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This study focuses on the problems of international students as perceived by both international students and faculty in a public university. The major purposes of the study are to determine if there are significant differences in perceptions of the problems of international students between international students and faculty members, between groups of international students, and between groups of faculty members. A modification of an international student problem inventory instrument was used to collect data from 371 international students and 316 faculty members. Thirteen hypotheses were tested using frequency and percentages, analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance, and univariate analysis of variance, as required according to the data collected and the hypothesis being tested.

By measuring interactions among and between anxiety and the independent variables of country of origin, gender, level of education, and age, this study attempted to gain insight into how students from different countries experience anxiety on a U.S. college campus. Results of the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and the univariate test(ANOVA) indicated that the gender and level of education of the subjects made no significant difference. However, when it came to country of origin, there were significant differences between two of the cultural groups and respective anxiety level. Findings also support a positive correlation between age and anxiety levels, with the youngest participants having the lowest anxiety levels.

The ethnographic study reported in this dissertation examines the articulation process of six informants, three undergraduate and three graduate students, as they made the transition from an intensive English program into mainstream university courses at a medium-sized Midwestern university.The research attempted to determine what needs students had as they made this transition, looking at several factors, including variables in the background of informants, differences in the experiences between undergraduate and graduate students, variables in the environment encountered, actions on the part of informants that helped or hindered in making the transition, actions on the part of instructors that helped or hindered in making the transition, and finally, areas in which the intensive English program could make improvements.The primary means of data gathering for this study was through informant interviews, all of which were tape-recorded, with pertinent sections later being transcribed. The questions asked during these interviews ranged from relatively closed-ended questions from prepared interview schedules to more open-ended, individualized questions based on previous responses. Interviews were first conducted while informants were still studying at the Intensive English Program. Subsequent interviews were held at three to four week intervals during the semester in which informants first began their mainstream university courses. / Department of English

The employment of International Teaching Assistants in U.S. universities has caused concern with regards to the communicative competence of nonnative speaker TAs in undergraduate classrooms. Researchers such as Rounds (1985), Bryd (1986), Constantino (1986), Tyler (1990), Shaw (1994), and Hoekje and Williams (1994), among others have suggested that more research is needed on the performance of nonnative speaker TAs in specific disciplines.This study is an-attempt to describe the discourse skills of nonnative speaker TAs in Computer Science. The speech event of twelve nonnative speaker TAs was observed and video and audiotaped in teaching lecture and laboratory (programming session) classes. Three native speaker TAs of the same profession were also studied as a comparison group. A profile of each of the TAs was made based on field notes, interviews and student evaluations, to determine TA typologies along Bailey's (1982,1984) classification. The profiles also contributed to grouping the TAs into more skillful and less skillful TAs.The classroom observations were analyzed to determine whether NNSTAs encountered difficulty speaking comprehensibly and explaining the computer science concepts clearly. The other questions investigated included: the apparent degree and ease of student comprehension of the teachers; the amount of student participation allowed and encouraged; the degree of interaction in the classes; and the amount of rapport between the NNSTAs and their students.The rhetorical analysis of the discourse structure of the computer science classrooms revealed two genres. Descriptive discourse was predominant in the lecture sessions and procedural discourse was predominant in the programming sessions. Linguists have shown that there are interesting connections between discourse type and the interlocutor's choice of particular syntactic structures. The investigations in this study showed that the successful NNSTAs complied with these connections and the less successful NNSTAs did not. The discourse problems of nonnative speaker TAs stemmed mainly from their inability to use various cohesive ties and deictic markers appropriately.Finally, the study showed that despite pronunciation and grammatical deficiencies, NNSTAs' success in their classes was determined by their speech acts. The moreinteractive TAs who employed various illocutionary acts to transact disciplinary information were the more skillful TAs. / Department of English

Stephan and Stephan (1985) introduced intergroup anxiety theory which encompasses situations in which people interact with individuals from different racial, ethnic, cultural backgrounds, namely the "outgroup". In the present study, the researcher aimed to compare intergroup anxiety of International students and African-American students when they expected to interact with ingroup members versus outgroup members, namely White-American students. The participants were presented with pictures and demographic information of hypothetical participants and were told that they would interact with these other participants in a nonverbal game. It was expected that intergroup anxiety would be lower when participants expected to interact with ingroup members, compared to the condition when they expected to interact with outgroup members. The results indicated that anxiety towards ingroup members was not significantly different from the anxiety towards outgroup members. It was found that African-American students had significantly lower levels of trait anxiety compared to International students. / Department of Psychological Science

Nine universities in the United States with the greatest number of international students and having an accredited music program through the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) were selected. Survey research methodologies were used to identify the status of the international music students from East Asia in U.S. higher education institutions and to determine their attitudes toward their schools. Among East Asian international music students at US higher education institutions, the results indicated that the professor's reputation, scholarships, and the program's reputation were perceived as the most influential factors impacting the program choice; a good relationship with professors, good feedback from professors, and emotional stability were perceived as the most influential factors impacting academic success; and the professor's teaching, the professor's expertise, and the improvement of musical skills were perceived as the most influential factors impacting students' satisfaction level. The most problematic issues reported were the language barrier and the cultural differences between their host and own countries. In addition, many of the East international music students in this study noted financial difficulties.

I interviewed twenty-four International students from the following countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Spain. Hereafter I shall refer to the respondents as Hispanic International students. My primary interest was to learn the way in which Hispanic International students defined themselves in view of ethnic definitions imposed on them by the administrative system in the U.S. First, Hispanic International students defined themselves primarily by their nationality. The second finding dealt with the usage of language. The Hispanic International students spoke Spanish with relatives and friends. They spoke English when a non-Spanish speaker joined the conversation. The third finding was related to the problems and adaptations encountered by Hispanic International students.

International students are often under considerable pressure from language barriers, culture shock, social isolation and lack of social support in American universities. Those stressors often discourage international students as ESL learners from practicing English with native students on campus. Based on Krashen & Terrell’s subconscious acquisition and conscious learning hypothesis, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development , Cummins’ Basic Interpersonal Communication System (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), Horwitz’s language anxiety and Oxford’s indirect learning strategies , this study explores how international students and American students, respectively, perceive English Corner and whether English Corner could be an applicable out-of-class learning environment for international students to practice English and socialize with American students on American campuses. English Corner refers to regular meetings that English learners in Mainland China voluntarily organize in public places to practice spoken English. A survey was conducted on language learning strategies, socialization, acculturation, autonomy and English Corner among international students and native students at the University of North Texas. The questionnaires were adapted from Oxford and Nyikos’ study as to what variables affect choice of language learning strategies, Iheanacho’s study as to how international students use the Morris Library at the University of Delaware and their perception of library services and programs, and Battle’s study as to how information literacy instruction affects library anxiety among international students. The findings of this study may help American universities realize the importance of English Corner as one optimal intervention program for international students and American students. The support for English Corner may help international students improve their English learning, alleviate their language anxiety and create more opportunities for international students and native students to socialize with each other.

This study tested American television effects on Taiwanese Students in uncertainty reduction and stereotype forming. The study consisted of a questionnaire analysis and a focus group discussion. Fifty-five subjects responded to the questionnaires and twenty of them joined two group discussions.