Preparing international students for a successful social experience in higher education

Lacina, Jan

doi:10.1002/he.43

Cited by 83 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The questionnaire asked for information on the students’ personal demographics, English acquisition and usage, musical abilities and two psychometric measures: Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, 1994) and the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (Felder & Soloman, 1994). Stress has been found to have a negative impact on the academic performance of first year medical students, particularly international students (Bagot et al, 2005; Baker, 2004; Lacina, 2002; Mori, 2000) as well as the style of learning adopted by international versus local students, such as deep vs. surface learning styles (Bagot et al, 2005; Newble & Entwistle, 1986; Volet, Renshaw & Tietzel, 1994; Zeegers, 2001). As mentioned in the Introduction, the international medical students of this course must pass stringent measures of English proficiency prior to enrolment, such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poorer verbal working memory for a second language selectively impacts academic achievement in university medical students

Mann

Canny

Reser

et al. 2013

PeerJ

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Working memory (WM) is often poorer for a second language (L2). In low noise conditions, people listening to a language other than their first language (L1) may have similar auditory perception skills for that L2 as native listeners, but do worse in high noise conditions, and this has been attributed to the poorer WM for L2. Given that WM is critical for academic success in children and young adults, these speech in noise effects have implications for academic performance where the language of instruction is L2 for a student. We used a well-established Speech-in-Noise task as a verbal WM (vWM) test, and developed a model correlating vWM and measures of English proficiency and/or usage to scholastic outcomes in a multi-faceted assessment medical education program. Significant differences in Speech-Noise Ratio (SNR50 ) values were observed between medical undergraduates who had learned English before or after five years of age, with the latter group doing worse in the ability to extract whole connected speech in the presence of background multi-talker babble (Student-t tests, p < 0.001). Significant negative correlations were observed between the SNR50 and seven of the nine variables of English usage, learning styles, stress, and musical abilities in a questionnaire administered to the students previously. The remaining two variables, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Age of Acquisition of English (AoAoE) were significantly positively correlated with the SNR50 , showing that those with a poorer capacity to discriminate simple English sentences from noise had learnt English later in life and had higher levels of stress – all characteristics of the international students. Local students exhibited significantly lower SNR50 scores and were significantly younger when they first learnt English. No significant correlation was detected between the SNR50 and the students’ Visual/Verbal Learning Style (r = −0.023). Standard multiple regression was carried out to assess the relationship between language proficiency and verbal working memory (SNR50 ) using 5 variables of L2 proficiency, with the results showing that the variance in SNR50 was significantly predicted by this model (r2 = 0.335). Hierarchical multiple regression was then used to test the ability of three independent variable measures (SNR50 , age of acquisition of English and English proficiency) to predict academic performance as the dependent variable in a factor analysis model which predicted significant performance differences in an assessment requiring communications skills (p = 0.008), but not on a companion assessment requiring knowledge of procedural skills, or other assessments requiring factual knowledge. Thus, impaired vWM for an L2 appears to affect specific communications-based assessments in university medical students.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Poorer verbal working memory for a second language selectively impacts academic achievement in university medical students

Mann

Canny

Reser

et al. 2013

PeerJ

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“…They face a variety of challenges in their sojourn to the country. Many of them experience a range of personal, cultural and educational adjustments (Lacina, 2002;Hyun et al, 2007;Mahmud et al, 2010). The prevailing challenges and issues they face include homesickness, loneliness, need to develop a new peer relationship, independence, adaptation to a new culture, food, climate and language barrier (Mahmud, Amat, Rahman, & Ishak, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies suggest that international postgraduate students' needs and success in the academic environment are usually prone to stress and thus cannot be ignored (Abe, Talbot, & Geelhoed, 1998;Hyun, Quinn, Madon, & Lustig, 2007;Lacina, 2002). In addition, some scholars allege the influence of age and gender on the stress levels of international postgraduate students.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Stress among International Postgraduate Students in Malaysia

Par¹,

Hassan²,

Uba³

et al. 2015

IJPS

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Stress is an increasingly dilapidating factor among most individuals. Therefore the aim of this study is to identify the relationship between age, gender and perceived stress among international postgraduate students in Malaysia. Using a web administered survey, 222 respondents were selected via stratified random sampling technique. Perceived stress scale (Cohen et al., 1983) was used to measure stress. Frequencies, percentages, mean score and Chi-square was used to highlight the findings of the study. Results of the research revealed high stress levels of about 40% among the respondents. More so, the findings indicated no significant relationship between age, gender and perceived stress (p > .05). Later studies may consider other demographic variables as possible significant correlates of perceived stress, given the findings of the present study.

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“…International students who come to study in the U.S. and feel that they are discriminated against or treated differently than their domestic counterparts may become discouraged from building friendships on campus, limiting their ability to acculturate to their new environment (Guidry-Lacina, 2002). International students are more likely to perceive prejudicial treatment when compared to their domestic counterparts, which can have a significant impact on their cultural adjustment experiences as well as how much they enjoy their college years (Sowosky & Plake, 1992).…”

Section: Domain's Relation To Previousmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The college campus in the U.S. brings together students from a variety of backgrounds including but not limited to: differences in cultural background, country of origin, socioeconomic status, quality of previous education, etc. For many international students the cultural adjustment experience, particularly the ability to make friends with U.S. students, is made difficult by a lack of understanding of the customs and values of the U.S. students on campus (Guidry-Lacina, 2002). International students may find it difficult to make friends with U.S. students because their upbringing and formative years were vastly different from the U.S. students', making it hard to relate.…”

Section: Domain's Relation To Previousmentioning

confidence: 99%

International student adjustment : does the size of the population dictate the experience?

Dinovelli¹

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Preparing international students for a successful social experience in higher education

Abstract: Colleges and universities can increase their retention of international students by providing those students with help in adjusting to U.S. culture.

Cited by 83 publications

References 7 publications

Poorer verbal working memory for a second language selectively impacts academic achievement in university medical students

Poorer verbal working memory for a second language selectively impacts academic achievement in university medical students

Perceived Stress among International Postgraduate Students in Malaysia

International student adjustment : does the size of the population dictate the experience?

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