The international student experience presents an interesting and complex case in which a student must adjust to a new environment. Informed by poststructural theories, this exploratory study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of eight Saudi international students’ linguistic, cultural, and identity experiences while living in Canada. It examined how Saudi students’ linguistic and cultural transitions within Canada relate to their L2 learning. To conduct this study, narrative inquiry was adopted as a methodology to gather narratives from Saudi participants by conducting semi-structured interviews. In the first part of the findings, using thematic analysis, I found nine emergent themes that revealed participants’ cultural/linguistic challenges, e.g., language anxiety and problems with academic English, and demonstrated participants’ difficulties socializing in their new L2 communities. In the second part of the findings, a narrative co-construction of one Saudi female participant’s life story in Canada revealed that gender-related issues were a central theme in Saudi female students’ integration. Linking all these emergent themes to poststructural L2 acquisition (SLA) theory, four key conclusions about the Saudi international student experience were brought to light: 1) Saudi participants faced challenges in building an academic identity in which they could participate confidently; 2) the formation of a non-native speaker identity impacted their ability to fully participate in the L2 community; 3) while attempting to gain access to the L2 community, some participants found themselves constrained and secluded by what they perceived as a lack of communicative competence; and 4) female participants talked about the re-negotiation of the Saudi female identity throughout their stay in Canada. Given these conclusions, this study carries various policy implications through which university administrators can build support services and foster international student inclusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/44892 |
| Date | 04 May 2023 |
| Creators | Alfaiz, Mashael |
| Contributors | Ibrahim, Awad |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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