This research examines what facilitates and hinders the adjustment of adolescent international students attending public secondary school in Vancouver, British Columbia. The purpose of this study is to determine a set of categories that can be used by school personnel to, better assist newly arriving international students in their adjustment process. The critical incident technique developed by Flanagan (1954) is used for this research to discover what events facilitate and hinder the adjustment of these international students. Twenty-one secondary students, ages fifteen to eighteen, are interviewed from three different public schools in the Vancouver School District. From the interviews, a total of 352 critical incidents are used to develop seventeen categories which answer the question: What facilitates and hinders adolescent international student adjustment? To test for reliability and validity, four tests are carried out in order to establish the soundness and comprehensiveness of the categories including independent rater agreement, comprehensiveness of categories, participation rate, and expert validation. The results show that adolescent international student adjustment can be facilitated or hindered in the following ways: receiving encouragement or support, receiving advice or information, receiving help, appreciating others, being accepted, making friends, having fun, participating in activities, learning English, communicating effectively, speaking own language, performing well academically, experiencing less demand at school, making decisions, impressed with environment, experiencing dilemmas, and experiencing local annoyances. Portraits of adjustment and maladjustment are given as well as case studies in order to highlight the categorization system in both a general and specific way. The findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge regarding international student adjustment because of its use of an adolescent, rather than adult, international student population. This research is also very practical in that it can be useful as a basis for individual and group counselling, various school-based and district programs, and general support and information for school personnel and newly arriving international students. Ideas for further research using this subject population are also suggested.

In the next few years, the number of international students, including graduate students, in Canada is expected to increase considerably (Cudmore, 2005). Simultaneously, recent funding cuts to higher education in a more neoliberal policy climate leave these students with fewer services to facilitate their integration into the host community (Hellsten & Prescott, 2004; Trice, 2004). One important way in which students become integrated is by participating in civic engagement projects. This study examined how, in the current policy climate, international graduate students are taking part in such projects. / Based on semi-structured interviews with six international graduate students in the field of education in Quebec, the study showed that students embraced a more Deweyan perspective of education and successfully participated in civic engagement projects despite many challenges, such as an academic culture that provides little active support for their involvement in civic engagement activities. The study concludes with recommendations so that universities can provide such support.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of international students' media use and their community integration in their current host society. After starting from the community integration theory, this study broadened its research perspective to internationalstudents' media use, acculturation, uses and gratifications, English anxiety, and the Internet as an informative media. On the basis of previous study results, use of American originated media was expected to have a positiverelationship with community integration, while, to the contrary, home country-originated media was expected to have a negative relationship with community integration.Data was collected with an online survey. A total of 117 international students who were registered for the Ball State University summer semester in 2005 participated in the survey.Correlation and t-tests largely supported the hypothesis, revealing a strong correlation between the university newspaper and community integration. Home country-originated media showed a number of negative correlations to community integration. In addition, data analysis found that different levels of community integration were associated with each other, indicating that community integration on a certain community level can be extended to other levels of community integration. The Internet was found to be a negative factor in community integration. Theoretical and methodological implications of the findings were discussed for future research. / Department of Journalism

The purpose of this study was to determine how international graduate students rate their health and their Sense of Coherence scores using Antonosky's 29- item "Orientation to Life Questionnaire" and to identify associations between international graduate students self-rated health status, Sense of Coherence scores, Sense of Coherence sub-scores, and biometric measures. The study found that international graduate students at Ball State University rate their health as "very good" and report having a high Sense of Coherence score and sub-scores. Additionally, positive associations between international graduate student's self-rated health and Sense of Coherence scores and sub-scores were identified. However, no significant correlations were found between international graduate students' self-rated health and their biometric measures. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

This is an auto-ethnographic study of international students at Ball State University, a medium-sized, state-supported institution in the Midwestern United States. I drew on my own personal experience, in-depth interviews with fifteen other international students, and participant observations carried out over a period of one year to understand how international students experienced life at this university. I used Social Identity Theory and the Rejection-Identification Model to explain why international students formed a tight-knit community, despite coming from a wide array of cultural backgrounds. Participants’ narratives illustrated international students’ experiences of rejection by American students, faculty, and staff; their feelings of devaluation, expressed as self-doubt and a tendency to overreact to life pressures; and the existence of a strong international student minority group identity. In view of the University’s strategic goal to substantially increase international enrollments, I offer recommendations on how this institution can promote a more welcoming, multicultural campus environment. / Department of Communication Studies

To analyze the impact multicultural factors had on skills international graduate students at Ball State University's classrooms, two independent variables (professors' behavior and students' participation) and three dependent variables (language skills, cultural awareness, and group support) were utilized in this study.The primary goal of this thesis, an analysis of the impact that multicultural factors: language skills, cultural awareness, participation, group support, and professors' behavior had on international graduate students' participation in classrooms, revealed that:First, English language proficiency and language (speaking,reading, writing, and understanding) limited international graduate students' participation.Second, no relationship was found between the time international students lived in the United States and their cultural awareness hierarchy; but international students were aware of "other" cultural values and aspects beyond their own culture.Third, the level of group support provided to international students affected international graduate students' frequency of participation in classroom. Group support was provided basically by professors through encouragement and feedback.Fourth, although English proficiency limited international students participation, it was found that frequency participation ranked from "some times (30%)" and "always (30%) ", to "most of the time (33%)".Fifth, within 9 variables of professors' behavior, all of which were perceived as positive to some degree, forty-seven percent of (n=83) international graduate students reported that they perceived feedback as "always" positive.The second goal of this thesis, a comparison between students from developed and developing countries regarding their English language proficiency revealed that:Students from developing countries were 70 percent of the sample while students from developed countries made up 30%;Males were in a majority overall and more males than females were enrolled in master's programs. However, more females than males were enrolled in doctoral programs.Marital status did not affect English proficiency, but unmarried students showed higher levels of language- skills (speaking, reading, etc.) than married students.The third goal of this study, a description of how both family and friend relationships affected international graduate students' English proficiency revealed that both relationships limited international students' English proficiency. / Department of Educational Leadership

The primary purpose of this study is to outline the institutional structure and to present an historical survey of international education and the Foreign Student Programs at Ball State University. An effort has also been made to relate the Ball State experience to international students on a national level. To make this information valuable in a readily usable form, an intensive study has been made of the history, development and expansion of the international student program at Ball State from 1945 through 1980.Major Points of the StudyChapter One reviews the history of international students in the United States from its beginning at Yale in 1784 through the year 1980. Also this chapter discusses the United States government's role in international education and exchange programs which began in the early 1900s and promoted foreign study to the point that the United States by the 1960s was educating more than a quarter of the world's international students.Chapter Two carefully examines the history of international students at Ball State University from its beginning in 1945 through 1980. Discussed are the program's year of origin, its development (1950-1965) and the expansion era (1965-1980). Especially emphasized are the roles of five International Student Program Directors and the contributions they made to both the program and the students.Chapter Three provides information about the population of overseas students at Ball State, the number of students enrolled, and the region and origin of countries from which they came. This chapter concludes with a section discussing the reasons why foreign students chose Ball State for study.Chapter Four studies the academic experiences of international students at Ball State detailing their academic status, number of undergraduate and graduate students, fields of study and number of degrees granted.Chapter Five reviews the status of foreign students after graduation. It provides information on the number of students who returned to their home countries, the number of students who continued their education and the students who remained permanently in the United States. Also this chapter discusses the value that American education and training had for Ball State international students. The chapter concludes with a section on Ball State contacts and relationship with its foreign alumni.

This portfolio comprises three research projects undertaken between 2001 and 2004, and is a response to both the broad and local contexts of my work as an English as a second language (ESL) educator in a business faculty at an Australian university. Based in my own experience, and foregrounded by my perspectives on education generally and international education specifically, I have used an overarching practitioner research approach. The contextual literature underpinning the three inter-related projects is provided by globalisation and neoliberalism, the changed landscape of higher education in Australia, the internationalisation of higher education, teaching English as a second language (TESOL), English as an international language (EIL), Australian academic standards and intercultural communication. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2005.

This dissertation addresses the discursive representation of international undergraduate students from the areas of South East Asia and Africa. The central question is: how are international students discursively represented in an Australian university setting? The study considers the university's teaching and learning practices and cultures as well as wider matters of policy. The study draws on postcolonial theory particularly on selected aspects of the work of Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak and in so doing demonstrates the usefulness of postcolonial theory for exploring issues associated with international students in universities. / thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2004.

This study considered the adjustment of international students to their life in a new country and their work in the business faculty of a large Australian university. Prior research into expatriate adjustment was used as the study’s basis and a model for analysis was developed from that research literature. Although some aspects of the relationships found with expatriate employees were not demonstrated, generally the similarities were strong and the features of an expatriate employee’s experience and that of an international student were seen to be very alike. Over 500 international students completed a survey based on well-validated measures from the research literature. The results were analysed using structural equation modelling. The hypothesised model did not fit very well in its original form and alternative models were suggested and tested in order to identify a better-fitting model. Cultural novelty, personal abilities in interpersonal interactions and communication skills, self-esteem, self-efficacy and general adjustment were found to be the most significant variables in explaining the outcomes of academic achievement, workrelated and general wellbeing and work-related and general satisfaction, with selfesteem, self-efficacy and general adjustment having the greatest influence on successful outcomes. Adjustment was found not to be a mediating construct, as suggested in the expatriate literature, but an antecedent influence upon the outcomes. Relationships between the constructs were complex, as had been suggested by previous research, making generalisations about causes and consequences of adjustment very difficult. This complexity emphasised that, for international students, the experience of living and working in an international location needs to be regarded in a holistic fashion and that there are many and varied contributors to its success. Several potentially fruitful avenues for future research, concerning both international students and expatriate employees, were identified and discussed. The implications of the present study were considered, both from an academic perspective and in terms of usefulness within a university. A number of possible practical strategies were suggested, relevant to students, lecturers and university administrators that might assist in improving the experience of ‘expatriation’ for international students.