Intercultural communication and US higher education: How US students and faculty can improve: International students' classroom experiences

Intercultural communication research rarely addresses the perspective of international students, who face challenges as they leave family, move to a foreign place in the US, pursue a degree, and study in a foreign language. Considering these students' perspectives, US universities, which house...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of intercultural relations Vol. 82; p. 278
Main Authors King, Carie S Tucker, Bailey, Kylar S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New Brunswick Elsevier Science Ltd 01.05.2021
Subjects
Classification
Classrooms
College faculty
College students
Colleges & universities
Communication research
Foreign languages
Foreign students
Higher education
Idioms
Intercultural communication
MBA programs & graduates
Personal information
Privacy
United States > US
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Summary:Intercultural communication research rarely addresses the perspective of international students, who face challenges as they leave family, move to a foreign place in the US, pursue a degree, and study in a foreign language. Considering these students' perspectives, US universities, which house large numbers of international students, should consider how they can help these students better adapt to US academic life. To address these challenges, we invited international students at a 4-year tier-one state university to interview, and we qualitatively analyzed their responses to identify how universities can help international students. Our participants noted that US students can befriend them, respect them in the classroom, and learn about other cultures to be more welcoming. Faculty have the most to do to improve international students' success in the classroom; faculty can grade consistently, communicate outside the classroom, allow time for students to ask questions, help students adapt to US classrooms, speak slowly and eliminate idioms from examples, explain course objectives per industry, share interests and personal information, effectively use class time (particularly final examination weeks), and learn about cultures to better meet students' needs. Additional research can diversify international students' needs per their classification (graduate versus undergraduate), home culture, and expectations.
ISSN:0147-1767
1873-7552
DOI:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.04.007