message received because of the
individual and cultural differences between the sender and receiver (Gudykunst & Kim,
(Hofstede, 2001, p. 452). Gudykunst (1994) states that, “the term culture usually is
reserved for the systems of knowledge used by relatively large numbers of people. The
between countries” (p. 38). Culture exerts a significant influence over communication or
the messages that humans send to each other. Our language is an important part of our
culture because it allows us to communicate with each other (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992;
Hofstede, 2001). Language is learned, it influences our thinking and is not “neutral”
(Hofstede, 2001, p. 21). Of all the different ways in which humans communicate with
each other, language is the most “technical” message system (Hall, 1990, p. 28). All
languages are unique and exert a binding effect on the speaker through their sounds. As a
result, the first language learned by a person tends to influence all languages learned
subsequently through his or her accent (Hall, 1990). The sounds of languages are often
very different from each other. Other factors that cause significant differences between
cultures are the importance placed on the individual versus the group and how much
cultures, such as that found in the United States, place a strong emphasis on the
12
individuals’ goals whereas the goals, needs and views of the group are considered more
is important to belong to groups and to consider the well being of the group before
considering one’s own needs or desires. People in individualistic cultures have a strong
sense of individual identity whereas in collectivistic cultures, people owe their loyalty to
their group such as their family and in turn, receive protection from the group. People in
individualistic cultures tend to apply the same universal values to everybody, but people
which group they belong to (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992; Hofstede, 2001). Gudykunst
2001). While cultures determine the value placed upon individuals or groups, they also
high context and low context cultures. High context cultures such as those of China,
Japan and Korea to name a few, require communication to be embedded in the context.
Therefore, much is left unsaid and a lot is interpreted through what is not conveyed
verbally. Low context cultures such as that of the United States on the other hand, require
“preprogrammed information that is in the receiver and the setting” (Hall, 1981, p. 101).
13
This information is generally transmitted through the culture. Since much of the
that which is absolutely essential, so high context messages rely on the receiver to
process them based on implicit information. Low context messages do not expect the
receiver to have any prior knowledge or understanding, so they must include all the
information to be conveyed (Hall, 1981). The way people use languages and how they
International students come to the United States from different countries where
different cultures and languages prevail. English is now learned, spoken or utilized in
many countries around the world. It has spread from the countries of the “Inner Circle”
such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to countries of the “Outer
Circle” such as India, Pakistan and the Philippines where English is spoken as a second
China, Japan and Korea where it is learned as a foreign language (Yano, 2001). In
the people and takes on some traits of the local culture (Yano, 2001). Consequently,
English in Pakistan can include references to Islamic values (Mahboob, 2009), the
influence of the Chinese language and accent could be noticeably present in “China
English” (He & Li, 2009), or English becomes indigenized in countries like India where
it enjoys the status of associate language (CIA World Factbook, 2010; Jenkins, 2006;
Yano, 2001). Even though many international students may have learned or spoken
English in their native countries, they are likely to speak a variety of the English language
that is different from standard American English (Friginal, 2007; Jenkins, 2006). This is
14
the reason why they are generally required to demonstrate some proof of proficiency in
purposes at most U.S. institutions of higher education (Nelson et al., 2004; Roemer,
2002; Vasquez, 2003). For example, Executive Order 975 issued by the Chancellor of the
university system that includes the site of this study states that applicants who have not
documented by scores on the TOEFL, the Executive Order states that undergraduate
students must obtain minimum required scores of 173 on the computer based test and 61
on the TOEFL iBT (Internet Based Test) whereas graduate students must obtain
minimum required scores of 213 on the computer based test and 80 on the TOEFL iBT.
The Executive Order also provides options to establish higher scores or to utilize or not
utilize the various sub scores of the TOEFL based on the curricular needs of campus
specific academic programs (Executive Order 975, 2009). Based on this Executive Order,
different academic departments at the site of the study determine English proficiency
Studies have shown, however, that TOEFL scores are not a reliable predictor of
academic performance or success in international students (Johnson, 1988; Light, Xu, &
Mossop, 1987; Lo, 2002). The TOEFL has been inconclusively accused by some
researchers of being unfair towards some non native speakers of English (Hamp-Lyons &
Davies, 2008). In some cases, the TOEFL does not adequately measure English language
15
skills required by foreign students at educational institutions where English is the
medium of instruction (Vinke & Jochems, 1993) and if TOEFL scores do happen to
predict graduate GPA, they do not predict the completion of a Master’s degree (Nelson et
al., 2004). This study briefly examined the TOEFL scores of the participants, but it
assumed that all participants had met the institution’s English proficiency requirements at
the time of being admitted. The researcher utilized a different test of English to measure
the English proficiency of the participants. The details of the test as well as the reasons
different factors that cause stress and anxiety in international students. They used
quantitative tools along with either TOEFL scores or self reported information about
proficiency in English. A lot of attention has been focused on the negative experiences of
international students but the research on their positive experiences is very limited. The
intent of this study was to focus on identifying the positive experiences reported by
attempt to obtain a different, in depth glimpse into the academic experiences of these
students.
Education at every level in the United States generally responds to language needs
English, are valuable contributors to institutions of higher education because they add a
16
global perspective to American classes (Rice et al., 2003). Literature about non-native
speakers of English reveals that these students have different needs at different stages of
the educational process. Bilingual education has been a key component of K-12
education for many years and educators have debated the issue of providing continuing
instruction in students’ native languages while they learn English as a second language
(Cummins, 1980, 1983, 1999). Some educators see value in utilizing students’ prior
knowledge (Chamot & O’Malley, 1996) and acknowledging their native cultures so as to
maximize their learning experiences (Quinn, 2001) while others support the use of native
languages to supplement English as the primary language of instruction (Lucas & Katz,
1994) or argue that bilingual education is not a uniform solution for all English language
learners (Faltis & Arias, 1993). Schulz (1991) suggests that students will do well in
(1995) describes comprehensible input as language that can be understood by the learner.
He says, “We also use context, our knowledge of the world, our extra-linguistic
Mouw and Xie (1999) found that fluent bilinguals do not necessarily perform
better in academics than students who are fluent only in English. It is important that
bilingual students” (Neuman & Koskinen, 1992, p. 104-105). Baskin and Shitai (1996)
remind us that millions of Japanese students study English for several years without
actually learning how to communicate in the target language. Asian students are
17
commonly perceived as passive receptacles of knowledge who rely on rote-memorization
but demonstrate high levels of achievement motivation (Kember, 2000). The fact that
acknowledged (Purdie & Hattie, 1996). These students would benefit from additional
Comprehensible Input
(2001) compared simplified input to elaborated or clarified input in the teaching of EFL
to Korean high school students. She found that elaborated input significantly improved
the reading comprehension of high as well as low proficient students. A study of 388 EFL
students at the Chinese Naval academy in Taiwan found that high-intermediate listening
greater extent than did students who were identified as low-intermediate listening
proficient (Chiang & Dunkel, 1992). Kim’s (2003) research revealed that explicit and
language. Avena Tableman (2003) experimented with the use of American Sign
Language (ASL) in the teaching of English to three middle school students of ESL. One
student was taught the same material without the use of the experimental method to see
the differences in the teaching-learning process and results. The students who had been
taught using sign language or gestures were able to remember the material better and
learned ESL with more ease than did the student who did not receive the experimental
method. The results led to the conclusion that including sign language or gestures while
18
teaching ESL will facilitate the learning of the language and thus affect the perceptions of
language competence for English language learners. This mirrors Krashen’s (1992, 1995)
work in elementary and high school settings. Oxford and Shearin (1994) state that the
teachers. They suggest that in addition to identifying the students’ reasons for studying a
new language, teachers can help to increase student motivation by highlighting the
rewards. They also suggest that contributions from general, industrial, educational and
“comprehensible output” (Krashen, 2003, p. 59). When we are in the process of learning
and using a new or different language, we not only receive messages in the new
language, but we also attempt to transmit messages in that same language. It is through
the process of trial and error that we learn to speak in correct and acceptable forms of the
Messages that include contextual information are comprehensible, but when they include
successful social interactions along with a shared responsibility for communicating and
Socio-linguistic Competence
19
the target language often depends on their knowledge of the components of the language
as well as the target culture. Research shows that proficiency in a language cannot always
be measured by the ability to pass tests. It depends on the ability to use acceptable spoken
or written English (Nelson et al., 2004). Baker (1990) found that teaching of ESL needs
to include a component that teaches socio-linguistic competence. She found that while
not possess it in the English language. She suggested that instruction in ESL should
include cross cultural values, perceptions of these values and the culture, as well as value
Krase (2003) found that the ability to write well in English does not necessarily
mean that an ESL student will speak up in academic settings. He found that students’
abilities to understand situations and cultural issues ensured their successful enculturation
differences play a strong role in their enculturation experiences. The strategies used by
Learning Strategies
The research shows that students of ESL employ different strategies to learn the
language (Anderson, 1991; Griffiths, 2003; Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1996). Chandler’s
(2003) study looked at error correction strategies and their effect on learning a second
language. She found that students preferred it when teachers directly corrected the errors
in their work because it was quick and produced accurate revisions. Students also felt that
they learned more from self correction. Griffiths (2003) identified language learning
strategies that were frequently used by higher level students of second languages. These
20
strategies were grouped into different categories such as strategies relating to interaction
available resources.
preferences. Sanaoui (1995) identified two distinct approaches used to learn vocabulary
in ESL by adult learners. One was structured and the other was unstructured. They
differed in four aspects, namely, the extent of engagement in independent study, the
range of self-initiated learning activities, the extent to which lexical items were recorded
and reviewed by learners, and the extent of vocabulary practice outside the classroom.
The study revealed that students who had a structured learning approach were more
successful in retaining new vocabulary than were learners who used an unstructured
approach. The structured approach was found to be more effective than an unstructured
approach for beginning as well as advanced learners. Other studies found that students
Hirose (2003) found that some Japanese students tend to use a deductive style of
organization when writing both Japanese as well as English. They stated their positions
clearly in the initial section of their writing in both languages. This showed that they did
not prefer the inductive writing style that is more commonly associated with the Japanese
culture.
Wintergerst, DeCapua, and Verna (2003) report the results of testing a newly
developed learning styles instrument which was tested on Russian and Asian ESL/EFL
21
students. The results indicate that the students learned English under three modalities:
Project Orientation, Group Activity Orientation, and Individual Activity Orientation. The
groups in general. They did not prefer working individually. The Russian culture was
found to be almost as collectivistic in nature as the Asian cultures. Students from these
cultures, therefore, tended to value the group above self and exhibited humility and
modesty. They were used to teacher-centered classrooms. The influence of the students’
collectivistic cultures was evident in their learning preferences; the study revealed that
students from collectivistic cultures expect classroom environments where teachers lead,
students are expected to participate minimally, and the focus is on visual and auditory
learning. The research demonstrated that culture plays an important role in the teaching-
learning process; culture influences the acquisition and use of language. This influence
International students who are in the United States pursuing higher education tend to
have and express concerns about their pronunciation, vocabulary, and understanding
(Capraro, 2002; Kim, 2003). Foreign accented speech (Weil, 2003) may impede
communication and the learning experience. Capraro’s (2002) study found that second
spoken English and reflection made a positive difference to their learning of the
22
visa status (Epstein, 1996).
Makino’s (1992) study revealed that Japanese students, who were proficient in
academic discussion and academic writing, were independent, able to take initiative and
were self starters who were most likely to succeed in academic areas while studying in
the United States. They experienced a high level of comfort with speaking and writing in
English which made it easier for them to do well in their American classes. Students’
efforts to learn and adapt to their new learning environment assists them in doing well in
academics.
Cultural Factors
continuous process of adaptation to the host culture (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992), it would
help if their classmates were also involved in the process of learning about cultures. Chen
(2003) stressed the importance of social interactions in the classroom as well as at the
class where he required his students to work with international student volunteers and
learn fieldwork skills. The sociology students were instructed to seek information from
the international students in the same way that they might explore any ethnographic
setting. An important result of the exercise was that North American students learned
about cultural differences and cultural sensitivity through dialogue and communication
with students from different cultures. This facilitated the acculturation process for both
groups of students. Comprehensible input for international students who are enrolled in a
graduate program in social work, for example, may take the form of a modified
23
curriculum that offers international students courses in development oriented practice,
enhances student learning through field work, appoints faculty advisors for international
students, and also offers students opportunities to socialize on professional and personal
levels (Rai, 2002). This more holistic approach to the teaching of a specific subject area
would more likely have an identifiable and attributable effect on the academic success of
international students.
Other studies have shown that open mindedness towards other cultures helps
students to face fewer acculturation problems (Citron, 1995). Yashima (2002) found that
the more internationally oriented an individual was, the more willing he or she was to
(2005) quantitative study of 117 Asian international students indicated that Asian
students who reported having cross cultural contact with their American hosts also
students who have unique needs and specific academic and social problems resulting
from their diverse backgrounds (Feizi, 1990). It is likely to assist them to adapt
experienced by teachers as well as students of ESL. She found that a power relationship
definitely exists between the teacher and the student. This influences the teaching-
learning concept and can be positive or negative, but certainly not neutral.
24
problems faced by international students in the United States. Some of these quantitative
studies identified self reported English language proficiency as one of the factors that
caused stress and anxiety among international students. Shenoy (2000) found that Asian
students report experiencing college stress as much as American students do, but they
exhibit stress differently than do American students. For example, Chinese students
showed more somatic or bodily symptoms as well as depression in relation to stress while
Indian students showed more depression symptoms than somatic symptoms and in
comparison, American students did not show more symptoms of depression in relation to
stress.
C. Chen (1999) and T. Chen (2003) identified second language anxiety, academic
English with other students (Crittenden, 1994; Plakans, 1999). Wilton and Constantine’s
(2003) study of Asian and Latin American freshman students at a predominantly white
university in the northeastern United States found that a greater length of stay in the
United States was associated with lower levels of distress in adjusting to American
cultural norms.
International students who report higher English proficiency also report lower
Poyrazli, Kavanaugh, Baker and Al-Timimi (2004) found that higher levels of English
proficiency and social support resulted in reports of lower levels of acculturative stress in
25
international students. Married international students tend to report lower levels of stress
(Poyrazli & Kavanaugh, 2006). Sumer, Poyrazli and Grahame (2008) measured
depression and anxiety among 440 international students. Their results indicated that
students who reported lower levels of social support, also reported higher levels of
anxiety and depression. Yet another quantitative study of 79 Turkish graduate and
undergraduate students’ adjustment issues revealed that younger students and students
with government scholarships reported fewer adjustment problems, and so did students
with higher English proficiency (Poyrazli et al., 2001). Yeh and Inose (2003) examined
the self reported English fluency as a predictor of acculturative stress in 372 international
undergraduate and graduate students at a large urban university in the northeastern part of
the United States. They found that higher frequency of language use, higher self reported
English fluency, and greater comfort with speaking English led to lower levels of
Tomich, McWhirter, and Darcy (2003) investigated whether and to what degree
personality related to international students’ adaptation to life in the United States. They
found that cultural differences accounted for most of the difficulties experienced by the
Asian students in their study; however, this influence could be mitigated by an open and
resilient personality. Wimberley, McCloud, and Flinn (1992) studied 121 Indonesian
students who pursued graduate degrees in the United States between 1969 and 1983.
They found that undergraduate GPA and TOEFL scores were positively related to
graduate GPA. They also found that presence of the students’ family in the United States
The literature revealed two qualitative studies that had explored similar issues
26
among international students. Lee and Rice’s (2007) qualitative study of 24 international
students found that international students can perceive their academic experiences to be
negative and discriminatory. They reported that professors who communicate frustration
or impatience with non-native speakers of English or students with foreign accents can
have a negative influence on these students’ self confidence. Poyrazli and Grahame
(2007) interviewed 15 students in focus groups with the intent to identify some barriers to
adjustment among international students. Their study revealed that multiple barriers such
international students’ problems and possible reasons for them, not enough information
exists about what actually helps them to succeed in their academic pursuits.
individual characteristics (Stoynoff, 1997). There is not much research documenting the
academic success of international students. Tseng and Newton (2002) interviewed two
international students, one undergraduate and the other a graduate student with a view to
students for adjusting to study abroad life. Language problems were an important issue
concerning the students and becoming proficient in the English language was one of the
eight strategies used by them to attain well being and academic success. In a recent study,
27
Stephenson (2004) used TOEFL scores along with the verbal percentiles of the Graduate
Record Exam (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to predict
the academic success of foreign graduate students. Her study found no statistically
significant relationship between TOEFL mean scores and graduate GPA, total number of
semesters to complete the degree, total number of credits completed by graduation or the
likelihood of graduating, or between verbal percentiles on the GRE and GMAT and
foreign students’ academic performance. Wan’s (2001) qualitative study of two Chinese
social and political systems as being influential in their experiences of living and
studying in the United States. Stoynoff (1997) believed that the majority of international
students are able to succeed in university whether they experience problems with
language proficiency or not. The main issue according to him, was not whether they
could succeed, but how successful they could be and at what cost to themselves.
the eighties and nineties. There is very little current research on this topic. Bilingual
education has been a source of debate at the K-12 level, but higher education in the
United States is imparted in English. International students are for the most part, non-
well as socio-linguistic competence while in the process of obtaining their degrees in the
United States. The TOEFL was the most frequently used measure of English proficiency
in the studies examined. Some studies required participants to self report their fluency or
competence in English.
28
Several studies have examined the strategies employed by these students to
succeed in American higher education along with the influence of their learning styles,
cultural factors and reported problems with adjustment. The research on international
students’ academic success is limited (Stoynoff, 1997). The research revealed one
success but a review of the literature indicated that evidently this has not yet been done.
The research also reveals the need to utilize a different measure of English proficiency.
The present study will add to the body of research by obtaining an in depth, descriptive
Summary
The review of the literature discussed the relationship between language and
culture. It reviewed the factors that have influenced the education of non-native speakers
of English in the United States, some stereotypes of foreign students, the need to provide
proficiency, differences in learning strategies, learning styles, cultural factors, and finally
some psychological issues that negatively impact academic success for international
students. Several researchers have looked at the relationship between culture and the
learning of the English language. They have looked at some of the problems encountered
29
not, however, much current, qualitative research that discusses the connection between
English proficiency and the academic success of international students. This study
addresses both English language proficiency and academic success from the perspective
of the students.
The following chapter will discuss the research methodology, the site of the study,
the participants and the methods employed to obtain data for the study.
30
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
Chapter three presents the qualitative methodology that was utilized to answer the
research question presented in the first chapter. The purpose of this qualitative study was
to answer the following question: What are international graduate students’ perceptions
Research Design
This study was qualitative in nature. The case study method was employed for
this research. Merriam (1998) defines the case study as an intense description and
analysis of a specific group or context. The researcher preferred the case study method
because she wanted to learn directly from her participants’ experiences. She wanted to
obtain detailed information that can only be derived from an intense description
generated from individual interviews that added a comfort level and prompted the
participants to reveal their perceptions. The researcher for this dissertation works directly
with international students and hears the personal stories, problems, and issues that
impact their education in the United States. She is an empathetic individual who thrives
on personal contact with the people she works with. She preferred to learn from
communication with the participants rather than through a quantitative analysis of data.
She believed that she would be able to collect richer data through direct communication
with her participants rather than from a quantitative study or the reduction of information
to numerical values. She was interested in “insight, discovery, and interpretation rather
31
than hypothesis testing” (Merriam, 1998, p. 28-29).
The researcher selected this particular topic for research because it was an issue
she dealt with on a daily basis. She encountered many international students who had a
high GPA but poor communication skills in English. Conversely, she also worked with
students who spoke English fluently, but who did not achieve high grades in their classes.
the students’ perceptions of the roles of English language proficiency and academic
success as possible (Merriam, 1998, p. 28). She believed that a “thick description” of the
participants’ thoughts, views and insights would serve to present the reader with her
understanding of this specific case (Merriam, 1998, p. 29). The researcher wanted to
understand human nature and behavior through human interaction rather than through a
The Site
The researcher conducted her study at a large, four year institution of higher education
located in southern California. This institution is recognized for the diversity of its
student body. At the time of the study, the researcher was employed as a foreign student
advisor at this institution. In the year 2008, the university had a total enrollment of 36,208
students of which 2,426 were full time graduate students. This number consisted of 34 %
males and 66 % females. International students accounted for 5 % of the total student
The Participants
The participants for this study were selected based on criteria identified by the
32
participate in this study via purposeful sampling. The researcher was interested in
learning about the experiences of graduate students because of her own experiences with
the use of the English language during the course of her graduate studies at the site of the
study. She was required to take undergraduate classes to meet her teaching credential
requirements in addition to graduate level classes for her master’s degree program. Her
experiences with both levels of classes showed her that graduate level classes require
stronger writing skills. She therefore decided to focus this study on the experiences of
graduate students. The researcher decided on six participants because she felt that this
number would yield sufficient, manageable data for her study. She planned to include
graduate students of either gender who had been studying in a master’s degree program at
the site for no more than two semesters, had come to the university directly from their
home countries and had not obtained an undergraduate degree from the United States.
The researcher wanted to select one student each from an Asian country, preferably
China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. This was because
Asia sent the largest number of international students to the United States in 2007-08 and
document from the international programs office at the site, Asians comprised the largest
number of international students at the site of the study in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The
researcher had observed that in addition to being largely represented, students from these
countries tended to struggle the most with the English language as evidenced by personal
students from these countries in her study. She wanted to understand the reasons for their
struggles and identify ways to improve their educational experiences. The six students
33
who eventually responded to the researcher’s request to participate in this research study
were from Bhutan, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. All
Participant Profiles
Miss Bhutan was a 31 year old female from Thimphu. Bhutan is a small country
located between India and China. Her native language was Bhutanese. Miss Bhutan was
one of seven children and had an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from
India. All of her family members lived in Bhutan with the exception of one younger sister
who was currently attending dental school in India. Miss Bhutan started her master’s
program in Engineering Management in the spring semester of 2009. At the time of the
study her GPA was 3.10 and she had passed the UDWPE (Upper Division Writing
Proficiency Exam) with a score of nine at the first attempt. Her IELTS (International
English Language Testing System) score was eight and she reported that she sometimes
spoke English in her home country. She was not required to submit any other test scores
for admissions purposes since her GPA at the time of applying to this institution was 3.4.
It was greater than the required GPA which was 3.0. Miss Bhutan was on academic
probation in her first semester, but had succeeded in increasing her GPA to 3.10 by the
Miss China was a 26 year old female from Yantai, China who had started her
master’s program in College Counseling and Student Services in the summer of 2009.
Her native language was Chinese. Her undergraduate major in China was Business
English. She was required to submit proof of proficiency in English when applying to this
institution. Her TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score was 102. She did
34
not have to submit any other requirements in addition to her transcripts when applying to
this institution since her GPA was higher than 3.5. She was her parents’ only child and
rarely spoke English in her home country. Her parents lived and worked in China. At the
time of the study her GPA was 3.73 and she had passed the UDWPE with a score of nine
Miss Korea was a 26 year old female from Seoul, South Korea. She had started
her master’s program in Communication Studies in the spring semester of 2009. She had
two younger brothers and her parents operated an after school educational institution in
Seoul. Their native language was Korean. Miss Korea stated that she never spoke English
in her home country but had obtained a bachelor’s degree in English literature from a
women's university in Seoul. She was required to submit proof of English proficiency
when applying to this institution. Her TOEFL score was 237. She had taken some classes
her graduate studies at the site of the study. At the time of the study her GPA was 3.74
and she had passed the UDWPE with a score of 10 at the first attempt.
Mr. Pakistan was a 29 year old male from Lahore, Pakistan. He had started his
had one younger sister who was studying computer science in Pakistan where she lived
with their parents. Their native language was Urdu but he reported that he always spoke
reported having taken some ESL classes before starting his undergraduate program in the
United Kingdom. Since his undergraduate education was in English, he was not required
35
to submit any proof of proficiency in English at the time of applying to this institution. At
the time of the study his GPA was 3.14 and he had passed the UDWPE at the first
Miss Philippines was a 25 year old female from Pasay City in the Philippines. She
had started her master’s degree program in Nutrition and Dietetics in the spring semester
of 2009. She was an only child. Her father had passed away and her mother worked in
Norway. Their native language was Filipino but she reported that she always spoke
English in her home country. She had earned a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from the
Philippines. Since her education was in English, she was not required to submit anything
other than her transcripts at the time of applying to this institution. At the time of the
study her GPA was 3.33 and she had passed the UDWPE with a score of nine at the first
attempt.
Mr. Thailand was a 25 year old male from Bangkok, Thailand who had started his
Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering from Thailand. He had a 10 year old brother
who lived in Thailand with their parents. He rarely spoke English in his home country
and his native language was Thai. He had taken some ESL classes in Alabama prior to
commencing his graduate studies at the site of the study. He was required to submit proof
of English proficiency when applying to this institution. His TOEFL iBT (Internet Based
Test) score was 89. He was also required to submit GRE scores at the time of applying to
this institution. At the time of the study his GPA was 3.80 and he had passed the UDWPE
36
Role of the Researcher
the time of the study, was employed as a foreign student advisor there. She was also a
part time instructor of ESL at the university’s Intensive English Program. In addition to it
being convenient for her to conduct her research at this site, she wanted to gain a deeper
students at this particular site. Since she worked with this student population on a daily
basis, she not only wanted to understand how these non-native speakers of English
perceived the connection between the English language and academic success but also to
eventually apply her learning to modify her own advising practices to better serve their
needs. The researcher had a personal as well as a professional interest in conducting the
Data Collection
The researcher collected data for this study through a preliminary survey for the
her reactions to the interviews, and a review of the participants’ responses to a writing
prompt.
for the purpose of conducting this study from the Institutional Review Board at California
Lutheran University and from the Human Subjects Committee at the site of the study.
in the lobby of the international programs office at the site of the study. The survey
required the students to self report information about themselves. This survey was
37
utilized solely for the purpose of collecting demographic information and selecting the
participants for the study based on the selection criteria. The student assistants who
provide student services at the international programs office at the site of the study were
requested to encourage students who walked in for assistance to complete the survey as
they waited for service. This was done to elicit a random sample since the students who
walked in for assistance were not predetermined, nor were all of their identities known to
the researcher in advance. The survey was administered to a simple random sample
(Creswell, 2005) of 124 students. No coercion was utilized when making the request. The
researcher refrained from requesting any of the students directly or from applying any
Based on the students’ responses to the preliminary survey, the researcher was
able to identify just one student to participate in this study. An email was then sent out to
all the international graduate students who had been enrolled at the site of the study
during the spring and fall semesters of 2009. The preliminary survey was sent as an
attachment. The first five students, who responded favorably to the email request, and
met the selection criteria, were included in this study. This enabled the researcher to
obtain a purposeful sample (Creswell, 2005). No coercion was utilized when making this
request. A letter of informed consent (Appendix B) was signed by the participants. Their
identities were kept anonymous by giving them pseudonyms and all data were stored
securely at the researcher’s residence. Each participant was given a fifty dollar gift card
was utilized (Appendix C) during the interviews. The researcher included “descriptive,”
38
“structural,” as well as “contrast” questions (Spradley, 1979, p. 60). A verbatim record of
the interviews was obtained by utilizing a tape recorder (Spradley, 1979). The researcher
had to use probes when interviewing each participant. Probes are “questions or
these ahead of time because they are dependent on how the participant answers the lead
question” (Merriam, 1998, p. 80). The probes assisted the researcher with providing
clarifications to some questions and obtaining follow up details to certain responses. She
also realized that the participants had strong accents. She frequently repeated the
participants’ words to ensure that she had heard them correctly. The researcher then
transcribed the interviews. The average length of the interviews was 59 minutes followed
by 75 minutes for each participant to respond to the writing prompt. The researcher
identified some follow up questions as she transcribed the interviews. She communicated
with all the participants after the interviews to elicit their thoughts and feelings about the
UDWPE that they had taken as a part of their university requirements as well as the
The researcher took notes during the interviews which were later utilized to write
a journal. The researcher kept a dated journal which served to record her feelings,
impressions, and reactions to the information received from the participants during the
interviews. She recorded her own intuitive reactions to the participants’ responses, their
information they provided during the interviews. She agreed with Spradley (1998) who
states that, “making an introspective record of field work enables a person to take into
39
account personal biases and feelings, to understand their influence on the research” (p.
76).
Prior to conducting this research study, the researcher conducted a pilot study on
two graduate international students during the fall 2007 semester. This was done to refine
the preliminary survey and the interview protocol. Each participant was given a twenty
dollar gift card to a local department store in return for his or her participation. This pilot
study was conducted in order to test the clarity of the preliminary survey and the
interview questions, to ensure that the questions had been arranged in an appropriate
order, and to help the researcher improve her interviewing technique (Merriam, 1998).
The researcher wanted to ascertain that the questions would elicit rich, descriptive data
which would reveal the participants’ experiences with the use of the English language
both in class, as well as outside of it. A letter of informed consent was signed by the
participants. The responses to the preliminary survey and the interview questions were
utilized to modify and improve the instruments by eliminating questions that did not yield
helpful information, rephrasing some questions and adding new ones that were expected
to be more effective in eliciting rich data. The researcher scrutinized the transcript of the
pilot interviews to see if probes were judiciously and effectively utilized. The results of
the pilot study have not been included in the final study. No deception was used and
participants were not harmed in any manner at any time during the pilot study.
Participants were identified by pseudonyms and all data collected for this study have
been kept confidential and stored in a locked cabinet at the residence of the researcher.
participants skills with the language that was different from the standardized tests used
40
for admissions purposes. In addition to using a different test, she wanted to use one that
required students to demonstrate writing skills similar to those that graduate students
must use consistently in their academic programs. She selected the Upper Division
Writing Proficiency Exam (UDWPE) (2007) for this reason and purpose. All students at
the site of this study are required to take and pass the UDWPE in order to graduate from
after completing 56 semester units and graduate students are expected to do the same
during their first semester. The UDWPE was selected by the Board of Trustees of this
Requirement Review (GWAR). This exam requires students to read a short text of no
more than one page about a current topic and write an essay in which they must either
agree or disagree with the author and provide supporting arguments. It tests students’
ability to analyze and synthesize, and the appropriate use of English writing skills. The
E) to the participants. An article from a local newspaper was randomly selected for the
writing prompt. The scoring rubric that is utilized to assess the UDWPE (Appendix F)
was used to evaluate the writing prompts. Each essay is read and scored by at least two
faculty members. Each reader scores the essay on a scale of one to six where a score of
one means that the essay is incompetent, a score of two means that the essay is
inadequate, a score of three means that the essay is inadequate but demonstrates some
score of five indicates that the essay is strong and the highest possible individual score of
41
six is given to a superior essay. A passing score on the UDWPE is a total score of eight.
The purpose of utilizing the writing prompt was to obtain an objective evaluation
of the participants’ English writing skills through a test of English language proficiency
that was different from the TOEFL or other standardized tests used for admissions
purposes. This writing prompt was evaluated for English proficiency by two anonymous
readers. The first anonymous reader was the chair of the Pan African Studies Department
at the site of the study. This individual had served on the advisory board for the UDWPE
in the past and was currently a reader for the exam. The second anonymous reader was
the academic director of the Intensive English Program at the site of the study. Both
readers had more than 10 years of experience each in the field of linguistics and were
currently serving as faculty at the site of the study. The readers were each offered a fifty
dollar gift card to a local department store in return for their assistance.
Triangulation of Data
1998). She scrutinized the anonymous readers’ objective assessments of the participants’
responses to the writing prompt to corroborate her own observations of their skills with
spoken English. She also triangulated the data obtained from the preliminary survey, the
participants’ unofficial transcripts, the interviews, her journal entries, and the results of
the participants’ responses to the writing prompt to identify and analyze the participants’
the data and provide feedback regarding the findings to the researcher (Merriam, 1998).
42
Data Analysis
Data gathered from the interviews were transcribed by the researcher. She also
transcribed her journal responses to each interview. She read the data several times to
understand it. The comments of the readers who scored the writing prompts and the
researcher’s journal were also utilized to support the information derived from the
interviews. Data were coded with the help of Qualrus, a qualitative software analysis
program. Data were initially coded for predominant or recurring themes and then
analyzed in detail through focused coding. Each case was first analyzed separately and
then a “cross-case analysis” (Cresswell, 2005) was conducted to identify common themes
as well as differences among the six students being studied. The researcher utilized the
inductive method to interpret and understand the findings. The researcher was satisfied
that the rich descriptions gathered during the interviews, the writing prompt, the
researcher’s journal entries, and a review of the transcripts of the participants would serve
Chapter three presented the research methodology that was utilized for this
qualitative study. Chapter four will discuss the findings that emerged from the data.
43
CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS
Chapter four presents the findings from the data. The purpose of this qualitative
study was to answer the question, “What are international graduate students’ perceptions
The study was conducted at a large four year institution of higher education
located in southern California. The participants in this study were six international
graduate students from Asia who were all pursuing master’s degrees at the site of the
study. They included a female from Bhutan who was studying Engineering Management,
a female from China who was studying College Counseling and Student Services, a
female from South Korea who was studying Communication Studies, a male from
Pakistan who was studying Engineering Management, a female from the Philippines who
was studying Nutrition and Dietetics, and a male from Thailand who was studying
them pseudonyms.
The researcher utilized the data obtained from the participants’ responses to the
interview questions, the participants’ scores on the writing prompt and the evaluations of
the two anonymous readers as well as the researcher’s intuitive journal responses to the
interviews to find answers to the research question presented in the first chapter.
Verbatim quotes from the participants’ responses to the interview questions have been
44
presented in this chapter.
The following seven themes emerged from the analysis of the data: Cultural
with instructors in the United States, participants’ experiences with spoken English,
English, and their perceptions of the connection between English language proficiency
The first obvious and consistent cultural trait in each participant was his or her
accent. Hall (2001) stated that an individual’s accent is influenced by his or her native
language. The participants responded comfortably and easily to all the interview
questions. As they spoke, their individual accents became clear to the researcher. They
also discussed the use of their native languages. Language is an important part of our
cultures and influences our thoughts (Gudykunst and Kim, 1992; Hofstede, 2001). Miss
Bhutan said that she had very few Bhutanese friends or relatives in the United States. She
spoke her native language Bhutanese with her Bhutanese roommate and with her family
members when she spoke to them on the phone. She sometimes got comments about her
accent. She said that “(people) says that I look like a Chinese but I have an accent of an
Indian! I get that a lot. All the Bhutanese they get that a lot, that you have an Indian
accent.”
Miss China preferred to use her native language when she returned home after a
long day at school because “it’s comfortable but when I come back to my desk and I
began studying, then at the same time my boyfriend is speaking Chinese with me, I feel
45
little bit guilty.” She liked speaking in Chinese because it helped her to relax and be
natural when she was no longer in her classes and was not required to speak English. She
commented on the difference between speaking English in her home country and in the
United States. She had learned English in China but, “before when I was in China,
English is just a class. I speak English to pass a exam. Yeah, it’s not like a language, so
now, its like I’m having exam everyday so which is very tough for me.” In China her
English classes had focused more on reading and writing than on speaking. As a result,
she had limited experience with speaking and often needed more time to think before she
could speak in English. She described English as a barrier and said that she sometimes
felt “slower” and “stupid” in her American classes. She also said that she still did not
know how to joke in English, “but I’m not a … boring person in Chinese so a lot of fun
when I speak in Chinese, yeah we can make fun each other, like, very comfortable and
fun.” Hofstede (2001) explains that humor is culture specific and jokes are the most
difficult to translate from one language to another. Miss China said that sometimes when
she spoke or wrote in English it was really “Chinglish.” She explained Chinglish as
“what I am talking now ... English and Chinese is totally different language … totally
different system and sometimes the order of sentence is different (He & Li, 2009; Yano,
2001). So when I speak English maybe it’s … weird for native speakers.” She also said
that her pronunciation and accent were an integral part of “Chinglish.” She felt that, “it is
Miss Philippines discussed a similar use of her native language. She spoke her
native language Filipino with family members on the phone, or with friends or when she
46
and her friends did not want people to understand what they were saying, they would use
their native language. She said that she often spoke in “Taglish” which is a combination
of English, Tagalog, and Filipino because, “even when I was in the Philippines, it’s hard
to express myself in pure Filipino so … you know, we tend to use Taglish.” Miss
Philippines observed that in addition to her own accent, “the pronunciation or the accent,
is, you know is the distinction, sometime if you can’t see the person and they are
speaking, you can tell from what country the person is from by their accent.” Mr.
Thailand said that he preferred not to use his native language because he needed to
practice his spoken English, but “when I spoke English to Thai student … then that’s
weird. Because respect to each other.” He did not want to be disrespectful to them, so he
would speak in Thai to them, but he felt that since they had all come to the United States,
Mr. Pakistan disapproved of the use of native languages by his professors and
classmates in educational settings. He spoke his native language Urdu with his friends
and roommates in relaxed, personal settings but expressed his preference for speaking
English in class and at work because “here, everybody's own language is English. You
supposed to talk in English. That's for everybody in the class. Some guy talk to you in
your native language doesn't look nice. That's I feel is not correct.”
The second trait that became evident during the interviews was the evidence of the
collective mind set of the Asian cultures (Gudykunst, 1994; Gudykunst & Kim, 1992;
Hofstede, 2001). Miss China expressed that it would not be appropriate for her to use the
services of the Learning Resource Center (LRC) on campus extensively since it was for
everybody and not for her use alone. She also did not expect her professors to help her
47
with her English skills during class time because it was, “not fair for the other students.
They paid for the class too. They need to learn as much as they can of the class, not sit
Mr. Pakistan spoke at length about his family. They had spent a lot of money to
send him to the United States for his education because he was the only son in the family.
His younger sister was studying computer science in Pakistan. His parents had
encouraged and supported his aspirations to get a higher degree in the United States and
he wanted to succeed for them. He said that he, “work(ed) hard to … fulfill their dreams
and stuff. Because you know there they invest a lot in us, you know so you have to give
them result.” He wanted to do well at school, “so if I am successful, it's gonna be their
success. They put all the stuff in me.” With respect to his classmates, Mr. Pakistan spoke
about working together as a group and not only helping each other but also covering up
for the weaknesses of some classmates. He said that he was very careful when correcting
I'm not gonna say to the other guy, you're doing this wrong. He's feel you know
aggressive and he'll not like it. I usually say that let’s do this, this way, should we
do it this way? It's look nice or no? You need people to feel okay, okay. The
people going to feel bad that I'm going to correct them, so they feel bad.
He also said that reliance on friends and classmates could be harmful to personal growth.
Because when you come to the master level, a false sense come to you. I know
how to do this things. I can figure it out. Some way because you got the good
friend circle, you know four five people okay. If I am not find anyone, I am not
able to get help, I can figure out from that … so take the help from that guy.
48
Differences in Educational Experiences
The participants were asked to compare teaching learning experiences in their home
countries and the United States. They were able to identify a few similarities and some
major differences based on their personal experiences. Miss Korea commented that
schools in Seoul were highly technologically advanced. She was very surprised to see
that some students still presented large handwritten posters when making classroom
presentations. She said that all students used laptop computers in classes in her home
country and that they had been using “hybrid classes” many years before she came to the
United States. Miss Bhutan had earned her undergraduate degree in India, but
remembered the wooden floors of her classrooms and that there was one portable
projector which took a long time to start running in the single engineering college in
Bhutan a few years ago. She said that since Bhutan was a developing country, many
young people were able to get scholarships from the government to study in countries
such as India and the United States. Miss Philippines said that education in her home
country was “patterned” on the American system (Friginal, 2007) and that her teachers
were all highly educated, but did not have doctoral degrees like her American teachers
did.
One significant difference was class sizes and the second difference was with
collectivistic cultures are likely to be teacher centered. Mr. Thailand said that during the
in Thailand, there were five hundred students in each class. Once the students reached
junior level and had selected specific majors, then the class sizes became smaller. He
49
said, “in Thailand small class mean forty people, this mean small class to me. But here
now, seventeen or sometimes six.” Mr. Pakistan said that in his home country, “the
classrooms are overcrowded too much. There are sometimes two hundred people in the
classes. Two hundred people in the class! What you can get out of that class?” He also
said that, “over there they say learn this thing and the exam is going to come from this.
They (students) read the guide and the old book for the whole night, and they go and
write everything in one exam.” He hated the education system in his home country
because, “basically they are not teaching you anything. They just want you to memorize.
Classroom participation was important for Miss China during her undergraduate
program in her home country. She would have about twenty people in her classes, but all
the information was given by the teacher in a lecture format. It was important not to miss
classes or the information given by the teachers because students were called upon one by
one to answer questions in class. She said that, “if you can’t answer it you’re gonna lose
credit. So, too much preparing credit. If we know the question or we can guess the
question and we are just looking the textbook.” It was also important to know all the
information given by the teacher because it was sure to appear on exams. “The teacher
write something on the blackboard, that is the most important thing in your life, definitely
you should have otherwise you won’t pass the exam.” Mr. Thailand reported a similar
experience. He said that, “in Thailand they say, one, two, three four five, done! If you
don’t do exactly what the professor said, then it's all wrong.” He also said that, “(in) the
States we have a lot of discussion group but in Thailand no.” Miss Bhutan remembered
that in her home country, “the teacher just asks the question and then you just have to
50
answer that particular thing you have been given in the notebook.” Mr. Pakistan was glad
that he had not attended university in his home country because if students ask “question
over there in the class, the professor will keep an eye on you! He may … reflect that
thing in your result! He will lower all your marks! It's better not to ask too many
American instructors. Razfar’s (2003) study indicated that the relationship between a
student and instructor can be positive or negative, but certainly not neutral. Miss Bhutan
said that most of her instructors did not really know her because she was quiet in her
classes. One professor had expressed an interest in knowing more about her home
country since it was small and not well known. Another professor knew her through her
written work, so he would make an effort to call upon her to answer questions in class, so
“that’s the two subjects where I where the instructor knows me, other than that no.” She
did communicate with her instructors via emails if she had questions or needed assistance
with difficult problems. She said that, “they do respond to all our queries and the
problems we have, and sometimes even they are busy right? So sometimes it takes some
time to get back to us.” Mr. Thailand who is also in the Engineering Management
program said that his relationship with his instructors was, “good. If I have any questions,
I ask them in email or sometime after class. It’s really good. They are very good. They try
to help.”
Mr. Pakistan was studying the same major so he had the same group of instructors.
He reported many positive experiences with his instructors. He said that they were all
51
professionals from the field and were always available and willing to help him with
constructive suggestions. “One of my professor, last semester I was with him in, on the
quality management, he attempted to and he told me hey you can do six sigma green belt
do this … course, you'll get a job.” He explained that “six sigma green belt” was a quality
assurance certification that would enhance his educational qualifications. He felt strongly
about making appointments to meet with them rather than just dropping in on them
unannounced. He said that his friends or classmates often did that, “most of them don't
know the proper way to approach the teacher. Most of the people, they go straightaway
and open, knock the door, and things.” He further said that,
Basically we got this from back home culture. Back home they don't care about
this things. They think everybody is free over there. They just think that this is
fine, this they inherited from there. Not here, it's not right.
He believed that he was using the right way to approach his professors by sending them
emails with his requests for meetings or his questions about difficult problems. He had no
problems getting responses from his instructors or setting up appointments to meet with
Miss Korea reported similar positive experiences with her American instructors.
She said that she had a “pretty good relationship” with them. She said that she used to go
and meet her instructors during their office hours. She appreciated it when her instructors
gave her a lot of comments and suggestions for improvement on her papers. Chandler
(2003) reported a similar finding. Miss Korea then took advantage of office hours to
review the comments with her instructors and understand how she could improve her
written English. It was during such meetings with one of her professors that, “I showed
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that like I wanna do this, like I don’t know this, so she realized my passion ... even
though I cannot speak that much…. So she this semester she hired me as her RA
I think she when she offered me that position last semester, I was almost like
crying because I was so happy about it, and then she’s gonna be, she’s the chair of
the PhD program so she’s setting up like lots of those kind of like my background,
I think do think that the office hour was really helpful for me.
Miss Philippines liked her instructors and said that they were helpful and empathetic to
the international student experience. She said that one of her professors,
She gives us like recommendation on what to do, and since now I’m looking for
internships so I can practice my, my, my career, she is even helpful, like yeah,
you should practice since you are here, it will be a chance for you to do that, you
know.
She did wish that her instructors “could just speak slowly sometimes!” She appreciated it
Sometimes … it's hard for us to catch even if it's just one … part of the slide, it's
hard for you to catch all, so handouts. Then speak slowly and clearly, and there
are also professors who are from other countries. They also have problems with
the accent, but for us, I have problems with my accent too, so I don’t really mind.
Miss China had good experiences with her advisor and most of her instructors.
She said that she was close to her advisor and her practicum supervisor and that they
53
would meet for meals. Her advisor had taken her shopping and to local tourist spots as
well; however she reported one bad experience with an instructor that had left an
impression on her. She had turned in a paper for a class assignment to this instructor. She
said that, “when I turn in the paper the instructor was not very satisfied and he marked a
lot of grammar and spelling mistakes ... It’s like he don’t want me to use this word, he
thinks it’s better for me to use another one so I loosed a lot of credits.” She said that this
was not her “first paper in America.” She had turned in other papers before and the other
but not like that strict.” So she had revised the paper and turned it in again. “But again it
come back to me with a lot of grammar and the word thing it make me feel like I totally
have no idea how to speak English. And C for paper? It's like impossible for me! I never
got a C!” She felt that he had lowered her grade on the paper because,
He doesn’t agree with my opinion on the paper which make me angry. I mean I’m
sad with grammar thing but I’m angry with the other thing because I don’t think
it’s right for the instructor to lower the grade for the student because he doesn’t
She later said that “I feel like he’s just ignore me on class. For ... the other instructors,
because I’m the only international student in the class they always like to listen to my
perspective. But for him, it’s like he doesn’t have the patience.” When asked if she had
discussed these issues with the instructor, her response was, “I’m not dare to.” Lee and
Rice (2007) reported that such experiences can have a negative effect on international
students.
54
Experiences with Spoken English
All the participants reported that they were required to participate in their classes
(Krashen, 1992, 1995, 2003). None of the participants expressed any fears or negative
feelings about these experiences. They did however report individual differences in their
Miss China said that speaking in classes was comfortable for her because she was
part of a cohort. Individuals from collectivistic cultures are likely to prefer working in
groups (Hofstede, 2001; Wintergerst, DeCapua & Verna, 2003). Her classmates were
very supportive of her and would either assist her with using the right word when
speaking in class, or wait for her to respond or complete a response. She said that, “when
I finally give something useful, they seem to be more happier than me! Like good, good
Miss China! It’s very happy, pleasant experience to like work with together with them, I
really like it.” It was not as comfortable for her when her class was required to work with
students from another class. She said that when “we gonna have group discussion or
projects with they are strangers so … I just feel not very comfortable. I gonna feel
nervous. I’m afraid what if I complete last for the group, I feel guilty.” Miss China felt
that it would be very helpful for her to improve her spoken English if the university
offered an “English Corner” like the one she had experienced at her school in China.
When she was getting her undergraduate degree in China, she was a regular participant at
an “English Corner” where Chinese students met with exchange students from other
55
Miss Bhutan admitted that she did not speak up much in her classes but
I normally don’t speak up much in the class, but then when I have to do a
presentation I am comfortable using English, but then sometimes since it's not our
mother language, I do get stuck up with the particular words you know when you
try to explain it and you want your points to come across to the audience.
She explained that this problem was because “back home since, I wouldn’t say we are
suppressed, but … we have that instilled in us that we should respect the elders, the
teachers and all that, right?” It was because of her culture (Hofstede, 2001) and her
upbringing that, “even if you feel like, even if you have a doubt, you can’t really speak up
in the … class.” She was self conscious about speaking up in her classes because, “I want
to talk, but it's I feel if I say this out and it's wrong, what would others think, what if it's
wrong, I would get embarrassed.” Capraro (2002) and Kim (2003) found that
international students in the United States tend to express concerns about their speech and
pronunciation. Miss Bhutan was learning to adapt to the American ways of education and
the freedom to speak up in her classes and felt that, “it's kind of nice, to kind of have a
freedom like that. She expressed regret that there were no American students in her
classes because she had hoped to learn more about the American culture and also
improve her spoken English with the help of her classmates. She felt that if the university
offered some sort of “interactive session with the American students … we can learn
about their culture or the way they have been brought up and then we could improve our
Miss Korea was a communication studies major and had to do many class
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presentations. She said that she enjoyed them but it was difficult for her when she first
When I didn’t speak English well in the classroom, I think they (classmates)
didn’t care about me that much. Like when I try to speak up slowly, slowly,
they’re like oh whatever, and they’re tell something, and those kind of feeling,
and … during the last semester, I think I just proved myself to lots of people.
She also commented on her classmates’ English skills, “in my classroom, like there are so
many like native speaker of English … I think something most of them they use like
slang and very like, like not formal English, so I feel like what are you talking about?”
Miss Philippines was conscious about her accent as well as the accents of her fellow
students. She was open to learning and improving her English skills but also admitted to
feeling intimidated that people might not understand what she was saying because of her
accent. She acknowledged that, “I really need to shove that shyness away and not be
intimidated by how I speak, because what matters is not my accent, as long as they
understand me. That’s what matters, right?” She was willing to be corrected by her
One time when I said a word, (the classmate said) oh you mean this word. I said,
oh isn’t it the same? Should I pronounce it that way? Oh, okay, now I know! I
mean it's my classmates who is correcting me, not some people I don’t know or I
English. He said, “For native speaker, I understand them perfectly, because I watch TV
everyday I get used to (it).” However when it came to communicating with people who
57
had strong accents, such as his classmates who were mainly Indians, he said that they
“speak real fast.” He went on to elaborate and said that, “It’s very hard! Okay, can you
mean for me. But I can relate, I can understand them because I was there before.
The first time I came here, no-one understand me. I have very thick Thai accent,
oh my God, you say what? You say what? You know, okay, that’s difficult, but
try to understand it, put yourself in their mind, in their position. If you were them,
Mr. Thailand felt that it would help if the university offered more “campus life” and
volunteer opportunities. He thought it would be fun to go and volunteer his time with old
people because they needed someone to walk with them to talk to and complain to and he
could use his interactions with them to improve his spoken English. He was very clear
that it was his responsibility to improve his speaking skills and that while he would
appreciate help from classmates or his instructors, he did not expect it from them because
Mr. Pakistan expressed a similar opinion about the importance of learning to speak
English correctly because his master’s degree was preparing him to work in the real
world. He said that acquiring the knowledge of the subject or major was certainly
important, but equally important was the need to communicate correctly so that the other
You will learn, but that learning will not be to the learning supposed to be to the
level. You supposed to be good. Then you doing your master degree and you go
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somewhere for the interview then you not going to handle yourself properly over
there. If someone ask you and you not gonna understand what he's saying. There's
a communication gap that's not properly covered, so that mean, you have not did
He was very aware that “because of this, cultural difference and not being a native
they are from here, brought up here. They … are better than me.” He was also concerned
Who give the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam when they
came here. It's like people over there read two, three books … learn everything …
go through the exam and pass it. But, but when you came to the real scenario, the
He continued to say that, “if your English is good, you can conversate anything to the
Reading and writing are an integral part of language use in the academic setting.
Learning styles and strategies generally depend on personal preferences (Hirose, 2003;
Sanaoui, 1995; Wintergerst, DeCapua & Verna, 2003). All the participants identified the
specific strategies that they used when reading, especially their textbooks. They did not
identify any specific learning experience through which they had learned them or any
reasons for using their preferred strategies. Miss China used two types of electronic
dictionaries: Chinese-English and English-English. Her textbooks were filled with notes
in Chinese. She had experienced difficulties with reading her textbooks when she first
59
started attending classes, “so I went home, began to re-read the chapter and tried to pick
up the pieces I have in my notes, which is not very helpful, so I have to learn by myself
by reading the book with my dictionary.” Her advisor had told her that it would be better
for her if she used the English-English dictionary because doing that would help her to
improve her English. She said that she did make an effort to use it, but sometimes, if she
was too tired, or she needed to find some information quickly, she preferred to use her
and I rarely have time to look up every word in the English-English dictionary which cost
me much more time to finish.” She confessed that she sometimes would read just the first
and last lines of paragraphs in her assigned readings. As a result, she missed the essential
pieces of information in her readings and then had difficulties understanding the
Miss Korea showed the researcher an article that she had been reading. Different
portions of writing had been highlighted with different colors because, “I only use one
color for one concept, so when I change the concept or when the article changed
explaining those concept, I use different highlighter so for me I just do this.” She also
used a pencil to visually break up longer, complicated sentence structures into smaller,
easier to understand segments. She too reported that she sometimes felt the need to refer
to an electronic dictionary, but “now I totally change my strategy, I don’t like any kind of
… Korean translation, I put like English like … very similar, or like very English
meaning over there so I can learn more like English language from that meaning.” She
also liked to summarize her readings in one or two sentences per paragraph so that they
60
Mr. Thailand said that he preferred to read, “in my own way, I learn I read anything, I
It’s easy to remember. This picture in your head, this picture, this picture, this
picture, it’s easy. If you read and this keyword, this keyword, this keyword, it’s
difficult. You have to read again, but I read very slow, but one time only you
Mr. Pakistan said that when he first started his master’s degree program, he had
experienced some difficulties with reading because he would tend to fall back on his old
habit of memorizing the readings. When his friends had observed him doing that,
“everybody told me why you memorizing? It's no need! He (the professor) gonna give
you the book in the exam! Why you memorizing it?” So he changed his reading strategy
and then, “started focusing on how to get knowledge out of this book.” This too was not
easy. At first he did not know how to read for knowledge, so he would go and talk to his
You have to go into that scenario. That is someone is generating a formula for
probability, it's … why he generated formula. Because why the need come? First
there's the problem, and then he generate the formula. You use that formula to
He learned to read, highlight important sections in his books, take notes and utilized
additional books for references in order to gain knowledge. He explained that it was not
about rote memorization in the United States but about understanding and applying the
information learned to solve problems. He said that, “(the) teacher, they, they put a very
difficult exam, they give you the book. They say go to the scenario and think about the
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problem, how it’s gonna be solved. I think that's the real education, you know.”
Writing was not easy for the participants either. Miss Korea’s initial attempts at
writing were not at all positive because, “I got the lots of marked down, and then like oh
my God, I don’t wanna study, because writing, I hate writing.” She persisted with her
efforts to learn how to write by memorizing her grammatical errors and avoiding them.
She had attempted to use the services of the LRC on campus, but she had been denied
opportunities to make appointments with the tutors because she had cancelled one
appointment one hour before the actual appointment. She had thought that this was
unfair, but had persisted in her desire to utilize their services and had walked in for
assistance. She had to wait for one hour before someone could assist her. She received a
30 minute session with a tutor who pointed out all her errors and told her to “fix it.” She
also commented that, “they’re pretty slow in correcting those kind of grammatical error,
so I spent like 30 minutes covering only one page. So it's kind of waste of time, so yeah, I
think I used it just once.” One of her professors had finally given her an A on one of her
final papers with comments about the logical order of her ideas and her correct use of the
language. She said that she had been able to improve her writing skills because,
I only use like a hundred of a like almost like hundred like writing like example?
But I wanna sometimes, I wanna write something more like really good, so when
I read the article or some kind of book, or maybe when I watch TV, when I …
read magazine, I found it like really good expression? I wrote, I write down on the
post-it, I put it near my, on my like my desk, so when I’m writing, I’m gonna like
62
oh, that’s the expression, I’m got it about that area so I just can use that
expression.
Exam) that Miss Korea had taken and passed as part of the university’s requirements, she
said that she had not experienced any difficulty when writing the test because it had been
based on a topic that she was familiar with. When asked about her thoughts on her
response to the writing prompt for this study she said that, “it was hard for me. That's
because I am not a citizen here. I did not have any interests about LA governor's tax
policy.”
Miss Korea did not obtain a passing score on the writing prompt. Her total score
was five. The first reader commented that Miss Korea’s essay “manifests confusion about
the topic … (it) lacks focus. The organization is weak and the arguments against the
author’s position are poorly articulated and unconvincing.” The first reader further
commented that that this participant’s essay demonstrated “difficulties with grammar and
mechanics.” However the second reader was of the opinion that “the grammatical
structure of the sentences seems to be above average and she seems to have an
Miss Bhutan said that, “I wouldn’t brag it, but I am very comfortable using written
English.” She attributed this to the high quality of education in her home country, the fact
that many of her instructors in Bhutan were Indians who spoke good English and that she
had learned to use the language from an early age. She preferred to write in simple
English because, “I don’t feel it's appropriate to use a big word out of nowhere so that’s
what I look at it sometimes. Most of the times I use simple English.” She also said that
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her instructors did not provide any comments about her writing skills because her major,
Engineering Management was a “very technical field with a very technical background.
Nobody does that.” In response to a follow up question on the UDWPE that she had
taken and passed as part of the university’s requirements, she said that she had not
experienced any difficulty when writing the test because it had been based on a topic that
she was familiar with. She did express that she had found it difficult to respond to the
writing prompt for this study because it was based on an issue that she knew nothing
about.
Miss Bhutan obtained a passing score of eight on the writing prompt. The first
reader commented that Miss Bhutan had adequately organized, developed and generally
supported her ideas with appropriate reasons and examples. Her essay demonstrated
“fairly reasoned arguments although on one occasion the student became overly
dependent on summary to make his point.” The reader had noticed “some lapses in
grammar and mechanics but not enough to detract from meaning.” The second reader
said that Miss Bhutan’s “essay appears to be well thought out with good supporting
evidence.” The reader further commented that the essay indicated that “the student has a
clear understanding of the original article and is able to give examples to support why he
agrees with what the article is saying. The essay exhibits some grammar and usage
problems.”
Miss China had not allowed her single experience with receiving a C on one paper
to deter her from working hard to improve her written English. She said that she went to
the LRC on campus for assistance with her papers. She thought that they were able to
offer her limited help because the writing tutors were experienced in writing skills but not
64
in the subject matter of her major. She said that, “they just … tell me what they are
thinking about, and they have not been students in my class so that don’t know the
requirement or appreciate my paper … they want to change so it’s not very helpful for
me.” When asked to reflect on her level of skill in written English, she simply said, “I
work, I’m more confident with my written English but that’s what most of my instructor
told me, someone told me that I can write better than some American student.” In
response to a follow up question on the UDWPE that she had taken and passed as part of
the university’s requirements, she said that it “was easy but I feel like it's not my thing.
It's only designed for American students and didn't consider about international students
Miss China scored seven on the writing prompt. This was not a passing score.
According to the first reader, Miss China had successfully identified some of the main
points of text in the first paragraph, but, had failed to adequately develop them in the
generalizations with little or no effort to tie such reactions to the main focus of the
writing task. There was also evidence of accumulation of errors in grammar, usage and
mechanics.” The second reader made a similar observation to say that “the … thesis
statement indicated that the student did not understand exactly what was being said in the
article.” Instead of using examples from the article the student had used “examples
regarding China, taxes, and government in general to conclude that leadership is an art.”
The second reader also pointed out that “although she does make a number of
grammatical errors, she uses complex sentences, appears to have an above average level
65
Miss Philippines admitted that her greatest weakness was related to the use of the
APA (American Psychological Association) writing style. She did not have to use this
writing style in her home country and found it difficult to use in her first classes in the
master’s degree program. She had almost been accused of plagiarism by one of her
instructors because she had not included information about a website in her list of
references in a paper that she had submitted. She had explained to her instructor that she
was unfamiliar with the APA style and, “thank God, she understand.” She was enrolled in
her research methods class at the time of the interviews and reported that, “we promised
each other that we’re gonna work on my APA.” She did not seek any help with writing
her papers. She preferred to write, proof read, and edit her papers without any help, but
felt that “sometimes you can miss a lot of things, you have to read and read again, before
you can catch, what the mistakes are.” She was unaware of the services offered by the
LRC on campus. When the researcher informed her about the help they could provide,
she expressed interest and willingness to go there for assistance with her writing,
“because sometimes what you cannot see, they might see, so that can be helpful.” She
also commented that had she known that the APA style was going to be so important for
her master’s degree program, she would have learned more about it while she was in the
question on the UDWPE that she had taken and passed as part of the university’s
requirements, she said that she had read the sample tests in preparation for the actual test
but since she did not have any knowledge about the topic, she had to rely entirely on the
66
Miss Philippines received a passing score of eight on the writing prompt.
According to the first reader, Miss Philippines had written a “barely adequate essay but
the student demonstrated accurate understanding of the passage.” The reader stated that
the essay was “lacking sustained examples or observations;” however, the reader also
Conversely, the second reader stated that Miss Philippines “clearly states her argument in
her introductory paragraph.” She “could have developed her essay a bit more fully by
adding additional examples.” This reader was of the opinion that “grammar and usage is
With regard to wring, especially the numerous reports that were an important part of his
major, Mr. Thailand said that, “it depends, if I have to write a report, I tell the summary
first and the details later, but if I write the essay, then introduction, body paragraph and
conclusion, something like that. Get used to pattern.” He also liked the practice of
brainstorming because, “I circle the things, I separate the clusters.” He said that he found
brainstorming more useful than free writing. He was clear about his opinion of free
I think it’s like oh my God, that’s a lot! You waste time a lot, oh my God, so
where should I start? This one, or this one, or this one? If you use the cluster, you
get the point. Yeah, this section, this section, this section come after this section.
Mr. Thailand believed in reviewing his work and correcting his errors without seeking
any help from anybody because, “in real life, no-one correct you! Only you and the boss!
You have to correct yourself, okay it's wrong, this is mistake, you learn it, okay next time
don’t do it.” He described a well written paper as “well organized, good vocabulary and
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good transition.” He used the analogy of using a left turn signal while driving to describe
the appropriate use of transitions in his papers. He described the use of the conjunction
“but” as a “hard turn” and said that, “you have to move it smoothly, okay, however,
that he had taken and passed as part of the university’s requirements, Mr. Thailand
described the requirements of the test. He thought that the writing prompt for this study
was “tough though, but it's not too hard if I prepare for it.”
Mr. Thailand did not receive a passing score on the writing prompt. His total
score was four. The first reader commented that Mr. Thailand’s essay was “seriously
understanding of the passage … and was marred by numerous errors in grammar, usage
and mechanics that frequently interferes with meaning.” The second reader stated that
“his essay does not have a comprehensible thesis.” This reader went on to say that,
“although, on the surface, it appears that the student has knowledge of essay organization
and use of transitions, etc., a further inspection of the essay indicates that the writer
Mr. Pakistan stated that business reports were an important part of his
Engineering Management program. According to him, “for this master level, your thing
supposed to be near or hundred percent.” He said that it was very important to be able to
If you do such a silly mistake in the industry, nobody care about you. Lot of
people there in the queue, they can try the next one! To make your position you
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He was aware that his writing skills were not as good as they needed to be for his
master’s degree. He said that poor writing skills would not serve him well in his field
because,
If someone is reading your business plan, and he read the statement and all that,
then what is this man? It's no writing, then no working with the business plan and
grammatical mistake and all that you know, your impression gonna be down. And
Mr. Pakistan said that he preferred to plan his papers by first creating an outline, then
conducting research online and by reading books, and then writing the paper. He
described a well written paper or report as one that was clearly written, expressed ideas in
a logical sequence, used grammatically correct English and sustained the reader’s interest
Many of his written assignments were group projects where each group member was
responsible for one portion of the paper. They each did their portion and then combined
their work to create the final paper. He thought that it was best to read his own work,
identify errors and then correct them himself. He felt that, “If your English is good, you
can conversate anything to the other people.” He was aware of the services offered by the
LRC and had utilized them sometimes, but he felt that they did not help him to improve
his writing skills. He acknowledged that, “they tell you the proper way but that will not
help you improve yourself. That will help you improve your report but not yourself.” So
he preferred to identify his weak areas and work on correcting them so that when he
If it's a good representable form and it's a good English, then it's going to be
entirely different impression on the person who is reading. It's, he’s gonna think
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the guy who wrote it is a professional, he’s intelligent, and he know how to
represent himself.
Mr. Pakistan went on to say that his instructors recommended the use of the LRC for
students who needed help with their written English and instead focused on the
curriculum because, “the professor is thinking that I have the curriculum, I have to cover
it in this semester.” He said that, “they think the reports should be in the proper way. But
they don’t tell you anything. They only tell you to go to the LRC.” He disagreed with
this. He thought that since “all the international student like came from third world
country” it would be very useful for international students to have to take a “compulsory”
one unit or a three unit class that would help them to work on their spoken and written
English. He said that since the use of the LRC was optional many students did not use it.
He had often suggested to his friends who demonstrated difficulties with the use of the
English language that it would be worth the expense to take an English class, but, “they
say why I have to spend three unit fee over there and why I have to pay over there, why I
have to go over there? So they don’t care.” But if they were all required to take a class at
the beginning of their academic program and, “if it's part of the curriculum then
everybody can do by themselves. If you’re if you get that skills, I think you’re gonna be
in more better position I think in the industry.” In response to a follow up question on the
UDWPE that he had taken and passed as part of the university’s requirements Mr.
Pakistan said that he was happy to refresh his writing skills after a long time. Taking the
UDWPE as well as responding to the writing prompt for this study reminded him that, “I
was getting out of touch with writing skills and I should work on it.”
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Mr. Pakistan received a passing score of eight on the writing prompt. According
to the first reader, Mr. Pakistan’s “syntactic variety and rich diction contributes
significantly to the essay’s fluidity.” This reader felt that the “examples are global and
appropriate, giving the essay a certain richness.” However the reader felt that “the student
slighted the task of summarizing the main points of the prompt.” The second reader
observed that “he takes the concepts of government, management, and taxes to discuss
the development of countries.” An area of concern was that “he never addresses the
article. The organization is a bit confusing in terms of his main idea. However, he does
give substantial examples.” The reader acknowledged that the “grammatical structure of
comparison of their experiences in their home countries and in the United States. Miss
Bhutan had chosen to pursue a master’s degree in the United States because she was
interested in higher education. She said that, “I feel that academic success should be that
where you get to really understand the subject you are in and really see how that fits into
the working environment.” She said that “academic success is not only cramming up the
things in the books, it is just like it should be like understanding what you are reading it.”
She continued to explain that since her major was a highly technical one,
most of the questions are technical, we really need to understand the meanings of
that questions … and then if you have a good grasping, if you are good English
grasping then that helps a lot, so I felt that my GPA relates to how good I am in
English.
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Miss China had decided to come to the United States and get a master’s degree
because she liked psychology and counseling. She and her boyfriend decided to come to
southern California because they believed that they would experience less discrimination
and find more work opportunities in this part of the United States. In her opinion,
“sometime the GPA is not very good at indicate how much you have learned on class.” It
was not very difficult for her to obtain a high GPA, but she said that,
Sometimes I got confused what my goal is, like do I here to get a good GPA and
come home? Or do I want to like ignore the GPA whatever I can get as long as I
Her sadness was visible on her face and in her voice when she said that, “I think my
English skills so far reduced my GPA.” This was because her GPA was based on her
written assignments and since her English grammar and writing were not as good as her
professors expected, she lost credits for her papers which in turn reduced her GPA.
However, she focused on one ultimate goal when she said, “I hope … that when I
graduate, I go to the job interview I can give … a good transcript with a high GPA and …
Miss Korea wanted to get an education beyond her bachelor’s degree in English
literature. She was not interested in mass communication which was the only related
major available in her home country, so she had explored some options in other countries
and decided to come to southern California where she had friends, to work on a master’s
degree in Communication Studies. According to her, “getting a high grade is the only
way I can prove myself to everybody…. So I study everyday, I study, I work so hard,
yeah.”
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She expressed awareness of the fact that she was not a native English speaker,
But I understand the structure I need to use while writing. And then teachers like
those kind of like structures like writing sentence? They like straightforward
sentence, they like really like logical like flow in the writing, so … I’m just
gonna, I just wanna write what they wanted. So I think that’s the way, I think after
I understand those kind of process, those writing issue in English, I think my GPA
is get better.
She elaborated her thoughts about academic success by stating that, “people with
academic success they do know about the theory more than that. So they know the theory
and they’re like here, they know how to apply the theory to reality…. They have a big
Mr. Pakistan had given up a successful job with the Shell Corporation in the United
Kingdom to pursue his master’s degree in the United States because he was aware of his
deficiencies in the area of management. He also wanted a higher education that would
enable him to get a higher paying job. He was in the United States to learn and improve
and believed that, “if my English skills are better, I can do more.” He was aware that he
was not as good with conversation as his American born friends were and that his written
reports played an important role in increasing his GPA. He acknowledged that GPA was
important, but, “if you go into the race of GPA, you will lose the knowledge
key to success. If you have knowledge of anything, you can make yourself better.”
Miss Philippines had always wanted to get a higher degree in a different country
where English was spoken. Her two choices had been the United Kingdom and the
73
United States. She had visited the United States and liked a few universities in southern
California. She had decided to attend the site of the study because she felt that it was
“more accessible” for her. She felt that if she had better English skills then she would
have a chance to increase her GPA. When asked to elaborate, she said that if her English
skills were better, she would be able to get a higher GPA. As far as academic success was
You might know everything right now because it's during the semester, but when
the time comes, like you’re on your own and doing you, your job on your own
and without anyone’s help and anyone’s guidance you know, that’s when you will
know what you really know if you really made it good in school.
Mr. Thailand stated that it was important to, “understand better and you can study
better if you have good vocabulary, you can talk and everything, you can get a good
grade.” He affirmed the importance of the English language even though his major was
highly technical when he exclaimed that “it is the vehicle to communicate!” In his
opinion, “if you have 4.0 and have … good GPA no one guarantee you’re going to be a
Chapter four presented the findings that resulted from the data analysis. The data
revealed the following seven themes: Cultural characteristics, comparison with education
English, and their perceptions of the connection between English language proficiency
and academic success. All the participants expressed concerns about their spoken English
and the need to improve their skills in English. Each participant identified a personal
74
preference for improving his or her English skills and acknowledged that there was a
connection between their English language proficiency and academic success. Chapter
five will present the discussion and implications based on the findings.
75
CHAPTER 5
RECOMMENDATIONS
The purpose of this qualitative study was to answer the question, “What are
educational institutions because they contribute to their host campuses with their
International Education, 2009; Wan, Chapman & Biggs, 1992). The largest numbers of
international students come from Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea,
where English is not the primary language. These students are required to demonstrate
Many studies have examined international students’ use of English as a second language
(Oxford & Shearin, 1994), their native cultures (Quinn, 2001), native languages (Lucas &
Katz, 1994), socio-linguistic competence (Baker, 1990: Krase, 2003), learning strategies
(Anderson, 1991: Griffiths, 2003: Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1996) and resulting academic
challenges (Shenoy, 2000). This study was conducted in order to identify international
76
students’ perceptions of the connection between language proficiency and academic
success.
The study was conducted at a large four year institution of higher education located in
southern California. Six international graduate students from Asia were selected for
participation in this study. They were all pursuing master’s degrees at this institution.
They included a female from Bhutan who was studying Engineering Management, a
female from China who was studying College Counseling and Student Services, a female
from South Korea who was studying Communication Studies, a male from Pakistan who
was studying Engineering Management, a female from the Philippines who was studying
Nutrition and Dietetics, and a male from Thailand who was studying Engineering
pseudonyms.
Methodology
The researcher collected data for this case study through a preliminary survey
interviews based on an interview protocol (Appendix C), a journal based on her reactions
(Appendix D), which was modeled on the Upper Division Writing Proficiency Exam
(UDWPE) (2007). This measure of language proficiency was selected because all
students at the site of this study were required to take and pass the UDWPE in order to
graduate from the university. Each of the six participants was interviewed individually. A
verbatim record of the interviews was obtained by utilizing a tape recorder (Spradley,
1979). The researcher transcribed the interviews, read them, and then coded the data with
77
the help of Qualrus, a qualitative software analysis program. She also triangulated the
data obtained from the preliminary survey, the participants’ unofficial transcripts, the
interviews, her journal entries, and the results of the participants’ responses to the writing
The researcher analyzed the data to arrive at her conclusions about the
academic success. The following seven themes emerged from the analysis of the data:
relationships with instructors in the United States, participants’ experiences with spoken
English, and their perceptions of the connection between English language proficiency
An international student will generally demonstrate some influence of his or her home
preference for talking in the native language on some occasions, or a preference for a
certain group such as the family or friends. First, an international student may speak with
an accent. Miss Bhutan was aware of her Indian accent but did not express any problems
related to it. Miss China was conscious about her accent and the fact that she spoke an
indigenized version of her native language (He & Li, 2009). She called it “Chinglish” and
described it as a combination of her accent, her pronunciation of English words and the
78
fact that her sentence structure was likely to be incorrect according to American
combination of Tagalog, Filipino and English, another indigenized version of the English
language (Friginal, 2007; Jenkins, 2006; Yano, 2001). Miss Philippines was able to
identify people’s home countries by their accents. She not only had to work with her own
accent and that of her American classmates and teachers, but with the different accents of
her classmates who came from different countries. She was comfortable with her accent
and pronunciation and said that the most important thing was being understood by others
(Kachru, 2008). This would suggest that an international student has to work with the
influences of different accents during his or her classes. Such a student may need
additional time or help with the use of the English language. Second, an international
student may prefer to speak in his or her native language in relaxed settings with friends
or relatives. Except for Mr. Thailand who made an effort to speak in English even with
his Thai friends, the participants all spoke in their native languages when they were
speaking to people who spoke the same native languages as themselves. Third, an
international student from an Asian culture is likely to feel strong ties to his or her group
such as the family or classmates (Gudykunst, 1994). Mr. Pakistan felt indebted to his
family for sending him to the United States to pursue his master’s degree in engineering
management. He believed that his success was their success. He also felt that he and his
classmates were likely to help each other as a group, to minimize each other’s
weaknesses with respect to class projects and presentations. He believed that this reliance
on the group could also be a liability for a student who chose to use his or her classmates
for assistance with papers or projects instead of working on areas that need attention.
79
Miss China did not feel comfortable making too many demands when utilizing the
services of the Learning Resource Center (LRC). She felt that she was not the only one
using this free service so it would be important for her to use it judiciously. She also felt
that it would not be right for her to expect her instructors to correct her English during
class time since that would deprive her classmates of the instructor’s time and attention.
She was considerate and thoughtful of the needs and rights of her classmates who had
The researcher experienced the evidence of high context communications that are
common among Asian cultures (Hall, 1981) when she was interviewing the participants.
Miss Bhutan was educated in the researcher’s home country, India and Mr. Pakistan had
similar cultural origins. High context communication, which is based on shared cultural
between people. The researcher was able to understand some of these participants even
before they had spoken because they shared common cultural traits. There were moments
during the interviews when non verbal communication was as much a part of the
communication as dialogue was. The researcher had to make several deliberate attempts
to ask questions or utilize probes in order to obtain clear response from these two
participants even though she understood what they were trying to tell her without actually
This study revealed that the educational experiences of international students are
related to the size of their classrooms, acceptable classroom etiquette, the use of
80
technology, or the learning tools they may have acquired in their home countries. An
international student may have been used to large classrooms such as those described by
Mr. Thailand and Mr. Pakistan. A student who has been used to a class of two hundred or
five hundred students is likely to need some time to adapt to smaller class sizes and
individual attention.
may not be used to speaking up in the presence of the teacher. Miss Bhutan found it
difficult to speak up in her classes because her culture had trained her to respect her
teachers and not speak in classes in her home country (Hofstede, 2001). As a result, she
student may have been used to limited classroom participation and be inclined to respond
only when called upon like Miss China was used to. She was used to having her teachers
call upon students to respond to questions one by one. Mr. Pakistan said that a teacher in
Pakistan could penalize a student by reducing his or her grades if the student had asked
questions in class. Such a student may not be willing to ask questions in class or join in a
collegial discussion for fear of reprisal from the instructor. It would help if the instructor
were to encourage the student to ask questions and join discussions. While some students
may be restrained in classes due to their past educational experiences, other international
students may have been exposed to advanced practices in education such as utilizing
advanced technological tools in their classrooms. Miss Korea was used to power point
presentations and hybrid classes before she came to the United States. On the other hand,
Miss Bhutan said that classrooms in her home country were not highly advanced and still
81
had portable projectors. A student’s familiarity or unfamiliarity with technology is likely
without realizing it if he or she comes from a country like Pakistan where students are
rewarded for memorizing material and successfully passing one final exam. Miss China
mentioned how important it was to know all the information that her Chinese teachers
had presented in class or on the blackboard. She said that information presented by the
teacher was sure to appear on exams, so she was used to focusing only on such
information. A student like Miss China is likely to ignore information or materials that
may not be discussed or required in class such as recommended readings. It would serve
international students well if instructors would take into account the fact that international
that an international student is likely to value his or her relationship with the instructor.
(Razfar, 2003). Miss China had a negative experience with one instructor who gave her a
poor grade for one paper. She was not willing to discuss this issue with the instructor she
simply said, “I’m not dare to.” This could be because she came from China which is a
collectivistic culture (Gudykunst, 1994) where teachers are highly respected and
82
classrooms are teacher centered (Hofstede, 2001). A student from a collectivistic culture
is likely to respect and even fear the instructor. In such a case, the student may not feel
Miss Philippines on the other hand, reported a positive experience with her
American instructor. She had almost been accused of plagiarism by an instructor who had
found that she had not cited her sources correctly according to the style manual of the
explained that she was from a foreign country and not familiar with the APA style of
writing, the instructor had given her the benefit of the doubt and also encouraged her to
improve her writing skills. Mr. Pakistan reported several positive encounters with his
instructors. He felt comfortable visiting his instructors and asking them questions related
to his major during their office hours after he had made an attempt to set up prior
appointments. One of his instructors had recommended that he study for a specific
certification that would enhance his educational qualifications. Miss Korea had made an
effort to go and meet with her instructor during assigned office hours. This had
eventually materialized into a research assistantship for Miss Korea. Conversely, Mr.
Thailand and Miss Bhutan did not expect much from their instructors because they felt
that the instructors were busy. Each participant’s relationship with his or her instructor
was based on his or her experiences with them. If the instructor appeared to be helpful
and approachable, they felt comfortable asking for help, but if the instructor did not
communicate any willingness to help, then the participant did not reach out. This would
suggest that an instructor can assist an international student to overcome his or her
cultural experiences to establish a positive and productive relationship with him or her.
83
Experiences with Spoken English
regular presentations. Public speaking can be stressful for an international student due to
his or her accent and pronunciation (Capraro, 2002; Kim, 2003). An international student
from a collectivistic culture is likely to enjoy group work and class participation as a part
of a group. It is possible that an international student like Miss China may enjoy and
appreciate being part of a cohort since this would encourage familiarity with classmates
and a strong support network similar to the groups of his or her collectivistic culture
(Hofstede, 2001; Wintergerst, DeCapua & Verna, 2003). Miss China was the only
participant who belonged to a cohort. She appreciated the support of her classmates and
felt responsible for doing well in her classes because her work would impact their grades
collectively.
Class presentations can also be a source of stress for an international student like
Miss Bhutan who may not have been used to speaking up in classes in her native country.
Miss Bhutan sometimes had difficulties finding the right words when making
presentations, or was simply not used to speaking in front of people. Miss Korea also
reported that her classmates had seemed indifferent to her struggles with speaking up in
her classes when she had first started attending her American classes. Miss Philippines
had to make an effort to “shove that shyness away” when speaking up in her classes.
Mr. Thailand was aware that he did not speak English perfectly and that he still had a
strong Thai accent, but he was open to learning and improvement. So was Mr. Pakistan
who expressed an awareness of the need to speak well in English because it was going to
84
be required in the real world when he went for a job interview or spoke to his colleagues.
These participants were aware of their shortcomings with regard to their spoken English
and were making efforts to improve and become productive members of their groups.
They indicated that this was important for the group and for their individual development.
The participants were all required to read for their classes. They identified
strategies that they used when reading; however, their strategies were unstructured and
did not seem to be based on any specific reason for use. Miss China used two types of
electronic dictionaries to read her textbooks. One was a Chinese-English dictionary and
the other was English-English. She reported making an effort to use more of the English-
English dictionary because her advisor had suggested that she do so. She did not always
do this because she found it difficult and time consuming. She wrote many notes in
Chinese in her textbooks so that she would understand the materials easily. Miss China
also reported that she sometimes read just the first and last lines of each paragraph in her
reading materials. This had resulted in her missing out on important information.
his textbooks. Mr. Pakistan had finally stopped unconsciously memorizing his books. He
said that he now liked to read for knowledge. He did make some notes, but he preferred
to focus on achieving an understanding of the material and preparing for open book
exams. Miss Bhutan, Miss China, Miss Korea, and Miss Philippines all mentioned that
they liked to use highlighters and make notes in their textbooks. They seemed to have
discovered individual strategies that seemed to work best for them. This suggests that an
international student may not be making a conscious decision about strategies when
85
reading a textbook. It is possible that a student who utilizes unstructured reading
strategies may not be very successful in learning all the information that is presented in
During the interviews, the participants did not express any urgent concerns with
their written English. Each participant was aware of the need to improve, but they each
also believed that it was an individual responsibility to improve his or her writing skills.
Some of the participants sought assistance from the LRC on campus, but for the most
part, they preferred to work independently. They also reported utilizing some general
strategies such as creating outlines and proof reading their own work prior to submitting
it to their instructors.
Three participants achieved a passing score of eight on the writing prompt. They
were Miss Bhutan, Miss Philippines and Mr. Pakistan. Miss Bhutan reported feeling
comfortable using written English because she had learned it in her home country as well
as in India where she had earned her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. She had
found it difficult to respond to the writing prompt because it had been based on an issue
that she was unfamiliar with. The readers who scored the writing prompts had
commented that although her essay was well organized, it demonstrated problems with
grammar and mechanics. Mr. Pakistan believed in working independently to improve his
written English. He preferred not to use the services of the LRC because he felt that they
would improve his papers, but not his skills. He acknowledged the importance of good
writing skills because his academic field required a lot of report writing. He was also
aware that his written English was not perfect and that he needed to work hard in this
86
area. He had commented that responding to the writing prompt had reminded him of the
need to work on his writing skills. The readers’ comments on his writing prompt
acknowledged his grammar and vocabulary as his strengths but listed a lack of clear
organization and summary as weaknesses. Miss Philippines was aware of her problems
with the APA style of writing that was required for all her written assignments. She had
almost been accused of plagiarism for not citing her sources correctly and expressed
gratefulness to the instructor who had given her the benefit of the doubt when she had
explained that she was from another country and unfamiliar with this writing style. She
had learned English in her home country, but it was not standard American English
(Friginal, 2007). She worked on her own and did not seek any assistance with her written
English. Miss Philippines had relied entirely on the reading material to compose her
response to the writing prompt. The readers’ comments about her writing prompt
indicated that her use of English grammar was adequate but she had been unable to
provide examples to support her written argument. This suggests that an international
student who may feel comfortable with written English or may have learned it in his or
her home country may not necessarily meet the standards of written English in the United
States. An international student who may prefer to work independently may be ignorant
of areas that could use improvement. Such a student may experience frustration or
lowered grades due to unsatisfactory written English. A student who is unaware of the
requirements of specific style manuals such as the APA style that was important for Miss
Philippines could possibly face serious consequences such as lowered grades or a failing
87
Three participants failed to achieve passing scores on the writing prompt. Miss
China got a score of seven, Miss Korea got a score of five, and Mr. Thailand achieved the
lowest score which was four. Miss China had received a C on one paper even though she
had used the services of the LRC and worked hard to improve her written English for that
particular paper. She had been led to believe by one instructor that her written English
was better than that of her American classmates. She had expressed her lack of awareness
of the topic that formed the basis of the writing prompt. She felt that it had been designed
for Americans and not international students. The readers’ comments on her writing
prompt indicated serious flaws in grammar and ability to develop the essay. The thesis
statement of her essay had indicated that she had not understood the article upon which
the writing prompt was based. As a result, she had used examples from China to support
her arguments. Miss Korea was aware of the problems with her written English. She had
experienced a lot of difficulties when she first started attending her classes in the United
States. She did not allow her challenges to deter her from learning and making efforts to
improve her English skills. She persisted in consulting with the tutors at the LRC even
though they had refused to permit her to make any more appointments after she had
cancelled one appointment one hour before she was supposed to meet with a tutor. She
did feel that they did not provide all the help that she needed because they offered no
more than half hour appointments which were insufficient for all the corrections that she
seemed to need. She had a collection of one hundred expressions on post-it notes on her
desk and used them when she was writing. She said that she had been unable to
understand much of the writing prompt because she was not an American citizen and had
no interest in the topic discussed in the newspaper article which served as the reading
88
material for the writing prompt. The readers’ comments on her writing prompt were
mixed. One reader commented that her essay was confused and her grammar was flawed,
but the second reader said that her grammar was above average and that her essay
demonstrated an understanding of essay writing skills. Mr. Thailand said that he knew the
correct his errors himself and was firmly convinced about the importance of self
correction. He had found the writing prompt to be “tough.” The readers’ comments on his
writing prompt indicated that he had been unable to write a clear thesis or express his
points clearly and that the problems with his grammar interfered with the meaning of his
writing.
The findings suggest that an international student may feel confident about her or
his writing skills, but an objective reader is likely to point out numerous flaws when
university, but as demonstrated by the results of the writing prompts, the student may not
meet the standards of acceptable writing patterns at the graduate level. Such a student is
likely to need assistance with writing skills whether he or she believes that assistance is
required or not.
The participants in this study had very clear opinions about academic success.
They were also able to make a clear connection between their proficiency in English with
their individual academic success. Each participant in this study had chosen to leave the
familiarity and comfort of his or her respective home country and culture to pursue the
89
individualistic (Hofstede, 2001) goal of a master’s degree at an American university. Mr.
Pakistan was the only participant who identified a larger salary as the reason for his
decision to get a higher education. He also understood the importance of being proficient
in English in his classes as well as in his field of work. Miss Bhutan was very matter of
fact about being interested in a higher degree. She did not have to elaborate further on
this topic since the researcher understood the implicit message as a result of their shared
culture. Higher education is considered highly desirable in India, and since Miss Bhutan
shared this culture with the researcher, the message did not require any more elaboration
(Hofstede, 2001). Miss China was interested in learning more in the field of psychology
and counseling, so she had decided to pursue a master’s degree in the United States. Miss
Korea was also interested in higher education, but had been unable to find a suitable
major in her home country. She had explored her options and found Communication
Studies to be related to her English major, so she had decided to get a master’s degree in
this field. Miss Philippines simply stated that she had wanted to get a master’s degree in
her field of Nutrition, but Mr. Thailand had chosen to get his master’s degree because he
wanted to advance professionally. He had decided to come to the United States to get
more knowledge in his field as well as to learn English, which he believed was important
Each participant was able to make the connection between the desire to succeed
academically and his or her proficiency in English. Miss Bhutan thought that academic
success meant understanding the material in her books rather than “cramming” for
exams. She acknowledged that her major, Engineering Management was highly
technical, but she felt that a good grasp of the English language was likely to help her to
90
get a good GPA. She saw a positive connection between her language proficiency and
academic success. Miss China was the only participant to express a negative connection
between her language skills and her academic success. She did believe that academic
success went beyond GPA. For her, success was a combination of a good GPA and the
ability to perform well at a job interview and at her job when she would get one.
However, she was aware of the deficiencies in her English skills and their adverse effects
on her written assignments. She was concerned that her English skills were bringing
down her GPA. In a follow up conversation with the researcher after she had reviewed
her interview transcript for the “member check,” (Merriam, 1998, p. 204) Miss China
expressed embarrassment at her English skills and said that she had now become even
more aware of the urgent need to improve them. Miss Korea felt the need to keep up her
grades since she believed that they were her only evidence to show how hard she was
working. She believed that she now understood the structure of written English and
attributed her higher GPA to her improved ability to write in English and meet her
instructors’ expectations with regard to written work. However she believed that
academic success was more than a good GPA. For her, a person who was successful in
academics was one with a “big vision in the area.” Mr. Pakistan mentioned several times
that English skills were vital to his success both in the academic arena, as well as in his
area of work. He emphasized the importance of spoken and written English with regard
to his work. According to him, it was more important to get knowledge than to get into
the “race of GPA.” Miss Philippines felt that her English skills did not detract from her
GPA, but if they were better, her GPA could be higher. She too felt that academic success
was the ability to work independently and apply the knowledge she had learned in school.
91
Finally, Mr. Thailand affirmed the importance of the English language even though his
major was highly technical when he exclaimed that “it is the vehicle to communicate!”
For him, academic success was a combination of a good GPA and the ability to work
All the participants expressed their awareness of the importance of having good
English skills. They seemed to feel that spoken English was as important as written
English because they were required to utilize their language abilities in different settings
with their instructors and written assignments. Their perceptions of the connection
between English language proficiency and academic success were based on their past
academic experiences in their home countries and their present educational experiences at
the site of the study. Individual cultures were an important influence on all of these
participants were all clear about the need to succeed academically, but none of them
mentioned a specific reason that motivated them to do so, such as the requirements for
their student visa (Epstein, 1996). Except for Miss China’s distress over receiving a C on
one paper, none of the participants reported any negative experiences or feelings related
to their use of the language. Based on the findings of this case study, the researcher
concluded that although the participants perceived that a positive connection exists
between their proficiency in English and their academic success, their abilities to write in
92
Recommendations for Site of Study and Educators
The participants of this study indicated a preference for learning from their peers.
They did not expect their instructors to teach them more than the curriculum of their
specific subject areas, but they were open to receiving help from classmates and
American students. Miss Philippines was open to error correction by her friends and
classmates and Miss Bhutan was interested in learning from American students. This
suggests that an international student is likely to benefit if the institution would organize
and implement a volunteer mentor program. It could include international students and
American student mentors who could assist international students with opportunities for
“English Corner” which involved conversation sessions with American students could
help international students to learn standard English, not “international English” which is
comprehensible input and produce comprehensible output (Krashen, 1992, 1995, 2003).
belonging to a cohort for the duration of the academic program. This would assist the
international student with peer support as well as the familiar comfort of belonging to a
The institution already has a Learning Resource Center (LRC), but as Miss China
and Miss Korea experienced, the help is limited and the tutors are not necessarily aware
of the specific needs of different students’ assignments. The institution could offer
writing support by recruiting international students with strong English skills to help
93
those international students who need help with writing. They can be based in the
international programs office of the institution for easy access to international students.
(ESL) could either be required to enroll in a one unit class that required them to tutor
Based on Mr. Pakistan’s recommendation, the site of the study could create a
mandatory one unit class which would have to be completed by international students in
their first semester at the university. This class could include the understanding and
skills. Students could be assisted with learning skills that may be specific to their majors
such as the APA writing style for Nutrition and Dietetics, report writing for Engineering
majors. Other skills that could be included in such a class may include reading skills,
speed reading, and note-taking skills. A mandatory class such as this one could also offer
student volunteers as guest speakers. They could educate international students about
94
The findings of this study suggest that it would be beneficial to an international
student if the institution were to provide students with information about expected writing
skills as soon as they apply to the university. This would provide international students
with opportunities and some time to prepare and work on their English proficiency prior
to their arrival in the United States. Miss Philippines said that if she had known about the
importance of the APA style of writing, she would have learned and practiced it while
she was waiting for her visa in the Philippines. The university website could provide such
information along with available online resources so that potential students could access
this information from their home countries and utilize it prior to their arrival in the United
States.
if he or she is not directly informed about them. Miss Philippines had no idea that the
LRC existed on campus. There was a possibility that she could have benefited if the
university had advertised current support services such as the LRC directly and
repeatedly to international students. The institution could offer a list of support services at
presentations, and provide this list at the campus website for easy referrals. In addition,
they could, if possible, consider offering simple incentives such as free gifts from the
campus bookstore, or free coupons for lunch or a cup of coffee on campus or to a local
Instructors could consider offering bonus points to students who utilize the LRC and
bring verification in the form of a stamp or signature from the tutor who assisted them to
95
prove that they consulted with the LRC and attempted to improve their writing prior to
way of relating to his or her instructors. Such a student may not be willing or comfortable
with meeting individually with the instructors during assigned office hours. Based on
Miss Korea’s experiences with visiting her instructor during office hours, getting to know
her better and impressing her with her passion for learning, it would be interesting for the
international students to visit with them during office hours. Structured meetings could be
set up by instructors to discuss important issues with students such as preparing for
respond to a structured requirement for individual meetings more than if he or she were
The institution could also assist faculty and student services personnel who
provide academic support such as foreign student advisors and academic advisors by
provide improved services to international students. One way to do this could be to create
and offer a courtesy information brochure for campus employees. International students
could be encouraged to contribute to this type of publication with some major interesting
facts about international students and their home country cultures. It could include quotes
from international students about their positive experiences at the campus, major
96
created with help from graduate students and instructors from academic departments such
international students in their classes if and when required. This brochure could be
disseminated via email or campus mail. An in-depth workshop that would elaborate on
this theme could be offered to newly hired faculty and staff or to interested faculty and
This was a case study. The researcher does not intend to generalize the findings of
this study to other situations or populations. The participants’ comments about the
writing prompt utilized for this study revealed that it was culturally biased. They seemed
to have had difficulty understanding the context of the article selected for the writing
prompt. Miss China commented that she had no idea what the article was talking about
and had fallen back on her experiences in China to compose her essay. Miss Korea found
the writing prompt difficult because she was not an American citizen and had no interest
in the topic that was discussed in the newspaper article upon which the writing prompt
was based. Miss Bhutan compared the writing prompt for this study to the actual Upper
Division Writing Proficiency Exam (UDWPE) topic and said that she had found it easier
to answer the actual UDWPE because it had been based on a topic that she was familiar
with, but the writing prompt had been based on an issue that she knew nothing about. In
contrast, Miss China criticized both exams and felt that they were both difficult because
they seemed to have been designed for American students and not for international
students who were unfamiliar with the American culture. The participants had felt that
97
the writing prompt was difficult and favored American students (Hamp-Lyons & Davies,
2008) because it required them to know the American culture and society which they did
not. This indicates that a student who may have good skills in English, may not respond
the host culture as a part of the test (Baker, 1990; Nelson et al., 2004).
study of this exam across the 23 campuses within this university system could be
conducted to see how each test is created and how each campus measures English
students on this test is likely to show whether or not the tests on each campus are
international students at the site of the study on the UDWPE may help to identify
The current study could be replicated on another campus within the university
system that included the site of the study or to study undergraduate students to see how
they describe their experiences with English language proficiency and academic success.
proficiency and academic success. A longitudinal study of the same students as in this
study is likely to show if their perceptions about the connection between English
language proficiency and academic success have undergone any changes at the end of
their fourth semester at this institution and one year after graduation. A qualitative study
98
could possibly explore the influence of work experiences on student perceptions of the
attempt to find out whether international students who speak with accents experience
different treatment or discrimination from faculty and staff. A qualitative study could also
be conducted to assess the effectiveness of on-campus services like the tutoring services
and the “English Corner” that were suggested earlier in this study.
Future research could also include a qualitative study of the linguistic traits or
of origin. For example, most of the participants in this study exhibited difficulties with
writing a clear thesis statement for their writing prompts. It would be interesting to know
whether students from other continents experience the same or other problems. The
information derived from such a study could possibly assist faculty with predicting,
understanding and assessing the writing skills of international students. Such a study is
likely to yield information about language differences that could be utilized to better
American English.
between UDWPE scores and GPA of all international students at the site of the study.
The numerical data could be examined closely to see if there are differences or significant
99
would be interesting to compare the perceptions of instructors who were born and raised
in countries other than the United States with those of American instructors to identify
Summary
This case study was conducted at a large four year institution of higher education
located in southern California. Six international graduate students from Asia were
selected for participation in this study. The purpose of this qualitative study was to
answer the question, “What are international graduate students’ perceptions of the
connection between English language proficiency and academic success?” Data were
interviews and a review of the participants’ responses to a writing prompt. The researcher
transcribed the interviews, read them, and then coded the data with the help of Qualrus, a
qualitative software analysis program. Seven themes emerged from the analysis of the
data. They were cultural characteristics, comparison with education in participants’ home
with written English, and their perceptions of the connection between English language
proficiency and academic success. The researcher concluded that although the
English and their academic success, their abilities to write in English needed significant
improvement. Recommendations were made for the site of the study and educators.
100
Limitations of the research study were identified and recommendations for future
101
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Appendix A
Preliminary Survey
This survey will be used for a research study by a doctoral student. The study
English language proficiency and academic success. Your answers will be kept
confidential and will not be discussed with your instructors. Your name will not be
revealed in the study or in subsequent publications. Thank you for your time.
3. My major is _______________________________________________
4. I first arrived as a (F-1 visa) student in the U.S. on ___(mm) ___(dd) _____(year).
9. I have taken and passed the Upper Division Written Proficiency Exam (UDWPE).
10. I passed this exam at the 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th (circle one) attempt.
Alwayssometimes rarelynever
111
12. If you would like to participate further in this research study, please provide the
following information:
112
Appendix B
Roopa Rawjee
Foreign Student Advisor
International and Exchange Student Center, CSUN
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8445
113
(818) 677-3053
Signature:Date:______________________
_______________________________________________________________
114
Appendix C
Interview Protocol
Date of interview:
Time:
Place:
Setting/Room number:
Description of setting:
4. Please describe your experiences with using spoken English in your classes.
5. Please describe your experiences with using written English in your classes.
11. How would you describe a paper that has been well written in English?
12. How do you feel about your English speaking classmates’ English skills?
13. How could they help you with your English skills?
115
14. How do you feel about group projects or assignments?
16. How could your instructors help you to write better in English?
17. How could your instructors help you in the classroom setting with your English
skills?
18. How could this institution help you with your English skills?
20. What is the connection between your English skills and your GPA?
116
Appendix D
Writing Prompt
A sensible city budget: The mayor has a good grip on L.A.'s purse strings, and he's
started balancing the books. (Los Angeles Times Editorial, April 20, 2007)
A year ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came up with a plan to hike trash
collection fees; then he promised to use the added income to make sure Los Angeles
expanded its police force. Because the trash money couldn't actually be earmarked for
cops, it's hard to say whether any particular dollar hired any particular new officer. But
this much is clear — the mayor exceeded his goal for hiring new officers and began a
program to slash a lingering structural deficit. Both moves are good ones.
One of the more prosaic, but in the end more important, hallmarks of
Villaraigosa's tenure has been his emergence as a careful guardian of the city's budget.
Homeowners should not begrudge him the fees they now must pay for garbage pickup
that formerly was free. It wasn't really free, of course, but rather was subsidized by
taxpaying business owners and residential renters who didn't get the benefit of free
service. The new income helped pay down part of a year-to-year deficit of $295 million
— solid evidence of Villaraigosa's fiscal prudence.
He's not out of the woods. Help in recent years came from a soaring real estate
market that produced higher-than-expected property tax revenue. The Los Angeles
market hasn't cooled to the same extent as the rest of the nation, but there is an
unmistakable drop-off in sales, and Villaraigosa may not have the same windfall he
enjoyed last year.
It's a good thing, then, that instead of using the financial good times to go on a
spending spree, the mayor has steeped himself in conservative financial planning. He has
put paying down the deficit at the top of his budget agenda and plans to erase another
$138 million this year.
He could go further. His budget doesn't realistically account for raises that city
workers will demand in new contracts, due to be negotiated this year. The low figures
he's floating now may be a tactical shot across the bow to workers, warning them to keep
their expectations low, and that's a good thing. But he knows he will be paying workers
larger raises than the small increases his budget suggests, so some of his other figures
must be taken with a grain of salt. Boosting the city reserve fund to $187 million is a
good move — but only if the money actually ends up there.
There are other contingencies that are not accounted for, such as a possible loss of
$270 million in cellphone excise taxes because of a lawsuit challenging those taxes.
That's a staggering sum, and that money would have to come from somewhere. But the
mayor has assembled a solid team and demonstrated a refreshing maturity in budgeting
for the city's needs. And as for what that means, in the most basic terms, Los Angeles
today has 231 more police officers in uniform than it did a year ago.
Writing Task:
• Briefly identify the main points the author of this text makes.
117
• Using this article and your own observations for support, explain why you do or
why do not agree with the author.
Note: If you quote from the reading selection, use no more than a short phrase or
sentence, and make sure you explain how this phrase or sentence supports your
statements.
See next page for instructions.
118
UPPER DIVISION WRITING PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION
INSTRUCTIONS:
You will have 75 minutes to plan and write an essay on the topic assigned. You will probably
find it best to spend a little time considering the topic and organizing your thoughts before you
begin writing. DO NOT WRITE ON A TOPIC OTHER THAN THE ONE SPECIFIED. An
essay on a topic of your choice will not be accepted.
You are to write your essay in this examination booklet; you will receive no other paper on which
to write. Please write neatly and legibly. To be certain that you have enough space on the answer
sheet for your entire essay, do not skip lines or leave wide margins. You may use the inside cover
of this booklet for your notes.
You should write a coherent, unified essay with well-developed paragraphs. Explore ideas rather
than repeat them. Move logically from point to point. Remember that how well you write is much
more important than how much you write, but do not slight the topic. Leave enough time to
proofread so that you can catch errors, such as subject-verb agreement, wrong spelling, sentence
fragments, etc. that occur in first drafts.
Note: If you quote from the reading selection, use no more than a short phrase or sentence,
and make sure you explain how this supports your own statements.
119
Appendix E
Sample Exam
The Debate Over Cosmetic Surgery (Adapted from “It’s all in the Mix: A Plastic Surgery
Reality Show” by Caryn James in the New York Times)
“Extreme Makeover” is the reality show that transforms average people through plastic
surgery-mutilation as entertainment. The producers received thousands of applicants and
chose three people whose makeovers will be charted on T.V. As a T.V. show, the ratings
were low, however, as a cultural event, it was fascinating. One of the women who was
about to be transformed said, “This is the last night that I’m going to look like me.” The
hint of self-loathing and the lack of self-esteem seem both ordinary and disturbing.
We’re not talking about people with terrible disfigurements, but people with fat pouches,
broken noses, or weak chins. The “Extreme Makeover’s” team includes a dentist and a
hairstylist who promote their own methods and products. You might fear for the so-called
winners of the makeover, putting themselves in the hands of such shameless self-
promoters, but everything turns out all right.
The show minimizes the blood and pain of surgery, although in one post-operation scene,
the people are shown as being groggy, their heads covered in bandages and bruises. Six
weeks later, the patients are revealed as “new” people. The dream of sudden glamour
may be universal, but most makeovers are like the ever-popular segments on “Oprah”
that involve nothing more permanent than new hair, clothes, and make-up.
This television show promotes perfection, suggesting that men and women need to be
flawless to be beautiful. “Extreme Makeover” takes this concept to a creepy low,
illustrating how television is shifting our idea of what cosmetic revisions seem normal.
Cosmetic surgery is thus glorified, and creates the effect that without perfection the
individual is substandard.
Writing Task:
• Briefly identify the main points the author of this text makes.
• Using this article and your own observations for support, explain why you do or
why do not agree with the author.
Note: If you quote from the reading selection, use no more than a short phrase or
sentence, and make sure you explain how this phrase or sentence supports your
statements.
120
Name: ____________________________________________________ Date:_______________________
Last First M.I.
INSTRUCTIONS:
You will have 75 minutes to plan and write an essay on the topic assigned. You will probably
find it best to spend a little time considering the topic and organizing your thoughts before you
begin writing. DO NOT WRITE ON A TOPIC OTHER THAN THE ONE SPECIFIED. An
essay on a topic of your choice will not be accepted.
You are to write your essay in this examination booklet; you will receive no other paper on which
to write. Please write neatly and legibly. To be certain that you have enough space on the answer
sheet for your entire essay, do not skip lines or leave wide margins. You may use the inside cover
of this booklet for your notes.
You should write a coherent, unified essay with well-developed paragraphs. Explore ideas rather
than repeat them. Move logically from point to point. Remember that how well you write is much
more important than how much you write, but do not slight the topic. Leave enough time to
proofread so that you can catch errors, such as subject-verb agreement, wrong spelling, sentence
fragments, etc. that occur in first drafts.
Note: If you quote from the reading selection, use no more than a short phrase or sentence,
and make sure you explain how this supports your own statements.
121
Appendix F
Scoring rubric
Each essay is read and evaluated by at least two faculty members in a carefully planned
and supervised reading. Each reader scores an essay on a scale of 1 to 6, and the two
scores are combined. 12 is the highest possible total score. A score of 8 or above is
passing. (See sample scoring guide and sample essays below.)
• 6 — Superior
• 5 — Strong
• 4 — Adequate
"6" — A superior paper addresses the topic in a complex way and executes its plan
convincingly and skillfully.
Purpose: Shows a sophisticated sense of its own purpose throughout, along with
sophisticated organization.
Critical Thinking and Logic: Supports its own ideas and addresses opposing ideas,
revealing occasional inadequacies in arguments or details of opposing viewpoints.
Development: Shows extensive development both in terms of abstractions and details;
often offers cogent or imaginative sources of information that go beyond those presented
in text.
Style: Has variety and sophistication in both sentence structure and diction.
Usage and Grammar: Exhibits superiority in written English, though it need not be
flawless.
"5" — A strong paper addresses the topic in a meaningful way and executes a solid plan.
Purpose: Shows a clearly identifiable purpose with good organization.
Topic: Addresses the topic by competent employment of many issues raised in the
reading passage.
Critical Thinking and Logic: Supports its own ideas and reveals awareness of opposing
ideas.
Development: Shows full development
Style: Has effective use of sentence structures and vocabulary.
Usage and Grammar: Exhibits a command of written English, though there may be flaws.
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opposing ideas.
Development: Offers appropriate and reasonable support, though less specifically.
Style: Has adequate use of sentence structures and vocabulary.
Usage and Grammar: Exhibits control of written English. Flaws do not detract from essay
content.
"3" — An inadequate paper fails to develop or address the issue in a satisfactory way,
but demonstrates developing skills. It will have one or more of the following attributes:
Purpose: Shows some focus but occasionally wavers in its sense of purpose; often shows
problems in organization.
Topic: Addresses some issues of the reading passage, but some significant aspects may
be slighted or ignored.
Critical Thinking and Logic: Reveals contradictions or flaws in logic.
Development: Has underdeveloped portions or merely echoes and uncritically
paraphrases elements of the reading.
Style: Has sentences that are difficult to read or seem confused.
Usage and Grammar: Exhibits wavering control of written English. Flaws detract from
the essay content.
"2" — A seriously inadequate paper will reveal serious and repeated problems, including
confusion as to the task or uncertainty as to the plan. It will have one or more of the
following attributes:
Purpose: Shows very little sense of focus.
Topic: Addresses the reading only marginally or randomly.
Critical Thinking and Logic: Shows very little analysis of materials or is often illogical.
Development: Is significantly underdeveloped; often avoids expansion or explanation of
ideas throughout the essay.
Style: Has sentences that pose significant difficulties for readers; frequently misuses
vocabulary.
Usage and Grammar: Exhibits persistent problems in grammar and mechanics.
"1" — An incompetent paper will fail to communicate. It will have one or more of the
following attributes:
Purpose: Shows no sense of purpose or direction; often incoherent.
Topic: Does not address the reading or exhibits little understanding of the writing task.
Critical Thinking and Logic: Reveals chaotic or nonexistent analysis of materials and
serious problems in logic.
Development: Is radically underdeveloped. Essays in this category make little attempt at
offering evidence or argument.
Style: Has very few sentences that are coherent or clear.
Usage and Grammar: Exhibits pervasive errors that regularly prevent understanding.
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