The United States welcomes a great many international students each year. Asian students make up the fastest growing segment of this international student body. Asian students have to deal with bicultural conflicts on many fronts in order to achieve a balance between participating in a new cultural environment and maintaining their own cultural…

This paper presents the outcomes of a study carried out in 2001-2002 with nine postgraduate students from China, enrolled on taught master's programmes in a UK university business school. The aims of the research were to explore the development of the students' orientations to learning during their year of study in the UK, and to explore how the…

Central Queensland University (CQU) is a highly complex institution, combining campuses in Central Queensland and distance education programs for Australian domestic students with Australian metropolitan sites for international students and a number of overseas centres, also for international students. In common with many other universities, CQU…

Despite the important contribution of the adjustment of international students to successful academic performance in the host country, little research has been done in the United Kingdom. The aim of this study was to collect factual information about adjustment problems of Iranian international students in Scotland, such as psycho-social and…

Globalisation has placed a growing importance on English language speaking and listening. Prior research indicates that many international students from Asia, studying in Australia, face serious learning difficulties and lack confidence in speaking and taking a proactive role in classrooms. The paper reports on data gathered in interviews with…

The purpose of this study is to explore silence as a means of communication through the perceptions of non-native-English-speaking graduate students studying at US academic institutions. Beyond issues related to culture and language, there may be other reasons to explain the silence of students.

The use of English as an international language of science (EILS) is by now well documented; depending on one's orientation, English may be seen as a neutral "lingua franca" or it may be seen more insidiously as a dominating and overpowering force. This paper explores these co-existing roles of EILS through various perspectives. It begins by…

Over the last decade the Australian higher education sector has become increasingly reliant upon the income generated by overseas fee-paying students. Yet the experiences of these students are sometimes traumatic, and institutions have been slow to develop appropriate structures to support them. The authors report on recent efforts to overcome…

In the late 1990s, sustained economic growth in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and the development of the information economy led to a considerable increase in migration of highly skilled individuals, especially in science and technology. Some OECD countries relaxed their immigration policies to attract…

Research conducted in the context of the IELTS Research Program indicates that there are recurrent features in the writing under test conditions of candidates from Chinese language backgrounds, particularly in terms of interpersonal tenor. These include a high level of interpersonal reference, combined with a heavily dialogic and hortatory style.…

Educators in Europe are complaining about mishandled changes in a key English-language test and are demanding that the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which runs the examination, delay plans to introduce its new online format in March 2006 in more than 100 countries. Critics of the planned change in the Test of English as a foreign Language…

This article puts forward a project approach and a set of solutions to better prepare foreign students wishing to enter engineering schools in France. It focuses on how we train students to understand scientific presentations through intensive listening comprehension. Within this framework, it proposes a new educational ICT model that is original…

The importance of reading for academic study cannot be overemphasized. At the postgraduate level, students are faced with complex text interpretation processes. Yet, while concerns have been expressed regarding the English as a second language literacy (Fitzgerald, 1995), few international students have been asked for their views on their…

Studying in a second language is probably one of the greatest challenges for international students. In this study, the relationship between language preparation and the first year graduate study among East Asian international graduate students in the United States was investigated in order to provide implications and suggestions for university…

To be effective in higher education, text messaging must be effectively integrated into both the student and staff experience. These user groups provided input into the design of StudyLink, an email to text message service. A small-scale trial was conducted over a period of two academic terms to investigate the feasibility of using this system in…