University students' experiences with non-first language as the medium of instruction : a mixed method study

Lucie M. Ramjan, M.-S. Chao, Paul J. Glew, Bronwyn Everett, H.-T. Chen, Y.-C. Lan, Shi J. Lin, Yenna Salamonson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Students from Asian countries form the largest group of mobile international students in Western anglophone countries. Despite research on the mobility experiences of international students to anglophone and non-anglophone countries, there are limited cross-comparative, mixed-method studies exploring the experiences of host language acquisition and usage and how these impact on academic performance and shapes social connectedness. This study contributes further understanding by exploring language acquisition experiences of international university students in Taiwan and Australia, where the language of instruction is not their native language. In the two universities studied, usage levels (general usage, speaking, reading, listening and writing) differed and depended on situational and contextual needs. Those studying in Australia consistently reported higher mean scores of host language usage across three of the five components: listening, reading and writing. Written communication was perceived to be a challenge for both groups during interviews. Overall, students preferred face-to-face classroom learning and highly valued peer support. Information communication and technology use was common in supporting vocabulary and pronunciation. We discuss how the findings of our study inform the types of academic learning support needed, and how these differed, depending on the host language, and student background.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)406-420
Number of pages15
JournalHigher Education Research and Development
Volume43
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Keywords

  • Chinese language usage
  • student experience
  • language acquisition
  • English language usage

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