English-speaking University Research Articles

A systematic review of international students’ experiences transitioning from non-Anglophone high schools to universities in Anglophone settings

ABSTRACT This systematic review explores the extent and nature of research on the experiences of international students transitioning from non-anglophone high schools to universities in anglophone settings and then curates and synthesises the empirical evidence on their experiences. An extensive and systematic search of the literature revealed 1247 potentially eligible papers. After screening, eleven empirical studies were deemed suitable for data extraction for narrative synthesis focusing on students’ transitional experiences. The university destinations in the included studies were the USA (n = 8), Canada (n = 2) and a variety of English-speaking university destinations (n = 1). Seven of the included studies were cross-sectional, and four studies were longitudinal. Results showed that previous studies have explored students’ decision-making processes, university and international readiness, and language and identity development. Five studies suggested the need for longitudinal perspectives to better understand student participants’ transition. Four studies proposed to incorporate the perspectives and impact of relevant stakeholders in investigating students’ transitional experiences, including students’ families, teachers, peers, and university professors. This review calls for more targeted, rigorous, and longitudinal studies to better understand and enhance international students’ experiences studying abroad.

Teachers as CALL Customizers: exploring teachers’ perceptions of conceptualizing and customizing CALL materials

A common issue in the second/foreign language (L2) classroom is that teachers’ insights are not often included in the development of CALL materials. To understand how teachers can customize CALL materials that meet the needs of their students, our previous conceptual paper proposed a three-level approach to show how teachers can leverage basic computers skills to categorize pre-existing digital materials to stimulate L2 interaction, namely by using them as-is, modifying them, and/or using online tools to create them from scratch. This one-group mixed-methods study implements these ideas by: (1) examining the types of CALL materials teachers can customize to stimulate L2 interaction, and (2) assessing participants’ perceptions of how they used the approach. The study took place in a CALL teacher training course for eight weeks at an English-speaking university in Montréal and featured readings, lectures, lab sessions, and projects directed at customizing CALL materials. To understand the types of CALL materials participants could customize (goal #1), mixed-methods data were collected in the form of online ESL courses built by participants and a design-choice log where they recorded details about the tools they used, providing an overview of each activity. A reflective discussion was held using the Socratic-Wheel technique to understand how participants used the approach (goal #2). The results indicate that participants customized CALL materials at all three levels, targeting L2 interaction with (e.g. online flashcards) and through (e.g. synchronous messages) computers. Responses from the reflective discussion revealed that participants perceived becoming aware of their abilities in CALL, thus endorsing the pedagogical effectiveness of the approach.

Academics’ professional identity: Conflicting personal values of academics and institutional culture

Higher education is driven by the objective of establishing an educational setting in which academics and students collaboratively construct and convey scientific knowledge and values that can be utilised in the future. Academics' professional identity focuses on their professional interests, values, and commitments to important work duties. Consequently, academics' professional identity may encounter obstacles when faced with conflicting misalignment between their values and university culture. This paper utilises a qualitative case study with an interpretive paradigm to investigate how academic identity is constructed through the conflicts that arise from the discrepancy between individual values and institutional culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine academics purposively selected from an English-speaking university in Cameroon to gain insight into the phenomenon. The gathered data were coded and analysed thematically. The findings reveal the existence of conflict between academics' personal values and institutional culture in the study context. It was found that there is a lack of integrity and ethics within the academic environment, particularly regarding financial transactions and the exploitation of educational practices by some leaders, academic staff, and students. Additionally, issues such as insufficient remuneration, delayed payment, and fear of physical and professional reprisal within the university impact academics' professional identity and self-worth. To address these challenges, it is crucial to tackle delayed wages, foster a supportive environment, align academic values with university beliefs, and promote political neutrality in the study context.

Are enjoyment, anxiety and attitudes/motivation different in English foreign language classes compared to LOTE classes?

The current study focuses on the effect of the target language on learner emotions and attitudes/motivation. More specifically, it investigates whether the status and prestige of English results in more positive learner emotions and attitudes/motivation compared to less prestigious languages other than English (LOTE). Statistical analyses of a database of 360 students in an English-speaking university in Kuwait enrolled in English, German, Spanish and French as foreign language classes revealed that the LOTE learners (who also knew English) reported significantly more foreign language enjoyment (FLE), equal levels of foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) and – surprisingly – lower levels of attitudes/motivation than their peers studying English. Due to confounding variables, it is impossible to establish the cause of the difference with certainty, but this outcome does show that a stronger motivation to study English does not necessarily translate into more enjoyment in class. In other words, while FLE and attitudes/motivation typically correlate, they are independent concepts.

Politeness markers in emails of non-native English speaking university students

The use of computer-mediated communication including emails has become pervasive in academic contexts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. What seems to be significant but simply overlooked by students is meeting politeness netiquettes while sending emails. To this end, the current study investigated the extent to which non-native English speaking university students adjust the level of politeness in their response emails written in English to that of the emails received from an American professor. To collect data, four versions of an academic email message with different levels of politeness were prepared in advance. The emails either included or excluded verbal and structural politeness markers and asked for the participants’ demographic information and their reason for participation in the study. Then, 73 university students enrolled in a general English course were selected and divided randomly into four groups each of which received one version of the email message from the professor. The results of the data analysis on the participants’ response emails, based on accommodation theory (Giles 1973) as a theoretical framework, revealed that they did not accommodate either verbal or structural politeness cues in emails. Besides, the participants’ knowledge of the politeness etiquettes in the academic email genre seemed inadequate. Finally, the article provides some pedagogical implications for course designers, materials developers, and instructors to devise some plans to raise students’ awareness of email politeness etiquettes and for students to be aware of the significance of meeting politeness principles in their academic emails.

Transmediating race and senses through subtitling in translanguaging classroom

This article reflects on a transdisciplinary curricular project in a Japanese language course that employs audio–visual subtitling to promote students’ critical literacies in languages, cultures, and media. Drawing on Nornes’s (2015) notion of “sensuous subtitling,” which embraces the incorporation of the “materiality of language” into translation, we present how students’ experimental subtitlings potentially make a transformative intervention into how the characters are sensed and felt through film viewing. As Japanese-speaking women teaching Japanese language and culture at an English-speaking university in Canada, we use our bodies as racialized and racializing sites to explore the affective potentials of interlingual subtitles and their pedagogical implications. We reflect on students’ subtitling of Korean Japanese film Where Is the Moon (1993, dir. Yoichi Sai) that embodies race and senses through various cinematic techniques. Students’ subtitlings reshaped the “intercorporeal” space in which the cinematic bodies of the characters touch our bodies (Sekimoto and Brown, 2020).

Artificial intelligence in the L2 classroom: Implications and challenges on ethics and equity in higher education: A 21st century Pandora's box

The purpose of this research was to investigate attitudes of both students and teachers concerning Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the L2 classroom. The study was a descriptive, qualitative, mixedmethods case study whose data were taken from a purposive, convenient sample at a private, English-speaking university during the Summer Semester 2023 in Beirut, Lebanon. Data collection primarily involved an online survey on Google forms which was given to a sample of 49 students taking a research-based English 202 course of which 46 were completed. Afterwards, six English teachers and six students were chosen based on their voluntary will to participate in individual interviews for the former and semi-structured focus group interviews for the latter. The findings revealed that approximately 85% of students did indeed use AI unethically to get ideas for their assignments, assist them in their projects' “blue-prints” or do their assignments/projects altogether. The findings also revealed that a “love/hate” relationship seemed to dictate students' relationships with AI, where students did indeed make use of AI but were distrusting of it for privacy and equity concerns. Finally, findings also revealed that most of the interviewed instructors' readiness to undergo training for AI was more to monitor students' potential misuse of it. The article purposes a suggestive revamping of course learning objectives due to students' inclinations to misuse AI to do their coursework with 89.4% of students willing to use AI to complete their coursework should university punitive measures be removed; furthermore, the article equally proposes future research investigating the impact and use of AI in the higher educational classroom on student performance and that it be used with a “grain of salt” as it may unleash a Pandora's box of future generations graduating without the necessary know-how in delicate professions of medicine, nursing, engineering, architecture among others.

English Medium Instruction (EMI) in a Spanish University:

This article reports on the case of a non-native English-speaking university instructor who teaches her academic subject in the English Medium of Instruction (EMI) track of the Primary Teacher-Education Bachelor’s Degree programme offered by a publicly- funded Catalan university. By means of three semi-structured interviews with the instructor, this study seeks to explore whether and how content and language are integrated into her EMI teaching and assessment practices. Analysis of the instructor’s comments suggests that, on a practical level, the change in the language of instruction seems to change the dynamics of how she teaches and consequently how she assesses, leading to points of conflict among her rationale, institutional policy, and her students’ needs. This tension is most sharply felt when the instructor tries to cope with the lack of clear assessment criteria that could be applied fairly and consistently. The study concludes by noting the practical implications of these results for pre-service teacher education.

“I still remember when…”: narratives of child maltreatment by emerging adults

The present study examines autobiographical narratives of childhood memories in emerging adults, including child maltreatment experiences. To date, research is inconclusive in identifying the specific characteristics of narratives of child maltreatment. We tested whether narratives of child maltreatment contained fewer evaluative statements and more narrative immersion when compared to other emotional childhood narratives, in addition to narratives of a control group. We analyzed oral narratives of stressful, sad, angering, and happy events collected from a total of 171 college students at an English-speaking university located in Cairo (48% with a history of child maltreatment and 52% without). The hypothesis that narratives of emotional events by the maltreated group contained fewer evaluative statements was confirmed; more specifically, they contained fewer emotion words. However, groups did not differ in the degree of immersive storytelling. Our findings are essential for mental health professionals, researchers as well as legal workers to help further understand the consequences of child maltreatment. The generalizability of the findings is limited by the cultural and social specificity of the sample. Therefore, further research is needed to replicate this study in clinical samples in different cultures, conducting the research in the subjects’ first language. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/26904586.2022.2036285 .

ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION AMONG INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENTS: THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY TRAITS, THE BIG-FIVE PERSONALITY TRAIT TAXONOMY

INTRODUCTION:Procrastination is a serious problem in both business and academia, and is also one of the most widespread problems in the general population. Although, it might be considered as normal or positive behavior(Chun, Chu & Choi 2005), most studies refer to academic procrastination as a harmful phenomenon which adversely affects individual performance (Rothblum & Mann, 1988; Steel, 2007; Klassen et al., 2010; Brownlow, 2000) in addition to its negative impact on individual mental health (Stober, & Joormann, 2001; Tamiru, 2008). Academic procrastination and the permanent postponing of tasks without logical justification is a universal problem among university students. Steel (2007) reports that almost 50% of college students procrastinate consistently and problematically. Ozer, Demir and Ferrari (2009) have reported that academic procrastination is considered to be one of the most problematic issues among English speaking university students.The seriousness of this problem is enhanced by the fact that it is not limited to a particular age, gender or culture, but is common in males and females, young and old, employed and unemployed, educated and uneducated. Several researchers have shown the relationship between academic procrastination and personality traits (McCown & Johnson, 1991; Di Fabio, 2006). Klassen et al. (2008) indicate that there are a few studies which have investigated procrastination from a cross-culture standpoint, indicating the importance of using participants from outside Western countries. Then this study aimed to investigate The role of personality traits in academic procrastination among international graduate students.Results from several studies have shown a significant correlation between academic procrastination and several personality characteristics. Klassen, Krawchuk and Rajani (2008) conducted research to examine the relationship among academic procrastination, self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-regulation, and self-efficacy for self-regulation, reporting that although the result showed a significant positive relationship among academic procrastination and these four variables, the results indicate that self-efficacy for self-regulation was most predictive of procrastination tendency. In order to determine the relationship between procrastination and personality traits, as well as to organize attributes into groups of similar characteristics, the researcher sought to combine those characteristics under the factor name. To achieve that goal, previous researchers have benefited from the Big Five theory (Steel, 2007).Based on the theory of the Big Five factors taxonomy and what has been referred to before, each of these factors consists of a set of traits which constitute the overall structure of each factor: Conscientiousness reflects self-regulation, organisation, and achievement motivation, Neuroticism includes irrational beliefs, anxiety, and depression, Extraversion reflects positive characteristics such as being energetic and seeking sensation, Agreeableness reflects trust and altruism (warmth), and Openness includes curiosity and imagination. Consequently, and based on previous research findings, procrastination could relate significantly to some factor's components but not relate to others.Relationships between the Big Five factors and academic procrastination have been investigated by several researchers (Schouwenburg & Lay, 1995; Lay, Kovacs & Danto, 1998; Poropat, 2009). . Watson (2001) found that total procrastination was related to both the low conscientiousness facets (competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, deliberation) and the neuroticism facets (anxiety, depression, selfconsciousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability). The findings of many previous studies showed a large variation in the results that have been found by the researchers. Although the result of many previous researches showed an agreeableness among them regarding the relation between academic procrastination and the Big Five factor labelled conscientiousness (Lay, 1997; Ross, Canada & Rausch, 2002; Lee, Kelly, & Edwards, 2006), there were several differences regarding the other four factors (McCown, Petzel & Rupert, 1987; Johnson & Bloom, 1995; Watson, 2001). …

Giving learners a multicultural voice: An English speaking university context

AbstractDifficulties establishing support for English speakers taking second language electives in postsecondary education in Ireland led to research on how language classes could be more accessible, multicultural, plurilingual and relevant for students in a university language centre. It is important to try and discover why students choose a foreign language module in an English speaking context, how prior experiences of language learning are processed by these students and how student suggestions for future semester offerings may be relevant to changing paradigms in language learning. 2,600 student evaluations over 3 semesters were analysed in relation to student motivation in taking a foreign language elective. 25 students were interviewed on their motivation in language learning, prior experience of language learning and suggestions for future language modules. Motivation in language learning is a complex process (

Students’ and Instructors’ Perceptions of Turnitin: A Plagiarism Deterrent?

Academicians consider plagiarism a major threat to academia. To combat that threat, a lot of universities, including the researcher’s university, have been using Turnitin. It is believed that this software is likely to deter students’ plagiarism. The aim of this study is, therefore, to investigate 1) the impact of Turnitin on students’ plagiarism from the perspectives of both students and instructors in a private Lebanese English-speaking university and 2) the reasons that push students to plagiarize. A concurrent mixed-methods design is employed, and different data collection methods are used. The data are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings reveal that although a lot of the participants perceive Turnitin as a good deterrent to plagiarism, it did not completely inhibit it. The findings also reveal that not all instructors were committed enough to use Turnitin in their courses. Some of the reasons for plagiarism that the participants named are lack of citation skills, laziness, and indifference among students to abide by ethical writing norms. Besides reinforcing the use of Turnitin among all instructors, the researcher recommends that students’ writing and citation skills be improved and that students be helped to become more ethical writers.

A Xhosa language translation of the CORE-OM using South African university student samples.

The translation of well established psychometric tools from English into Xhosa may assist in improving access to psychological services for Xhosa speakers. The aim of this study was to translate the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), a measure of general distress and dysfunction developed in the UK, into Xhosa for use at South African university student counselling centres. The CORE-OM and embedded CORE-10 were translated into Xhosa using a five-stage translation design. This design included (a) forward-translation, (b) back-translation, (c) committee approach, (d) qualitative piloting, and (e) quantitative piloting on South African university students. Clinical and general samples were drawn from English-medium South African universities. Clinical samples were generated from university student counselling centres. General student samples were generated through random stratified cluster sampling of full-time university students. Qualitative feedback from the translation process and results from quantitative piloting of the 34-item CORE-OM English and Xhosa versions supported the reduction of the scale to 10 items. This reduced scale is referred to as the South African CORE-10 (SA CORE-10). A measurement and structural model of the SA CORE-10 English version was developed and cross-validated using an English-speaking university student sample. Equivalence of this model with the SA CORE-10 Xhosa version was investigated using a first-language Xhosa-speaking university sample. Partial measurement equivalence was achieved at the metric level. The resultant SA CORE-10 Xhosa and English versions provide core measures of distress and dysfunction. Additional, culture- and language-specific domains could be added to increase sensitivity and specificity.

A subject specialist-centric model for library resources management in academic libraries

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze factors affecting decision-making on libraries’ electronic resources management under the situation of tight budgets in Canadian research universities. Design/methodology/approach Interview was adopted to investigate library resources management leaders’ opinions from English-speaking university members of the Group of Canadian Research University Libraries. Findings A comprehensive model is developed for library resources’ management. Subject specialists are the key of the model integrating marketing roles and evaluation roles. Research limitations/implications The main limitations of this study are the small sample size of interview candidates, which may have application limitations on other types of libraries and universities in different areas. Practical implications This study generates a comprehensive model based on past research, contributing to future library decision-making practices. Originality/value It develops a subject specialist-centric model of library resources’ value assessment and brings the element of culture into future studies of academic library.

Bi-cultural, bi-national benchmarking and assessment of clinical reasoning in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: The Script Concordance Test (SCT) is being increasingly used in professional development in clinical reasoning (CR) in postgraduate medicine. On-line delivery favours multi-institutional collaboration. Objectives: To establish if: 1) SCT questions developed in the French-speaking University of Montreal were readily adaptable for use in the English-speaking University of Adelaide 2) expert reference panels (ERP) from both institutions could be used interchangeably 3) student cohorts would perform similarly in the same test. Study Design: 82 SCT questions based on 27 clinical cases in Obstetrics and Gynaecology were developed in Montreal and run in a volunteer cohort of year 3 and year 4 medical students (n=154). Local faculty translated all questions, selecting 31 based on 17 clinical cases for use in summative examinations a year 5 student cohort in Adelaide (n=123). Results: Mean (SD) percentage scores using each ERP key were: 74.2 (6.4) versus 73.3 (6.9), p<0.001 for Adelaide students and 72.5 (7.8) versus 70.6 (8.8), p<0.001 for Montreal students. The correlation coefficients were ≥ 0.928 (p<0.001). Conclusions: Student cohorts performed similarly regardless of which ERP key was used. With appropriate editorial control, SCT's can be effectively shared between French and English-speaking institutions located in different hemispheres. Potential advantages include the creation of an international database of assessment items, benchmarking and cost sharing.

Cultural Impact With Reflective Journaling

Abstract As student nurses begin to engage in a caring profession, being able to reflect and grow from their experiences is critical. Journaling is one way to be able to identify areas that can impact their practice. Reflective journaling helps student nurses to solve problems encountered while interacting with persons from an unfamiliar culture in unfamiliar settings. Immersions within a new culture offer the opportunity to develop self-confidence in their practice and strengthen critical thinking. Eight U.S. students traveled to West Africa to work with students in an English-speaking university and to engage in bidirectional learning with fellow nursing students. During this 2-week immersion program, the reflective journal was a strategy utilized to facilitate the identification of their feelings related to being a minority within another country. This study adds to the body of knowledge of the value of reflection in their growth and practice as nurses.

Which One to Take On?: International Students’ Identity Acquisition in the Hyperdiversity of Montreal

This study explored the role of linguistic variables (fluency in both official languages, passing in both official languages and University affiliation) and identity variables (centrality and satisfaction towards the new cultural group) in the acquisition of a new cultural identity among international students in Canada. Two hundred and fifty four international students were recruited from universities in the Montréal region. Self-reported questionnaires were used to assess which new identity international students are in the process of taking on, their linguistic abilities, their university affiliation and in-group identification. The results demonstrate that international students who were fluent in French, could pass for a bilingual or a Francophone, and who attended a primarily French-speaking University mostly took on the Québécois identity as their new cultural identity. International students who were fluent in English, could pass for an Anglophone or neither pass for an Anglophone nor a Francophone, and attended a primarily English-speaking University took on either the Montréalais or the Canadian identity. International students who took on the Montréalais identity reported higher satisfaction towards their new cultural group compared to those who took on the Québécois or Canadian identities. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and policy. Cette étude explore le rôle que des variables linguistiques (fluidité dans les deux langues officielles, pouvoir passer comme un Francophone et/ou un Anglophone et l’affiliation universitaire) et que des variables identitaires (la centralité et la satisfaction envers le nouveau groupe culturel) peuvent jouer dans l’acquisition d’une nouvelle identité culturelle pour les étudiants internationaux au Canada. Deux cent cinquante-quatre étudiants internationaux furent recrutés dans des universités montréalaises. Ils remplirent des questionnaires auto-rapportés utilisés pour évaluer quelle identité les nouveaux étudiants internationaux souhaiteraient acquérir, leurs compétences linguistiques, leurs affiliations universitaires et leurs identifications envers leur nouveau groupe culturel. Les résultats démontrent que les étudiants internationaux qui étaient fluides en français, qui pouvaient passer comme un bilingue ou un francophone, et qui étaient affiliés à une université où le langage principal d’instruction est le français souhaitaient surtout acquérir l’identité québécoise. Les étudiants étrangers qui étaient fluides en anglais, qui pouvaient passer pour un anglophone ou ne pouvaient passer ni pour un anglophone ou francophone, et qui avaient une affiliation à une université où la langue principale d’instruction est l’anglais souhaitaient surtout prendre l’identité montréalaise ou canadienne. Les étudiants internationaux qui souhaitaient acquérir l’identité montréalaise semblaient avoir une plus grande satisfaction envers leur nouveau groupe culturel comparé à ceux qui souhaitaient acquérir une identité québécoise ou canadienne. Nous discutons des implications de ces résultats pour la recherche et les politiques futures.

Conventions in postgraduate academic writing: European students' negotiations of prior writing experience at an English speaking university

Postgraduate writing in the social sciences increasingly challenges the conventions of a model derived from the natural sciences. In addition, postgraduate second-language students usually bring with them prior experiences in academic writing which influences their writing development. Taking an Academic Literacies perspective, this ethnographically-informed case study combines and extends these lines of research in the specific context of student mobility in the European Higher Education Area. It investigates how Continental European master's students negotiate their prior experiences of academic writing when completing their theses at a UK university. The detailed analysis of three cases reveals that the students' initial understandings of academic English conventions as autonomous rules became increasingly depended on their disciplinary knowledge and the epistemological approaches of their theses. The results further highlight that the way students draw on prior experiences of academic English relates to their aims. In the light of their experiences, students might both challenge and actively preserve formal conventions of academic English. The findings suggest the need for EAP instructors and subject supervisors to adopt a balanced approach to scaffolding postgraduate academic writing and the importance of supportive institutional structures.

“Insha´Allah I´ll do my homework”: adapting to Arab undergraduates at an English-speaking university in Dubai

The United Arab Emirates and Dubai in particular have in recent years attracted an increased number of Western teachers for all educational levels, especially universities. As part of the orientation for a Western teacher before entering a classroom, the main differences between Western and Middle East culture are often highlighted without an effort to explain how these differences are manifested in students’ behavior in courses, or to suggest how the teacher could address them. This paper aims at helping current and future faculty in their professional practice by considering Emirati Arab cultural characteristics as well as strategies adopted by the author to cope with them. Such strategies have been successful, as her students´ evaluations and academic performance distinctions during the last two years have continuously shown.

Measuring and Predicting Student Well-Being: Further Evidence in Support of the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences

An increased focus on well-being in university settings has spurred the development of brief scales of both functioning well and feeling good. The objectives of the current study were to generate descriptive findings concerning psychometric properties (e.g., factor structure; reliability) of the recently devised Flourishing Scale (FS) and Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences (SPANE; Diener et al., Soc Indic Res 97:143–156, 2010) with an English-speaking university student sample, and to test associations between the scales and potential predictors of eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of well-being. The FS and SPANE scales were completed by 478 undergraduate students, along with scales measuring 10 human values and both time and material affluence. Descriptive statistics (e.g., means, standard deviations, reliability coefficients) for the FS and SPANE scales were highly similar to those reported by Diener et al. (Soc Indic Res 97:143–156, 2010) and confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized three-factor model (i.e., flourishing, positive feelings, and negative feelings). Self-transcendence and conservation value types were significant predictors of FS scores, whereas only the conservation value type predicted affect balance scores from the SPANE. Time and material affluence were significant predictors of both FS and affect balance scores. Results are discussed in relation to the distinction between eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of well-being.