Intercultural Interaction in English: Taiwanese University Students’ Investment and Resistance in Culturally Mixed Groups

Abstract

Despite increased diversity on campuses worldwide, research has documented a lack of intercultural interaction among university students. Culturally mixed groups have been found to be a promising means of promoting the rich, repeated contact necessary for intercultural interaction, but hardly any studies of local students’ perceptions of such groups have been conducted in the newly internationalized universities in Asia. Through the lens of an expanded model of investment, this study analyzes reflective journals and interviews with Taiwanese college students to examine their perceptions and experiences of culturally mixed groups. Findings indicate that the majority resisted non-native to non-native speaker intercultural interaction in these groups. This resistance was driven by their pro-standard English ideologies, traceable to the earliest stages of their English education, which promoted native-speaker models and unrealistic imagined communities of native-like speakers.

Challenges to Internationalisation of University Programmes: A Systematic Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Research on Learner-Centred English Medium Instruction (EMI) Pedagogy

“…Although this and the following themes may not be directly related to EMI pedagogy, they significantly impact EMI lecturers' pedagogic repertoires when implementing interactive assignments. In particular, communication breakdowns between home and international students were explained by poor or non-standard spoken English [12,77,78]. For example, local students expressed frustration about the difficulty of understanding international students' 'heavily accented' English [77].…”

“…In particular, communication breakdowns between home and international students were explained by poor or non-standard spoken English [12,77,78]. For example, local students expressed frustration about the difficulty of understanding international students' 'heavily accented' English [77]. Conversely, both home and international students encountered difficulties 'when interacting with native English speakers due to the fast pace of discussion and use of colloquial terms' [6].…”

“…Other students complained that communication was sometimes impossible since the 'students from the same country always sat together so they could speak their own language' [79]. Language barriers also seemed to increase in-group pressures noted by students in several studies [73,74,77,78,84,95]. For example, some home students felt that 'international students might have used their lack of language proficiency as an excuse to seek and receive more help from teachers' [95].…”

“…Another critical issue that students brought forward to express their frustration when studying in culturally mixed groups was multiple and/or unfamiliar accents [6,12,71,77,85,95]. Studying in such environments violated some students' expectations that 'in such groups they could learn and speak standard varieties of English such as American or British English' [77].…”

“…Another critical issue that students brought forward to express their frustration when studying in culturally mixed groups was multiple and/or unfamiliar accents [6,12,71,77,85,95]. Studying in such environments violated some students' expectations that 'in such groups they could learn and speak standard varieties of English such as American or British English' [77]. When speaking in class it was noted that the accent, stress, intonation, and general English proficiency of some home and international students made it difficult to follow class discussions [6,12,71,85,95].…”