This study examined lifestyle changes as related to the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in Chinese students at Oregon State University (OSU). The study population included male students or scholars from the People's Republic of China who were attending OSU during spring term 1992. Fifty subjects were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included eight categories of information: (1) bodyweight and blood pressure, (2) diet, (3) alcohol consumption, (4) cigarette smoking, (5) physical activity, (6) psychological stress, (7) acculturation factors, and (8) demographic factors. Results indicated that for this group of Chinese students, bodyweight, consumption of dietary fat, dairy products, soft drinks, and psychological stress had increased significantly during their stay in the US. Meanwhile, the level of physical activity had decreased. These changes, especially if continued, may have the potential to increase their risk of developing CHD. On the other hand, there were no significant changes in blood pressure and alcohol consumption. For cigarette smokers, smoking had decreased. In their responses to the open-ended questions, the reasons given for bodyweight changes included diet, decreased physical activity, and increasing age. Diet changes were attributed to food availability, relative price, and convenience. For decreased cigarette smoking, lack of smoking environment was considered to be the most important factor. Automobile use, limited spare time, and no friend to play with were the reasons for decreased physical activity. Finally, pressure in school, financial difficulty, and worrying about future were considered to be the reasons for increased psychological stress. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the length of US stay and decreased physical activity were significant predictors for bodyweight gain. The length of US stay was also a significant predictor for changes in total dietary fat. Having financial aid from school was associated with decreased physical activity. Living as single was significantly associated with increased psychological stress. This study failed to identify any significant associations between acculturation factors and changes in the CHD risk factors. / Graduation date: 1993

Given the international status and importance of English, English language study has attracted millions of Chinese learners. Apart from those who study abroad, more and more Chinese students are motivated to study in English-medium Transnational Higher Education (THE) programmes inside China. English is a diversifying and fragmenting language that has various functions and can be used for different purposes. Whilst, according to many scholars, English has broken free from the ownership of ‘native English’ speakers, Chinese learners of English are still worried about conforming to ‘native-speaker models’ of English and so falling victim to an English linguistic imperialism project, driven by English-medium THE programmes. Accordingly, this research sets out to investigate, the extent to which Chinese learners, in a UK affiliated THE programme in China, feel the need to orientate to or identify with ‘native English’ and its speakers, and run the risk of becoming victims of English linguistic imperialism. Results from a combination of methods: questionnaires, focus group discussions and interviews, show that students’ orientations towards and identification with English and its speakers are diverse, complex and multi-dimensional, and have gone beyond affiliation with ‘native English’ speakers. Studying in English-medium THE programmes does not necessarily lead to English linguistic imperialism, but is a process of interaction where learners may consciously mediate ‘native English’ norms and express individual, local, national or international identities, literally taking advantage of the programmes’ material benefits and deliberately learning the language for international communication. This research suggests that learners in THE programmes are conscious of the overall context individually, nationally and internationally and feel free to orientate to English in ways that are suitable for their own purposes and which represent their preferred identity.

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.

Since the mid-1990s, New Zealand has become a popular study destination for international students. In its neo-liberal knowledge economy policies including an export education policy, international education agenda, and skilled immigration policy, international students are conceptualised as ideal policy subjects: free, rational and self-interested knowledge consumers and globally available human resources. International postgraduates are expected to contribute to New Zealand’s knowledge economy with their knowledge and skills. However, both the statistics and empirical research suggest that these students’ experiences do not always coincide with the policy expectations owing to the involvement of multiple political and non-political factors and actors including international students themselves. Cultural differences in particular, generate extra challenges for these policies to recruit and serve international students and retain international graduates from non-Western cultural backgrounds including those from Mainland China. The gap between the policy intentions and these students’ experiences draws our attention to the roles of multiple regimes of government and individual students as active agencies in overseas study and raises the question of how the two aspects can converge to achieve a ‘good’ overseas study in a complicated culture-crossing policy environment. This thesis takes a post-structuralist approach and uses an adapted Foucauldian conceptual framework that develops the concept of governmentality to explore the experiences of a group of postgraduate Chinese international students studying at two New Zealand universities. It combines documentary research, an online survey and 56 in-depth interviews for data collection with culturally informed discursive, Foucauldian descriptive statistical and Foucauldian narrative analyses of data. The findings show that the convergence between New Zealand’s knowledge economy policies and Chinese students’ experiences of ‘good’ overseas study is not straightforward. This thesis argues that Chinese international students are not made and governed by a singular political power like the New Zealand Government but by multiple regimes of practices through which these students are assembled. Chinese cultural mechanisms such as filial piety, reciprocity and loyalty, play a crucial role in constituting the field of international education and assembling regimes of subjectification. Moreover, these cultural mechanisms are not only embodied in governmental technologies themselves as technical means, but also activated through the coexistence of multiple rationalities, the hybridisation of regimes of subjectification and cross-cultural applications of these technologies. This thesis helps explain both ways in which Chinese students get ‘made into’ subjects who are willing to constitute themselves as international students obliged to come to New Zealand and contribute to the knowledge economy and also the constellations of factors motivating them to move away from on-going, constant and regular engagement with New Zealand as a knowledge economy. With its findings, the thesis attempts not only to provide valuable policy recommendations but also to contribute to sociological understandings of the global governance of border-crossing population movements and comparative studies in the sociology of education.

Due to a lack of effective writing strategies and inhibition of English language proficiency, university students in China are found to produce little and shallow content in their English academic writing. Similar problems are also embodied in the academic writing of Chinese overseas students who struggle to survive in the target academic community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the writing processes of second language (L2) writers, specifically examining the writing strategies of three Chinese post-graduate students in an Australian higher education institution. The study was prompted by the paucity of research in the writing strategies used by Chinese students in English academic writing in an authentic context. Although it was too small in scale to generalise in the field of L2 writing, the study will stimulate research in L2 writing theory and practice. Based on a review of theories related to L2 writing and research in Chinese and English writing strategies, the writing strategies used by three Chinese post-graduate students while writing academic papers in English were investigated. Their understandings of English and Chinese writing processes, the issue of transfer of Chinese writing into English writing and cultural influence of native language on L2 writing were explored as well. Qualitative hermeneutic multi-case study methods were employed to provide a richer description of the writing strategies used by the three students to develop a deeper understanding of the L2 writing process. Data were provided by three Chinese post-graduate student writers in Public Health who were observed undertaking different tasks. Ally, a Masters student, was observed completing one of the assignments for a course. Susan and Roger, both doctoral students, were observed working on a second stage proposal and a journal paper respectively. Data collected from semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, retrospective post-writing discussions and papers were categorised and analysed using topical structure analysis and cohesion analysis. The findings suggest that writing in a second language is a complicated idiosyncratic developmental process influenced by cognitive development, social/educational experience, the writer's first language (L1) and second language (L2) proficiency and cultural factors as well. These proficient writers were found to utilise a broad range of writing strategies while writing academic papers in English. This study in some degree supports Silva's (1993) finding that the L2 writing process is strategically, rhetorically, and linguistically different from the L1 writing process. Most of the metacognitve, cognitive, communicative and social/affective strategies except rhetorical strategies (operationally defined in this study as organisation of text or paragraphs) were found to transfer across languages positively. These student writers were noticed to have difficulties in acculturating into the target academic discourse community because of their background of reader-responsibility which is regarded as a crucial feature in Eastern rhetoric and is distinguished from writer-responsibility in English rhetoric (Hinds, 1987, 1990).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 525-540).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 525-540).

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans une vision telle que dans l'enseignement d'une langue étrangère, deux langues et cultures se rencontrent, chacune dispose d'une part de la connaissance du monde, d'un calibrage différent. On ne parvient pas à établir une référence commune au premier rapport, surtout lorsque ces deux langues et cultures sont très éloignés (Chine/France). Cependant, ce n'est pas un échec, c'est plutôt une offre, une invitation à chercher ensemble cette référence commune. Dans ce sens, le fait de se référer à quelque chose, avec l'intention d'y comprendre quelque chose de l'autre exige une forme de négociation et un esprit « interculturel ». L'étudiant devrait prendre conscience qu'il existe plusieurs variétés langagières et que celles-ci varient selon la situation de communication ainsi que l'humeur, l'âge, le sexe, l'origine sociale, régionale ou nationale du locuteur. Cela s'ajoute aussi des informations implicites pour un étranger comme les gestes, les connotations, les références historiques, les coutumes ,etc. Cet apprentissage du savoir , du savoir être et du savoir faire de la pratique sociale et communicative langagière relève donc de la compétence culturelle et spécifiquement celle de la « culture courante » selon R.Galisson , c'est à dire d'une culture du quotidien de tout les jours. Notre terrain de recherche vise donc aux apprenants chinois en France, en centrant l'analyse expérimentale sur les individus. Le séjour quotidien des étudiants a rarement été étudié dans sa globalité. Il fallait donc essayer de rendre compte de l'expérience personnelle des étudiants, telle qu'on pouvait la percevoir à travers nos enquêtes pour finalement élaborer d'une « façon de faire » avec un « programme complémentaire » centré à la « culture française courante » qui répond (j’espère) aux besoins des apprenants chinois du français qui veulent séjourner en France pour leurs études supérieurs. / As different cultures have different world outlook and measure standards, it is quite different between teaching a native language and teaching foreign languages when two languages are combined with their cultures. Thus it is hardly possible to establish a standard which can be used in two teaching modes, especially when the two kinds of languages and cultures are totally different (such as China and France). However, the more difficult it is, the more it is worth exploring. Making efforts in understanding two kinds of languages and cultures, we are trying to establish such a standard by bringing in the concept of “Intercultural”. When a student is surrounded in an environment which is quite different from his mother tongue, culture is very important in his foreign language learning. That’s why we focus on Chinese students studying in France in this thesis. Without the help of the outside world, it would be really tough for an oversea student to adapt himself to the culture shock between two countries. Language varies in different contexts, moods, ages, genders, social backgrounds, regions and countries, let alone there are gestures, proverbs, historical allusions, customs and other hidden information which are even harder for a foreign student to understand. It is a great test for an oversea student to get along with the new language, socializing and the new culture. All the relevant knowledge in daily life is “culture”, more precisely, “daily culture” proposed by R.Galisson. We aims Chinese students studying in France as our studying objects. We collected and analyzed their daily lives and personal experiences through interviews. Then we are trying to use a teaching method emphasizing on “French daily culture” to help Chinese students adapt to the learning life in France.

The idea of knowledge economy initiated by the World Bank, the increasing importance of English proficiency in the global labour market, and the expansion of Chinese higher education, all leads to the phenomenon of Chinese student migration to western countries for getting advantageous educational experiences and credentials. Through a qualitative, interview-based method and Bourdieusian sociological perspective focusing on species of capital (cultural, economic, social and symbolic capital), habitus and mode of reproduction, this study focuses on the analysis of the relation between social background of Chinese students and their adoption of a western education system and perception of future career through the trajectories of ten Chinese students at Uppsala University, one of the most renowned universities in Sweden. The study examines the role of various assets in the family of origin, as well as the importance of the students’ long journey in the Chinese education system. The findings indicate that the students came from a fairly well off Chinese middle class that had established itself in the parent generation through an upward mobility. Both inherited and acquired assets through family origin and the educational trajectory were important factors that affected the Chinese students’ decision of studying abroad. Among the three species of assets originated from the family, the economic asset played a particularly significant role in the Chinese students’ educational trajectory, irrespective of the composition of families’ capital resources. Family economic assets became increasingly crucial while students moved up to higher educational levels. It also investigates the students’ encounter with the “Western” world represented by an academic and international student environment. While most of the students said they appreciated what Uppsala University had offered in terms of academic life and cultural experiences, they somewhat contradictory kept a distance to both the new forms of academic culture they met and students from other countries. The habitus valued in their previous educational trajectory in China did not fit the criteria for academic performance in the western higher educational institution. It was instead partly contested. With regard to the future, the interviewed students expressed concerns as to the value of their experience and diploma on the Chinese academic and job markets due to the absence from Chinese contact and the culture rooted in social connection. A hypothesis emerging from the interview data is that the family-based social reproduction strategy expressed in the strong family investments in education leading up to the studies abroad potentially has as effect that the offspring, the students, become less dependent on this family-based reproduction. Instead, they regarded themselves as being entitled, by merit, to decide on their own future.

Ayant occupé pendant une longue période la place privilégiée dans l’enseignement du français langue étrangère aux universités chinoises, les textes littéraires sont en train d’y perdre leur terrain. Ce constat nous conduit vers une série de questions autour de la littérature française et de son rôle dans l’enseignement du français langue étrangère : Quelle était la place des textes littéraires dans l’histoire de l’enseignement du français en Chine? Sont-ils encore utiles dans l’enseignement du français langue étrangère aujourd’hui? Aujourd’hui, quelle est leur place dans l’enseignement du français au sein des universités chinoises ? Comment faire pour aller vers une nouvelle pédagogie des textes littéraire dans l’enseignement du français langue étrangère en Chine ? Visant à répondre à ces questions, et basée à la fois sur l’analyse des enquêtes et des entretiens, et sur des réflexions théoriques et personnelles, nous commençons notre recherche par une étude sur l’évolution de l’enseignement du français et de l’emploi des textes littéraires en Chine, puis nous passons à justifier les apports de la littérature dans l’enseignement du français, enfin nous terminons notre travail par des solutions possibles pour favoriser l’emploi des textes littéraires dans l’enseignement du français aux universités chinoises. / The literary works are losing their privileged position which they used to hold in French language teaching in Chinese higher education. It reminds us of a series of questions about French literature and its role: Which position did the literary works take in the history of French language education in China? What is their current level and are they still useful? What shall we do in looking for a new method in order to make full use of them in education? Starting from a study of the French language teaching evolution in China, relying on an analysis of interviews organized by Chinese teachers and students, and based on the related theories and personal reflections, in this academic paper, I justify the advantages of French literature in language teaching and propose the possible solutions to promote the position of literary works in French language teaching in Chinese higher education.