This qualitative dissertation explores the classroom experiences of international undergraduate students in the U.S. with a specific focus on perceptions of undergraduate Chinese international students. The study starts with a literature review of the field of study where I identify classroom practices that, instead of promoting integration of international students into classroom activities, facilitated exclusion and segregation of these students. Subsequently, I explore different classroom practices perceived by 15 Chinese international undergraduate students to be effective and those perceived to be ineffective. At the same time, perceived identity of these Chinese international students in a U.S. classroom setting and how these affect their experiences and sense of membership are also explored. The study concludes with a series of recommendations under a proposed critical pedagogy of internationalization that address some of the challenges identified in this dissertation and develop students' identities, critical thinking skills with a comparative perspective, intercultural communication, cultural competence, and social justice.

Perfectionism has been related to both adaptive functioning such as positive achievement striving, as well as to negative outcomes such as procrastination and depression. Numerous studies, using primarily Caucasian subjects, document a relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and depression. Few studies have examined perfectionism in samples from different cultural backgrounds. The present multidimensional conceptualization and operational definition of perfectionism remains to be tested in terms of meaningfulness and applicability to other cultural groups. Therefore the overall aim of the current study is to determine if the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) shows evidence of construct validity in a sample of university students from Chinese cultural backgrounds. Evidence of construct validity is obtained by investigating similarities and differences between the two cultural groups in the following: the internal structure of the measure; and the relationships between the measure and other measures (concurrent validity). Differences in mean levels of perfectionism between Chinese-Canadian and European Canadian students are also investigated. Data for 191 subjects are reported for the following measures: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991); Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost et al, 1990); Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al, 1979); Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (Suinn et al, 1987); a Background Information Sheet. Evidence of construct validity and of the previously documented relationship between socially-prescribed perfectionism and depression was found for the Chinese-Canadian sample. The current study lends support for using the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) with Chinese-Canadian university students.

This study investigates the patterns of language use among a selected group of Chinese students in a Chinese Heritage Language school in urban Montreal, Quebec. Observation and interview are used as tools for the inquiry. Language socialization and social identity theories provide a framework for the data interpretation. Classroom interactions are examined in terms of the patterns of language use between teachers and students, students to teachers, and students to students. The emergent findings in the study suggest that teachers use mainly Chinese when addressing students and students use mainly Chinese when addressing their teachers. However, the patterns change when students are addressing each other. French and English are preferred in their peer to peer social interactions. As 'Chinese language' is a broad term, covering several different regionalects and dialects, it is taken into consideration that the students' home language may be very different from the standard language, Mandarin, which is taught at the school. In addition, the age of arrival to Canada, the desire for peer recognition and identification with the mainstream culture, and the forces of socialization as factors which affect the children's language use and their maintenance of their mother tongue are examined. Finally, the concept of speech community, a sociolinguistic concept, is applied to the discussion of how the patterns of those Chinese children's language use are shaped and may be interpreted.

To investigate how Chinese ESL learners feel about the peer review process in oral and email-based modalities and how Chinese cultural barriers such as concerns about face saving and shyness might impact their learning attitudes, I taught an ESL writing course to collect data and write this dissertation. Tools for investigation I used included two identical peer review attitude questionnaires that were conducted at two occasions (at the beginning and the end of the course), a Peer Review Guideline and Sign Test.Many published studies on peer review focus on how to implement computer technology in the classroom, but ignore cultural impacts on ESL. The results of the Sign Test revealed that a large number of the students preferred to do oral and email comments in an indirect way, because they felt that they would need group harmony.It was noted that some students would like to receive email comments from their partner, not provide the comments to him/her, because commenting on his/her essay would hurt him/her. In many participants' view, teacher's reviews are more important than their partner's, since cultural barriers such as face saving and shyness prevented them from voicing their own opinion. The results also indicated that the students reacted favorably to the e-mail modality, although some of them still thought that it was a waste of time. Therefore, this modality did serve some students to allay their concerns about face-saving. In the study, a few students favored "anonymous" peer reviews, which could be achieved through email peer review. / Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-112).

Thesis (M.A.)--Calvary Theological Seminary, 1994. / Includes Chinese translation of survey. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-76).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2289. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-287).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-206). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-206). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Calvary Theological Seminary, 1994. / Includes Chinese translation of survey. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-76).