Why Don’t They Participate? A Self-Study of Chinese Graduate Students’ Classroom:Involvement in North America

Abstract

China is now the world’s largest source of international students. In terms of learning performance, Chinese graduate students studying in North America exhibit distinct differences from students who are born and raised in North America. Conflicting cultural values compel Chinese students to reconcile East-West cultures, and put an onus on North American instructors to implement culturally-sensitive pedagogy. Employing the theoretic framework of yin-yang theory, this paper examines Chinese graduate students’ classroom performance against the backdrop of East-West cultural negotiation, and specifically seeks to identify which factors inhibit Chinese graduate students’ participation in North American classrooms. Drawing from their own living experiences, the authors employ self-study in the methodological form of narrative inquiry – in conjunction with references from existing literature – to investigate Chinese graduates’ classroom challenges. Results reveal six factors impacting students’ classroom performance: language; knowledge of the education system; knowledge of the social system; personality; influence of traditional culture; and social/economic/political changes. Future research directions are also suggested.Key words: Chinese graduates, East-West, cross-culture, North America, classroom involvement, self-study

Seeking Internationalization: The State of Canadian Higher Education

“…Seror (2008), for example, reported on the struggles that Japanese L2 uni-versity students encountered when attempting to decode instructors' feedback on written academic assignments, and the potentially harmful ways such feedback can position or alienate students as deficient or "ESL" and in need of remedial support, as opposed to offering positive and affirming positionalities, such as those of "legitimate" or "autonomous" emerging scholars and professionals. Other foreign L2 students have reported struggling with academic reading and writing tasks due to the heavy demands of university course work, frustrations with receiving insufficient or confusing feedback from instructors, and oral fluency challenges during presentations and class discussions (Bronson, 2005;Cheng, Myles, & Curtis, 2004;Jenkins, 2005;Lu & Han, 2010;Zappa-Hollman, 2007). At times, L2 students may also speak less or write shorter and less-complex texts to try to decrease potential errors (Cheng, Myles, & Curtis, 2004), and may rely on academic coping or rhetorical strategies like textual borrowing or patchwriting-which are often considered plagiarism in many western contexts, a view that may be at odds with some students' prior academic experiences (Pecorari, 2003;Polio & Shi, 2012;Shi, 2004).…”

Overcoming Barriers in Higher Education Mobility between Latin America, Canada and Asia: A Scoping Review

“…As such, students had difficulty understanding and participating in the classes (Fang, Clarke, & Wei, 2016). Chinese scholars also stated that the biggest barrier for them to fully understand and enjoy courses at their host institution was insufficient English language proficiency, which hindered their communication and ability to understand lessons (Guo & Wei, 2012;Lu & Han, 2010). Some program participants also noted that they had difficulty adjusting because the study of the English language was different in rural areas of China (Vasilopoulos, 2019).…”

Pilot study of the influence of social anxiousness on students’ classroom interactions among Chinese undergraduates

“…Meanwhile, Chinese as well as many East Asian students' reluctance to interactions in class has been frequently addressed in research studies. Many factors which inhibited Chinese students' interactions in class have been explored, such as peer student influence (Li & Jia, 2006), pedagogical factors (Lee, 2014;Li & Jia, 2006;Zhang, 2011), classroom environment or climate (Foster & Stapleton, 2002;Joe, Hiver, & Al-Hoorie, 2017;Zhu, 2006), classroom leadership/organization (Li & Jia, 2006;Ouyang, 2013), sociocultural factors (Chan, 1999;Li & Jia, 2006;Lu & Han, 2010), psychological factors (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) (Joe et al, 2017) and student personality (Li & Jia, 2006;Lu & Han, 2010), intrinsic motivation, etc. In addition, Chinese students' attitude and perception of classroom interaction also attracted many research interests.…”

“…Li and Jia (2006) also found, that although what students expected was to be good listeners in class and learn as much as they could, all the participants in their study expressed their likings in active participation and they believed it was good for their learning. Lu and Han (2010) pointed out in their self-study many Chinese students believed one could learn best and become wise when they listened to others, and thought deeply and well, because the more they talked, the less they could hear. Similarly, Zakrajsek (2017) also found a circumstance students saw the classroom as one in which you respected the professor and, therefore, would never say anything to question her or his authority.…”