There is an increasing number of Chinese graduate students who study in Canada and have quite different educational backgrounds. Despite a large number of studies attending to the challenges and difficulties they encountered in life and study, not much research narratively explores Chinese international students' academic adjustment experiences in…

A Meta-Cultural way of thinking about communication, understanding, and competence means not just understanding and appreciating a few other cultures, but rather being able to function competently in any cultural setting in which you find yourself. In the Meta-Cultural mindset, therefore, all cultures have value, we are sensitive to cultural…

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of former intensive English program (IEP) Chinese students by concurrently examining national origin, language problems, forms of capital, culture shock, and institutional programming using qualitative case study methods. The findings give us insights into the students' sociocultural and…

This paper presents qualitative research examining to what extent sojourns abroad engage their participants in intercultural interactions and whether or not such experience translates into students' intercultural growth. The results of the study demonstrated that studying abroad did not provide students with ample opportunities to immerse into the…

More and more Japanese students are studying abroad and the Japanese government has set a target of 180,000 students to study abroad each year by 2020 and is providing financial assistance to students to help achieve this goal. However, is financial assistance enough? Surveys conducted with students from a national education-focused university in…

Despite the ongoing globalisation of higher education, few studies have attempted to understand international students' adjustment experiences in non-Western institutions of higher learning. This study employed in depth, semi-structured interviews to explore the adjustment experiences of 10 international postgraduate students in Malaysia. Three…

In an increasing globally diverse society, international students enroll in American colleges and universities in unprecedented numbers. International students encounter lots of challenges as they adjust to student life in U.S. colleges and universities. While previous research has addressed these challenges with some student groups, limited…

The adjustment process and issues of 16 Arab international students enrolled at two universities in the Northeast of the United States were examined through this qualitative, exploratory study. The participants were from Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and United Arab Emirates and had been in the US for 2 to 5 years. In-depth…

The use of native English story in EFL, which has so far been a source for heated debate among the scholars due to the possible intercultural conflict experienced by the learners and can possibly lead to the learners' confusion during the class, is basically driven by the long gone communicative competence theory, the paradigm which views that…

Realizing that ESOL students often do not integrate naturally into their new communities, we developed a reading class that focuses only on topics such as history, culture, arts, nature and entertainment that pertain to Portland or Oregon. In addition to readings, we asked that students go out and "live" what they learned through a…

International students in the United States face acculturative stress, yet few seek counseling. In this paper, we highlight a participatory approach to develop culturally and contextually competent programs to enhance international student adjustment and engagement. We combined findings from the Acculturative Stress Scale of International Students…

This introductory article examines how the papers in this special issue of "Language and Intercultural Communication" illustrate some of the many controversies relating to the immersion of the ever-increasing number of Hispanics into American culture, covering topics such as Spanish/English codeswitching, Spanglish, the varieties of…

"Cultural competence" is more than a buzzword; it is a best practice for transition educators who work with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in special education. Developing cultural competence is easier said than done, and many educators don't know where to start. Knowing the history and definitions of cultural…

Western teachers working in China often experience cultural conflicts arising from, for instance, the ways that Chinese students perceive face and express criticism. To better understand these face-concerned conflicts, this paper explores the role and significance of email for a group of Chinese students to communicate pedagogical criticism with…

The possibility of individual (istic) identity formation is explored within a context of a synergistic and communal support system. Within this context, the intrinsic complexities of the African child who enters the academia with a multiplicity of epistemic identity contestations are simultaneously explored. The ensuing alienation resulting from…