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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Chinese students are the biggest ethnic group of international students in the United States. Previous studies have identified many unique problems of Chinese students during their acculturation process and a higher level of acculturative stress than international students from other countries. A systematic review of instruments that assess acculturative stress revealed that none of the existing scales apply to Chinese students in the United States, either because of language issues or validity problems. Thus, this study aims to develop a reliable and valid scale to accurately measure the acculturative stress of Chinese students in the United States. A 72-item pool was generated by interviewing eight Chinese students and borrowing items from existing literature and scales. The item pool was sent online to 607 Chinese students and 267 of them completed the survey. Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted to empirically derive the factor structure of the Acculturative Stress Scale for Chinese Students (ASSCS). The results produced a 32-item scale in five dimensions, which were Language Insufficiency, Social Isolation, Perceived Discrimination, Academic Pressure, and Guilt toward Family. The ASSCS demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.939) and initial validity by predicting depression (Beta = 0.490, p<.001) and life satisfaction (Beta = -0.505, p<.001). It was the first Chinese scale of acculturative stress developed and validated among a Chinese student sample in the United States. Further studies need to be conducted to provide empirical support and confirm the validity for the scale. In the future, the scale can be used as diagnosing tool and self-assessment tool.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Technology Degree: Public Relations Management, Department of Marketing, Retail and Public Relations, Faculty of Management Sciences, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / This study presents the research of an investigation into the intercultural communication barriers between Zulu and Chinese students at selected Higher Education Institutions in Durban. To achieve this aim, two sets of questionnaires were administered separately to Zulu and Chinese students at two HEIs in Durban and an observation report was compiled. This study reviewed theories and literature relevant to defining and understanding the barriers to intercultural communication. The insights gained from this literature review were used to interpret the results which were obtained through a quantitative and qualitative research methodology. The findings revealed that intercultural communication barriers do exist between Zulu and Chinese students. Findings also found that language problems amongst Zulu and Chinese students are viewed as common barriers, especially where the communicators speak different languages. Comments from respondents revealed that a communicators‟ accent, different grammar structure and the words they use are confusing during their intercultural communication experience. Cultural differences and language problems were found to be the main intercultural communication barriers. In addition, the problems of nonverbal communication, racism, ethnocentrism, cultural stereotyping were also viewed as obstacles of the intercultural communication process. / Durban University of Technology. Dept. of Postgraduate Development and Support.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese business students understood the nature and the purpose of the instruction techniques they were exposed to in Britain, and the attitudes the students, Chinese lecturers in China and British lecturers in Britain held towards seminar discussions. The study also investigated how and to what extent students’ prior learning experiences predisposed them to certain attitudes towards seminar discussions. The student participants in this study undertook Part I of their degree programme at a Chinese university for two years before transferring to Britain to study for one year, graduating with a British Bachelors Degree in International Business. Data was gathered from classroom observations, follow-up and exploratory interviews, and a questionnaire survey to discover more about the students’ learning experiences in Part I in China, and from classroom observations, audio-recordings, and follow-up and exploratory interviews to investigate the same group of students’ learning experiences in Part II in Britain. A ranking task and interviews were used to identify the preferences of Chinese students, British lecturers, and Chinese lecturers from China in terms of specific group discussion methods. The study identified three discussion methods used by students in British seminars: these have been termed ‘spiral’, ‘exploratory’ and ‘individual’ methods. The Chinese students tended to use the ‘spiral’ method, repeatedly bringing the discussion back to the question provided by the seminar tutor, whereas the non-Chinese students tended to use the ‘exploratory’ method, reformulating each other’s opinions and building on them by bringing in new information. When discussing within Chinese-only groups, the Chinese students used the ‘individual’ method whereby a group leader took responsibility for the outcomes of the discussion and the other members did not build upon each other’s contributions. Chinese and non-Chinese students sometimes misunderstood each others’ intentions, but were not likely to notice that miscommunication had occurred. The ranking task and the follow-up interviews revealed that the British lecturers preferred the ‘exploratory’ discussion method, whereas Chinese lecturers from China and Chinese students preferred the ‘spiral’ method. The British lecturers were found to adopt a constructivist approach to group discussion tasks, seeing them as a means by which students could obtain professional experience. They treated Business and Management knowledge as divergent and ‘soft’. Chinese lecturers and students, on the other hand, were found to perceive group discussion as a kind of assessment and were keen to find ‘correct’ answers to case study problems, treating Business and Management as convergent and hard disciplines which offered judgements on good practice. The Chinese lecturers in Part I of the programme organised group discussion so that students could exchange answers and check their accuracy, and, perhaps because of this, in Part I the students learnt in an exam-oriented way, strategically dividing up their tasks and working individually on their own task portions in order to find an acceptable answer as quickly as possible. These students were found to continue to employ these strategies during group work after they had transferred to the British component of their degree programme. The study has made a theoretical contribution to knowledge concerning the cultural influences on students’ classroom interactional practices. The findings from the study have implications for the teaching of intercultural business communication, and the enhancement of students’ learning experiences in international business programmes, in business English programmes in China, and whilst learning within groups.

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le domaine de la didactique du français langue seconde. Elle concerne les causes de la réussite ou de l'échec de l'apprentissage du français par des étudiants chinois en France. Plus précisément, elle prend appui sur la perception de la réussite ou de l'échec d'apprentissage parmi ce public dont l'effectif ne cesse de croître et au sein duquel de nombreux individus éprouvent de grandes difficultés à apprendre la langue du pays d'accueil. Afin d'interroger les causes des sentiments de réussite ou d'échec dans l'apprentissage, trois hypothèses sont posées : le sentiment de réussite ou d'échec est conditionné par l'adaptation à la nouvelle culture d'apprentissage/enseignement ; certains traits de personnalité favorisent l'apprentissage de la langue ; la motivation des apprenants a des conséquences sur leur investissement et sur leur utilisation de stratégies dans l'apprentissage du français. Cette étude tend à montrer que le sentiment de réussite ou d'échec d'apprentissage résulte d'un cumul d'expériences émotionnellement positives ou négatives. Elle fait apparaître certains des facteurs qui facilitent ou empêchent l'apprentissage du français par des étudiants chinois en France. Par exemple, l'adaptation à la culture d'enseignement française favoriserait l'apprentissage et induirait chez l'apprenant un sentiment de réussite. Parmi les facteurs qui seraient susceptibles d'engendrer un sentiment d'échec, l'introversion empêcherait l'acquisition de compétences dans le domaine de l'expression orale et l'absence de contacts réguliers avec le français dans la vie quotidienne affaiblirait la motivation d'apprentissage. / This PhD. dissertation aims to contribute to research in teaching French as a second language. It analyzes the reasons why Chinese students in France succeed or not in learning French. More precisely, it is based on the perception of success or failure in learning French among a population whose numbers are growing and in which many individuals find it very difficult to learn the language of the host country. In order to examine the reasons for the feeling of success or failure in learning, three hypotheses are postulated: the feeling of success or failure is determined by the adaptation to the new culture of learning/teaching; certain personality traits promote language learning; learners' motivation has some consequences on their use of strategies in learning French. This research aims to show that the feeling of success or failure in learning results from the synthesis of experiences with positive or negative emotion. It also shows some of the factors that facilitate or hinder French learning by Chinese students in France. For example, adapting to the French culture of teaching would encourage learning and bring about learners' feeling of success. Among the factors that are likely to generate the feeling of failure, it appears that introversion prevents the acquisition of speaking skills and lack of regular contact with the French language in everyday life weakens motivation to learn.

En examinant les difficultés représentatives rencontrées par les étudiants chinois au cours de leur apprentissage du français langue étrangère (FLE), la présente thèse a pour objectif d’inventorier et analyser leurs erreurs récurrentes à l'écrit, à différents niveaux, en vue de proposer des procédés ou des suggestions qui pourraient éventuellement améliorer l’enseignement du FLE en Chine. La thèse est divisée en sept chapitres reposant sur l’analyse des erreurs à partir d'un point de grammaire précis - la voix passive, et puis, au niveau micro, sur différents aspects : perceptuo - mémoriels, métalinguistique et sémantico - pragmatiques, avec un bilan général à la fin. À l’issue de cette analyse, nous avons pu constater que les difficultés que les étudiants chinois rencontrent au cours de leur apprentissage sont dues principalement à l’écart entre le français et le chinois, leur langue maternelle, dont l'influence est partout sous-jacent. La présente recherche s’oriente vers la linguistique structurale et une analyse contrastive. En examinant cas par cas les différentes imperfections repérées dans notre corpus spécialement constitué à cette fin, nous essayons de découvrir les causes qui les sous-tendent. La deuxième étape est réservée à une étude de stratégie didactique. En nous appuyant sur le résultat de l'analyse précédente, nous procédons à une description statistique de notre matériel pour connaître la répartition des différentes catégories d’erreurs. En partant de cette image statistique, nous pouvons esquisser enfin des recommandations didactiques plus adéquates. / By examining the typical difficulties faced by Chinese students in their learning of French as foreign language (FLE in French), this thesis aims to list, categorize, and analyze their recurring errors at different levels in writing, in order to propose some proper suggestions that could possibly help improve the teaching of French as foreign language in China. The thesis is divided into seven chapters based on error analysis from a specific grammar point - the passive voice, and then, the thesis, at the micro level, on different aspects: perceptuo - memorial, meta-linguistics and semantic - pragmatic, analyzes the various types of written errors Chinese students make in their French learning, with a general assessment at the end. With previous analysis, the thesis concludes that the main causes of the difficulties Chinese students encounter in the French learning lie in the differences between French language and their mother tongue while the influence of the mother tongue is ubiquitous. It is with the reference of structural linguistics and contrastive linguistics in our analyzing process of the error cases, one by one from the materials specially gathered for this purpose, that the research has found the main causes that underlie the errors. And it is by using a statistical analysis of the corpus collected, that the research has also found the distribution of different categories of the errors, so that it provides a objective basis for the further improvement of French teaching in China.

Chinese students learning English as a foreign language seem to get good marks in tests, but are poor or limited in their ability to write in English. This dilemma of China's EFL writing instruction seems to be related to the decontextualized EFL writing practices. This study aims to examine how Chinese EFL college students respond to changes in their writing instruction that pays attention to the context of EFL teaching and learning. In this study, context refers to three levels: linguistic context, situational context and cultural context. Using the mixed methods approach, I conducted the study by engaging 60 second-year undergraduate students from a university in China and five Chinese students studying in a joint program in a university in the United States. The Write-to-learn Model based on my context-oriented framework was used in the study. The findings of the study show that following a 5-month training with the Write-to-learn Model, the experimental group improved significantly more than the control group with respect to English writing, indicating that adding context to EFL teaching and learning created positive writing outcomes for EFL students. In addition, the results of this study also demonstrate that the Chinglish phenomenon was related to decontextualized EFL writing practices and thought patterns resulting from culture. Adequate comprehensible input of authentic materials was found to be a good remedy to minimize EFL students' Chinglish expressions. This study found that the Write-to-learn Model was an effective approach in China's EFL writing classes.

Offshore programs have become increasingly popular in countries that are experiencing rapid economic growth and rising demand for higher education. There is no doubt that China is one of the largest markets for offshore programs. However, the offshore program market in China has become increasingly competitive. Currently, institutions from the USA, the UK, and Australia, to name just a few, are offering offshore programs ranging from the professional diploma level to higher degrees such as MA, MBA and PhD. Therefore, understanding how Chinese students select an offshore program is important for competing and surviving in this market place. This study examines the effects of image (i.e., country image and higher education image), attitude, subject norm and perceived behavior control (adopted from Ajzen's theory of planned behavior) in Chinese students' enrollment intentions towards offshore programs from Australia, the UK and the USA respectively. A total number of 1291 valid questionnaires were collected from China for this study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was used for data analyses and modeling. This PhD's several major findings have significant theoretical and practical implication. One of the major findings was that country image or its related higher education image doesn't have significant effect on an offshore program evaluation in China. This finding has contradicted most previous studies which suggested that country image had significant impact on whether a consumer purchases the products or brands from a foreign country. The difference between this study and the other country-image studies may be due to the fact that this study studied multiple factors besides country image, while the other studies looked at only the effect of country image on purchasing intention. Although country image or higher education image did not play any significant role in offshore program enrollments, this study found that the image of the partnering or local institution had a significant effect on enrollment intention. Because Chinese students are unfamiliar with a foreign country or their higher education system, they relied heavily on the local institution (e.g., its reputation and quality) to evaluate an offshore program. The findings with respective to image have challenged most previous studies on country image and open a new arena for looking at the effect of country image in behavioral intention. Practically speaking, these findings make universities rethink their offshore program strategies in foreign countries, particularly developing countries. Most university marketers from western countries emphasize on the characteristics of its own (such as the history of the university, the quality of research) when promoting its offshore program overseas. However, this study suggested that the focus should be placed on selecting a good and suitable local partner, as well as emphasizing the characteristics of the local partner. Other major findings were related to the Theory of Planned behavior. This study found that all three components of the TPB, namely, attitude towards the program, subject norm and perceived behavior control had significant effects on enrollment intention. This suggested that for predicting behavioral intention in educational program enrollment, the TPB is a very powerful model.

本研究旨在調查並分析高中僑生在自我概念及生活適應與學業成就之相關，研究結果提供教育當局，作為高中僑生教育政策及加強僑生教材教法、課程設計及生活輔導之參考。 　　本研究依據研究目的，以文獻分析法探討自我概念及生活適應與學業成就之理論及相關研究，以問卷調查法測量高中僑生的自我概念及高中僑生生活適應困擾，並分別就自我概念及適應問題，比較不同背景變項僑生之差異，加上學期學業成績之蒐集，用以分析不同自我概念及適應狀況僑生學業成就之差異情形。 　　本研究以國立華僑實驗高級中學高中部僑生344位為對象，使用「田納西自我概念量表」（2000年版）及「高中學生生活經驗量表」為研究工具，問卷回收後篩選有效樣本316份，將所得之資料分別以下列方法處理：描述性統計、單因子單變量變異數分析、二因子單變量變異數分析、獨立樣本T檢定，F檢定，Scheffe法事後比較，Pearson積差相關法等統計方法，探討各變項間的關係。 　　綜合上述，本研究假設結論如下： 　　一、不同背景變項之高中僑生，自我概念有顯著差異： 　　　1.在「道德自我」及「家庭自我」項目有顯著差異。女生均高於男生。 　　　2.不同年級的高中僑生，在「道德自我」「學業自我」「自我認同」「自我滿意」「自我總分」等項目，高二僑生得分優於高一僑生，另外高二僑生及高三僑生在「心理自我」得分上，皆優於高一僑生。 　　　3.不同區域的高中僑生，在「生理自我」、「家庭自我」「自我認同」「自我總分」項目上，第一區域即印尼、緬甸、泰國、菲律賓等地的高中僑生，其得分優於第二區域即香港、澳門、新加坡等地的高中僑生。 　　　4.「自我行動」項目，第一區域的高中僑生及第三區域高中僑生，得分皆優於第二區域的高中僑生。 　　二、不同背景變項之高中僑生，生活適應問題有顯著差異： 　　　1.在「用錢」項目上，男生困擾大於女生。高二、高三僑生困擾都大於高一僑生。 　　　2.在「就業前途」項目上，高三僑生困擾大於高一僑生。 　　　3.男生生活適應，最感困擾的是「用錢」，其次是「就業前途」，「課業」。而在女生的適應經驗排序上，最感困擾的是「就業前途」，其次是「課業」，而「用錢」排行第三。 　　　4.高一僑生生活適應困擾首推「課業」項目，而高二高三僑生生活適應最感困擾則為「就業前途」項目。 　　三、不同背景變項之高中僑生，學業成就有顯著差異： 　　　1.在性別上：女生優於男生。 　　　2.在年級上及科目上： 　　　（1）高二僑生國文科成績優於高一、高三僑生。 　　　（2）高一僑生英文科成績優於高二僑生。 　　　（3）高一、高三僑生數學成績皆優於高二僑生。 　　四、年級、地區交互作用後，高中僑生自我概念與生活適應有顯著差異： 　　　1.在「生理自我」項目，第二區域高二僑生得分優於高一僑生。第一區域高一僑生得分優於第二區域高一僑生。 　　　2.在「學業自我」項目，第一區域高二僑生得分優於高一僑生。第一、二區域的高二僑生得分優於第三區域的高二僑生。 　　　3.在「人際交往」項目，第一區域的高二僑生得分優於第二區域的高二僑生。 　　五、高中僑生自我概念、生活適應與學業成就部分有顯著相關： 　　　1.自我總分與學業成就，學業自我與學業成就，學業成就科別之間，分別顯現正相關。 　　　2.生活適應各向度，課業項目或整體生活適應總分上與學業成就皆無顯著相關。 　　　3.自我總分高低分組在生活適應總分性別、年級間，也未顯示出顯著相關。 　　依據上述幾點結論，提出各項對僑教政策、僑生教育及未來研究者研究方向之建議： 　　一、在僑教政策上的建議 　　僑生返國之人數在不同地區有消長的情形，最明顯為港澳地區的僑生，因為，受兩岸政治情勢的影響，加上取消加分優惠，因此，返國就學的人數明顯地逐年下降。可見得政策的改變與僑生的返國行為之間存在一定的關係。因此符應需求修訂僑教政策有其必要。 　　　（一）委託國內大學培育僑教師資。 　　　（二）提供清寒僑生工讀機會。 　　　（三）建立僑生監護人公證制度。 　　　（四）設立國語文中心，編製銜接教材。 　　二、僑校編制上的建議 　　　（一）國立華僑高中 　　　（二）對其他高中僑生就讀之學校 　　三、在教學上的建議 　　四、對未來研究之建議 　　　（一）研究對象 　　　（二）研究變項 　　　（三）研究方法 　　　（四）文獻資料的蒐集 / The purpose of this research on investigation is to analyze the relationship with overseas Chinese student's self-concept, life-adjustment, and academic achievement. The results of research will provide an education authority as references for overseas Chinese student educational policy, instructional material teaching reinforcement, curriculum design, and living guidance. 　　According to the purpose of research, our research has applied literature analysis to discuss with theory of self-concept, life-adjustment, and academic achievement and related research. For example, a questionary method measures overseas Chinese student's self-concept and life-adjustment problem. Furthermore, from self-concept and life-adjustment, it compares students with different background variables and collections of academic achievement at school that analyze different self-concept, life-adjustment, and academic achievement situation. 　　The objects of our research were 344 students from National Overseas Chinese Experimental High School, and research tools were “Tennessee Self-Concept Scale” (version 2000) and ”Senior High School Student's Life Experience Measurement”. After questionary feedback and filtration, there are effective 316 copies. Then, all information has dealt as the following processes to discuss with correlation among variables, such as Descriptive Statistics, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, independent sample for Matched-pair T-test, F-test, Scheffe Rule of Post Hoc Tests, Pearson’s correlation statistics method etc. 　　In summary of the mentioned statements, conclusions of our research hypotheses are as the followings: 　　1 Overseas Chinese senior high school students who have different background variables, obvious self-concept differences: 　　　a. There are obviously differences on item of ”MOR” & “FAM” variables that school girls have greater than boys. 　　　b. For the different year of senior high school overseas Chinese students on the items of ” MOR ”, “ACA”, “IDN”, “SAT”, and “TOT”, sophomore year of students have scored more than freshman year of students; furthermore, on the item of “PER”, sophomore and junior year of students have scored greater than freshman year of students. 　　　c. On the items “PHY”, “FAM”, “IDN”, and “TOT”, in the different locations overseas Chinese students of the first region (Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines etc.) have scored the second region Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore) of students. 　　　d. On the item of “BHV”, students of the first and third region have scored greater than the second region. 　　2. Overseas Chinese senior high school students who have different background variables, life-adjustment problems that have dramatically differences: 　　　a. On the item of “spending”, schoolboys have disturbance greater than girls; sophomore and junior year of students have disturbance greater than freshman year of students. 　　　b. On the item of “career prospect”, junior year of students have obsession greater than freshman year of students. 　　　c. Schoolboys on the life-adjustment have harassment, for example, first item is “spending”, and the followings are “career prospect” and “school work”. In contrast to schoolgirls on the living accommodation experience in sequence are the first item of “career prospect”, the secondary item of school work” and the third item of “spending”. 　　　d. Freshman year of students on the life-adjustment is “school work”; nevertheless, sophomore and junior year of students is “career prospect”. 　　3. Overseas Chinese senior high school students who have different background variables, obvious differences on academic achievement: 　　　1. On the item of sex: schoolgirls are greater than boys. 　　　2. On the item of grade and subjects: 　　　　a. Sophomore year of student's scores on Chinese subject has greater than freshman and junior year of student. 　　　　b. Freshman year of student's scores on English subject has greater than sophomore year of student. 　　　　c. Freshman and junior year of student's on math subject has greater than sophomore year of student. 　　4. After grade and location interaction, overseas Chinese senior high school students who have remarkably differences on self-concept and life- adjustment: 　　　a. On the item of “PHY”, sophomore year of students in the second region has greater than freshman year of students; freshman year of students in the first region has greater than that of the second region. 　　　b. On the item of “ACA”, sophomore year of students in the first region has greater than freshman year of students; sophomore year of students in the first and second region has greater than that of the third region. 　　　c. On the item of “interpersonal relationships” sophomore year of students in the first region has greater than that of the second region. 　　5. Overseas Chinese senior high school students who have highly relationship with self-concept and life- adjustment, and academic achievement: 　　　a. Obviously, there are some correlations among “TOT vs. academic achievement”, “ACA vs. academic achievement” and “academic achievement”. 　　　b. Nevertheless, there are no correlations among “life-adjustment condition”, “school work subjects” or “total of general life-adjustment ” and “academic achievement”. 　　　c. There are no obviously differences on TOT score of life-adjustment between sex and grade. 　　According to the previous suggestions, here are some suggestions on overseas educational policy, student education, and future research approach: 　　I. Suggestions on overseas Chinese educational policy 　　The numbers of overseas Chinese students in different locations have growth or decline situation, especially for students from Hong Kong and Macao. Because political situation between China and Taiwan and cancellation on premium score, the numbers of students have obviously down year after year. Hence, policy change and students returning Taiwan for studying behavior have certain relations. Therefore, it is necessary to modify a suitable overseas educational policy. 　　　(1) Authorizing domestic universities to educate qualified teachers for overseas Chinese students 　　　(2) Providing straitened overseas Chinese students who have opportunities for part-time jobs 　　　(3) Setting up overseas Chinese student's guardian notarial system 　　　(4) Establishing Mandarin centers and compiling connected teaching materials 　　II. Suggestions on overseas school system 　　　(1) National Overseas Chinese Experimental High School 　　　(2) For other overseas Chinese students who study at senior high school 　　III. Instructional suggestion 　　IV. Suggestions for future research 　　　(1) Research object 　　　(2) Research variable 　　　(3) Research approach 　　　(4) Literature collection