Acculturative Stress and Disengagement: Learning from the Adjustment Challenges faced by East Asian International Graduate Students

Abstract

International graduate students meet TOEFL, GPA, and other admissions criteria to gain entry into US colleges and universities. During their stay in the USA, they provide educational and economic contributions for their host country. In contrast to their educational and economic potential, international students often demonstrate poor academic and social integration at their host institutions. Grounded theory methodology was used to investigate what accounts for the academic, cultural, and social adjustment problems faced by East Asian graduate students pursuing studies at an elite private not-for-profit university in the USA. Findings reveal that students experienced lowered self-confidence and acculturative stress as a result of challenges encountered during their first year, language barriers, different teaching styles and teaching environments, and their interactions with professors. Raising faculty sensitivity to cultural differences among international students, early adjustment counseling and obtaining regular feedback are recommended.

A Retrospective Phenomenological Study on the Language Challenges Faced by Turkish Graduate Students at U.S. Universities

“…In this study, the literature was reviewed within the scope of the difficulties experienced by international students due to the language barrier. Many studies (Burkholder, 2013;Can, Poyrazli & Yegan, 2021;Chen, 1999;Duru & Poyrazli, 2007;Ilhan & Oruç, 2020;Mori, 2000;Poyrazli et al, 2004;Poyrazli & Grahama, 2007;Segosebe, 2017;Yeh & Inose, 2003) show that language is one of the main barriers that international students experience, especially in the first months of their arrival in the U.S. Transitioning from one system to another includes many difficulties and stages. Learning how to use the transportation system, finding accommodation, buying a car in places without public transportation, obtaining social security number, and getting insurance are some challenges for students unfamiliar with the system.…”

“…For this reason, an increasing number of studies consider the students' countries and cultural backgrounds. For example, Alsahafi and Shin (2017) studied the academic and cultural adjustment of Saudi Arabian students, Mwangi et al (2019) focused on racism and discrimination experienced by African students, Poyrazli et al (2001) examined the adjustment of Turkish students, Segosebe (2017) tried to explore the effects of acculturation stress and loneliness of East Asian students, Wang (2004) addressed academic adjustment of Chinese students, and An- Ra (2016) studied the impact of social support and acculturation stress on Korean students.…”

“…Graduate students make up 52.8% (Open Doors, 2022) of international students in the US and 16.2% (Zhou & Geo, 2021) of US graduate students. Although the proportion of graduate students in very high research institutions is 24% (Zhou and Geo, 2021), and 62% in science, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (Open Doors, 2022), there is limited research on these students' category (Zhou, Christopher, & Bang, 2011;Segosebe, 2017).…”

The impact of an accent: the experiences of international college students from India in the greater Toronto area

“…Secondly, language use and accents may be the most overt marker of social identity in terms of how speakers from minority groups are perceived by members of the dominant language culture, which, in turn, implicates language in the process of social exclusion and discrimination (Lippi-Green, 2012). This assists in making sense of the divisiveness and groupism mentioned.…”

“…(Canadian Human Rights Commission, n.d). Discrimination based on accent is rooted in prejudiced listeners who discriminate against others based on the way they speak (Lippi-Green, 2012). Often an individual's perception of another's accent can influence the way they interact with or view that person.…”