CROSS-CULTURAL LEARNING CHALLENGES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-YEAR ASIAN STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

Jitian Xiao, Jie Lu, K. L. Chin, Jun Xu, Juan Yao

2010

Abstract

With the dramatic increase in the number of Asian students in the past few years, the cross-cultural teaching and learning situation becomes an important issue in Australian universities. To tickle this issue, we conducted a survey to students studying Information Technology and Business courses in five Australian universities. A total of 639 international students and 387 local students completed the questionnaire survey. Our survey results revealed a number of leaning challenges facing international students, especially first year Asian students. Student and staff interviews were also conducted to discover further facts that may not be covered by the questionnaire, and to check whether or not the survey (and interview) results represent the similar view from the staff side. The initial interview outcome, based on an incomplete number of interviews, generally supported the findings from the student survey. This paper is to examine the challenges, especially those from language and cultural aspects that face Asian students studying in Australian universities, and summarize some responses to relevant survey/interview questions from both local and international students. Some teaching strategies on how to improve language ability and classroom skills for first-year Asian international students are initiated.

References

  1. Asmar C. (1999), Scholarship, experience, or both? A developer's approach to cross-cultural teaching, International Journal for Academic Development, 4 (1), 18-27.
  2. Baumgart, N. and Halse, C. (1999), Approaches to learning across cultures: the role of assessment, Assessment in education 6(3), 321-339.
  3. Biggs, J.B. (1996) Western misperceptions of the Confucian-heritage learning culture, in: D.A. WSTKINGS & J.B. Biggs (Eds) the Chinese Learner: cultural, psychological and contextual influences (Hong Kong and Melbourne, CERC and Australian Council for Educational Research)
  4. Briguglio, C. (2000), Language and cultural issues for English-as-a-second/foreign language students in traditional educational settings, Higher Education in Europe 25(3), 425-434.
  5. Chalmers, D. and Volet, S. (1997), Common misconceptions about students from South-East Asia studding in Australia. Higher Education Research and Development, 16(1), 87-98.
  6. Chen, H. (2003), Contextualizing citation behavior: Chinese graduate students' thesis writing, language and academic skills, Latrobe University.
  7. Chiu, Yi-Ching Jean. (2009), "Facilitating Asian students' critical thinking in online discussions." British Journal of Educational Technology 40(1).
  8. Eisenchlas, S. and Trevaskes, S., 2003, Teaching intercultural communication in the university setting: Australian perspective, International Education 14(4), 397-408.
  9. Fussell, S.R., Zhang, Q.: Culture and collaborative technologies. CHI Extended Abstracts 2007: 2845- 2848.
  10. Green, W. 2007. "Write on or write off? An exploration of Asian international students' approaches to essay writing at an Australian university." Higher Education Research & Development 26 (3): 329-344.
  11. Hodne, B. 1997. Please speak up: Asian immigrant students in American college classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning 70: 85-92.
  12. Hofstede G., 2001, Cultures Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, London.
  13. Hong. P.Z 1991. A Thorny Journey - A study of the acculturation process of some Chinese ELICOS students in Brisbane, Australia. Griffith University: Brisbane, Australia.
  14. Huang, H. and Trauth, E. M. 2007. Cultural influences and globally distributed information systems development: experiences from Chinese IT professionals. In Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference on Computer Personnel Research: the Global information Technology Workforce (St. Louis, Missouri, USA, April 19 - 21, 2007).
  15. Li, Mingsheng, and Jacqui Campbell. 2008. "Asian students' perceptions of group work and group assignments in a New Zealand tertiary institution." Intercultural Education 19 (3): 203-216.
  16. Lu, J., KL Chin, Juan Yao, Jun Xu, Jitian Xiao “Survey Analysis on Cross Culture Learning”, UTS Teaching and Learning Forum 2008-- 27 November, 2008. http://datasearch.uts.edu.au/site_manager_sites/iml_20 03/learnteach/forum/forum08/
  17. Pan, Zhongdang, Steven H. Chaffee, Godwin C. Chu, and Yannan Ju (1994) To See Ourselves: Comparing Traditional Chinese and American Cultural Values. San Francisco, CA: Westview Press.
  18. Phillips, W. K., Lo, S. C.J and Yu, T. O 2002, Teaching techniques among Chinese international Students in Christian colleges and universities, Christian Higher Education 1(4), 347-369.
  19. Tiong, K.M., and S.T. Yong. 2004. Confucian heritage culture learners' and instructors' expectations and preferences in collaborative learning: Convergence or divergence? Paper presented to HERDSA Conference 2004, 4-7 July, in Miri, Sarawak.http://herdsa2004.curtin.edu.my/Contributions /NRPapers/ A055-jt.pdf.
  20. Wan, G., 2001, The learning Experience of Chinese Students In American University: A cross-cultural perspective. college Student Journal, March 2001 35: 28-37.
  21. Watkins, D., 2000, Learning and Teaching: a cross-cultural perspective, School Leadership and Management 20(2), 161-173.
  22. Wei, Fang-Yi Flora. 2007. "Cross-cultural teaching apprehension: A coidentity approach toward minority teachers." New Directions for Teaching & Learning,110: 5-14.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Xiao J., Lu J., Chin K., Xu J. and Yao J. (2010). CROSS-CULTURAL LEARNING CHALLENGES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-YEAR ASIAN STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES . In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-674-024-5, pages 297-303. DOI: 10.5220/0002801902970303


in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu10,
author={Jitian Xiao and Jie Lu and K. L. Chin and Jun Xu and Juan Yao},
title={CROSS-CULTURAL LEARNING CHALLENGES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-YEAR ASIAN STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2010},
pages={297-303},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002801902970303},
isbn={978-989-674-024-5},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - CROSS-CULTURAL LEARNING CHALLENGES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-YEAR ASIAN STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES
SN - 978-989-674-024-5
AU - Xiao J.
AU - Lu J.
AU - Chin K.
AU - Xu J.
AU - Yao J.
PY - 2010
SP - 297
EP - 303
DO - 10.5220/0002801902970303