Chinese international students constitute the largest proportion of overseas students in several English-speaking countries such as the UK and New Zealand. Little research has been done concerning those undertaking doctoral study. This qualitative study explores how Chinese overseas doctoral students become involved in church communities and how…

Second language (L2) gains during study abroad have been related to several variables including length of stay (Llanes, 2011), language use (Martinsen, Baker, Dewey, Bown, & Johnson, 2010), and social network development (Isabelli-García, 2006), among others. However, most studies have investigated only a few predictors in single study abroad…

The critical thinking ability is an indispensable ability of contemporary college students, and the PBL teaching model abandons the shortcomings of traditional teaching methods, which is more suitable for the development trend of university curriculum teaching reform in China. In order to understand the influence of PBL teaching mode on college…

Study abroad is one aspect of global movement that connects individuals of diverse backgrounds. Individuals studying abroad are proffered to negotiate self-identity when they confront novelty and new contexts. This study chose to use the qualitative method of phenomenological interviews to examine how individuals experience themselves and others…

The role of pre-vocational education in general compulsory education has become increasingly relevant over recent years, with the international debate focussing particularly on its importance in school-to-work transitions. This study considers curriculum design and the implementation of pre-vocational education in four countries with radically…

This paper presents the findings from a multiple-case study which has investigated the impact of mobile Web 2.0 technologies on self-directed learning (SDL) of workplace learners by exploring participants' learning experiences with a mobile App. Drawing on existing literatures, we examined learners' SDL personal attributes and process in the…

Despite a recent focus on the mental health of students, primary and middle school mental health education in China has been hampered by a lack of resources and inadequate professional training. This study assessed the mental health education competency of primary and middle school head teachers using the Mental Health Education Competency…

Departing from the view that learner beliefs are mental traits and in keeping with the discursive turn in SLA (Kalaja, 1995, 2003; Young, 2009), I argue that SLA learner beliefs research can be advanced through the use of two constructs--language ideology and positioning--that originate from linguistic anthropology and discursive psychology,…

This study used interviews and questionnaires to survey 770 no-fee preservice students. Its findings were as follows: (1) Their employability encompasses five dimensions: teaching skills, ability to learn specialized knowledge, ability to grasp elementary and secondary teaching materials and methods, communication skills, and ability to apply for…

Objectives: To examine the factors associated with smoking cessation among adult Chinese males in rural China. Methods: The data were collected by face-to-face interviews at the respondents' household using interviewer-administered questionnaires. Results: The factors associated with quitting were being residents of Guiyang, having received junior…

This paper reports on two exploratory studies of situations that elicit shyness in Mainland Chinese children. In Study 1 (N = 100; M[subscript age] = 10.42) interviews with Chinese children identified three kinds of shyness-eliciting situations: social novelty; negative social evaluation; and public attention. In Study 2 (N = 162, M[subscript age]…