CROSS-CULTURAL LEARNING CHALLENGES AND

TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-YEAR ASIAN STUDENTS

IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

Jitian Xiao

, Jie Lu

, K. L. Chin

, Jun Xu

and Juan Yao

School of Computer and Security Science, Edith Cowan University, 2 Bradford St, WA 6050, Australia

Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology, University of Technology

Sydney, POBOX 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia

Faculty of Business, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia

Graduate School, Southern Cross University, Australia

Faculty of Business, University of Sydney, Australia

Keywords: Cross-cultural teaching and learning, Survey, Australian tertiary education, Asian students.

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.

1 INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades Australian tertiary

education has attracted a large number of

international students. Most international students in

Australian universities come from Asian countries

and therefore have different cultural backgrounds

from the majority of Australian local students and

teachers. Many facts show that cultural factors have

obvious influences on many aspects of the teaching

and learning as well as the working relationship

between staff and students and also among students

themselves. In such a cross-culture environment,

teachers and students may have different

expectations in their interaction and different

teaching and learning understandings (Green 2007,

Hodne 1997, Ho, 1991). The difference of languages

is the most important issue in a cross-culture

environment, however the evidence obtained from a

survey (Lu et al 2008 ) proves that not only language

problem can generate confusion, but different ways

to think and perspective to the roles of teacher and

student in the education process can also generate it

(Chen, 2003). It becomes a significant study for both

Australian local teachers and international students to

explore more effective and suitable teaching and

learning approaches in a cross-cultural education

environment.

297

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 UNIVERSI-

TIES.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computer Supported Education, pages 297-303

DOI: 10.5220/0002801902970303

 SciTePress

Although the development of researches on cross-

cultural teaching and learning is growing, most

researches in this field only focus on the issues of

language, communication, specific courses and

differences in learning styles (Asmar 1999, Watkins

2000, Wei 2007). There is little research to

investigate the degree of implications on teaching

and learning brought by culturally specific

assumptions and situational variables. Therefore,

there is an urgent need to explore current new cross-

cultural teaching and learning situations and to

develop more suitable approaches to help improve

teaching and learning practices of Asian students in

high education of western countries.

This study tends to identify the positive and

negative influence of the trend of increase of cross-

cultural students on teaching and learning approaches

under Australian educational environment.

We conducted student questionnaire survey in

five Australian universities (i.e., University of

Technology Sydney, Curtin Universities, The Sydney

University, Edith Cowan University and Southern

Cross University) in 2008. As Business and

Information Technology have the majority of Asian

international students we therefore selected the two

types of schools/faculties in the above five

universities to conduct the survey. We received 1026

complete student questionnaires, including both

undergraduate students and postgraduate students;

and Australian local students (37.7%) and

International students (62.3%) from other 56

countries. We have conducted data analysis such as

correlation analysis. Some interesting results have

been obtained which are very useful for both teachers

and students on teaching and learning in a cross-

cultural environment.

We also conducted student and staff interview to

verify and complement the findings from the survey.

This paper concentrates on data analysis of survey

data as well as a part of initial interview responses in

relation to language and culture factors, in particular

the language challenges facing Asian international

students studying in Australian universities. A set of

suggestions will be made to help Asian international

students to improve their language ability and class

room skills.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows.

Section 2 reviews literature on cross-culture teaching

and learning. Section 3 presents the language

challenges that face International students studying in

Australian universities, by presenting a set a data

analysis results. Teaching method related findings

from the survey and initial interview responses are

presented in Section 4. Section 5 concludes this

paper.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Cross-cultural education has been studied by some

researchers in the past years. Related research

reported in literature involves language issues,

textbook and knowledge authority, teaching methods,

learning attitudes and styles, as well as the

relationships between teachers and students.

For example, in students’ attitudes to authority,

literature review indicates that students from

Confucian-heritage cultures are modest and

compliant. They are highly dependent on text books

and lecture notes. Hong (1991) stated that "respect

for the elderly and books is the central idea of

Chinese education." It was further stated that this

"also means respect for authority, classics and

experience". Asian students are more influenced by

the childhood education that is you just need to do

what a teacher asks you to do and you do not need to

have your own idea. This makes that many Asian

students are more introverted (Huang and Trauth,

2007). Chiu (2009) argues that the students who

come from Confucian Heritage Countries have no

wish to express critical thinking, which is opposite to

western countries students.

In students’ learning attitudes and styles,

perceptions of learning, Phillips, Lo and Yu (2002)

point out that there are three kinds of approaches in

terms of learning: (1) Surface approach in which

students memorize the key information with

minimum of time in order to achieve the best effect;

(2) Deep approach in which students want to

understand the underlying structure and meaning

because of their interest, and they have to access to

the knowledge which is below the surface; (3)

Achieving approach in which students do their best

to fulfill the tasks in order to obtain other people’s

praise. They found that Chinese students often use

different approaches. Demanding examinations may

lead them to use surface approach. The traditional

Confucian heritage promotes them to use deep

approach. Achievement motivation promotes them to

use achieving approach (Phillips et al., 2002). Some

other investigators hold the view that students in East

and Southeast Asian countries typically rely on rote

learning and memorization (Baumgart and Halse,

1999). This kind of learning style only results in low-

level cognitive outcomes. In contrast, western

countries pay more attention on deep learning over

surface ones (Biggs, 1996). It is accepted widely that

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western learners are independent, favoring deep and

cultural learning and encouraged to use constructivist

approaches where as Asian learners are more docile,

compliant and good at rote memorization attached

with surface approaches to learning (Baumgart et al.,

1999). However, researchers have found that Asian

research students have high performance during their

study in western universities, which shows they

applied the deep approach and achieving approach in

their learning.

In students’ attitudes to working in groups,

Littlewood (2001) and Hofstede (2001) found that

people who come from Australia, Europe and North

America perform strongest individualist orientation,

whereas people who come from Latin America and

East Asia perform strongest collectivist orientation.

The individualism people value self-fulfillment and

freedom of choice and claim his or her rights over the

interests of in-groups to which he or she belongs (Li

et al. 2008). On the other hand the collectivism

people’s identity attitudes and actions are determined

by the groups. They value the interests of in-groups

to which they belong to over their own individual

interests. Fussell at al. (2007) believe that comparing

with individualist in western countries, eastern

countries highly valued communal well-being and

harmony. Similarly, Pan et al. (1994) point out

American culture emphasizes on individualism, and

equality and freedom. Some scholar argues western

students prefer working along, Asian students like

working together. “It is important evidence that

western students are more independent. They are

more likely to work according to their own ideas

whereas students from China, Japan or other Asian

countries prefer work together (Hofstede, 2001).”

In language and communication aspects, both

students and teachers are aware of the fact and agree

that many international students require English

language support in Australia (Chalmers and Volet

1997, Eisenchlas and Trevaskes 2003). Tiong and

Yong (2004) state that Asian international students

become silent in group discussion and in the

classroom because of Asian students’ inadequate

language skills and their underdeveloped inter-

personal communication skills. Some scholars also

examine the methods which can help international

students to improve their language skills (Briguglio

2000).

3 LEARNING CHALLENGES TO

ASIAN STUDENTS

Under the support of an Australian Learning and

Teaching Council (ALTC) grant we have conducted

a survey by questionnaire in Information Technology

and Business courses in five Australian universities.

A total of 1026 questionnaires were received from

students. These students have their educations

backgrounds in Australia and other 56 countries. The

distribution data analysis shows that within the 1026

complete questionnaires, there are 387 local students

(that is, they completed most of their education in

Australia) and 639 international students who

completes most of their study in other 56 countries.

Of these students, there are totally 652 undergraduate

students and 374 postgraduate students. These

students are in the majors of Business (52.5%),

Information Technology (28.5%), and others (18.9%,

in the group, many of them have Information

Technology and business as a sub-major). In this

project, international students are mainly students

from Asian cultural background.

A series of interviews have also been conducted

as a complement method to discover further facts

including culture related issues in relation to Asian

international students learning in Australian

universities. We interviewed three groups of people,

i.e., Asian-background international undergraduate

students, postgraduate students, and teaching staff,

respectively, in the above mentioned universities.

3.1 Language and Culture Challenges:

Facts from the Survey

The survey questionnaire includes 55 questions

within six sections as follows: (I) Teaching contents

and textbooks; (II) Teaching and learning methods;

(III) education management systems; (IV) language;

(V) culture-based teaching & learning concepts; and

(VI) others. This section only analyses some typical

questions to compare language and culture

challenges facing Asian background international

students with that of Australian local students. Data

analysis results are based on results from (part of)

survey sections (II), (IV) and (VI).

Our survey data indicated that language problem

is the main obstacle to prevent (Asian) international

students from achieving excellent performance in

their study process. Questions on language include if

the main reason of communicate difficulty is

language; do international students have difficulties

in understanding lecture due to language; do they

have language related difficulties in completing

homework/assignments; do they have confidence to

take part in in-class discussions and asking questions;

do they feel difficult when they perform oral

presentations in class.

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STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

299

Similar to many other researches conducted in

Australian universities (see Briguglio 2000, for

example), our survey data shows that the language

and communication skills are the main burden to

first-year Asian background students, though these

difficulties decrease in late stage of their university

study. Figure 1 indicates that about 38% of the

international students rank the language difficulty as

their main difficulty in the first year of their study in

Australian university.

Figure 1: The main difficulties students encountered in

their first-year study at university.

Figure 2 shows that this rate decreases in the

second, third and fourth year of their course study,

however the language difficulty still dominates,

among other difficulties, for about 25% of

international students. In other word, one in four

international students experience language difficulty

in the whole course of their study in Australian

university.

Figure 2: The main difficulties students encountered in

their second, third and fourth year study at university.

Figure 3 shows the students’ view of their

communication difficulties. While about 36% of

international students are not confident in using

English language, more than 50% of international

students feel difficult in communicating to others

(students or staff) due to lack of common interesting,

which, in most cases, is due to language difficulties

and cultural difference.

We also investigated the detailed language and

culture related communication issues in the survey.

Our results show that more than 20% of international

students do not understand lectures or cannot

understand lectures in most of time, while some 32%

international students have difficulties in taking notes

during lecture; nearly 50% international students

need some help in completing their homework.

Among those students, about 7% of them even need

to translate into their first language before attempting

the homework.

Figure 3: The main difficulties students think in

communicating.

Regarding to in class discussion, results show that

more than 50% international students are not very

confident to their English when trying to participate

in classroom discussion, in which nearly 10%

students are not confident to their English at all thus

they do to participate in classroom discussion. In

addition, while about half of international students

can do in class presentation after practice, more than

11% international students need help from others for

their in-class presentation. As comparison, majority

(i.e., near 90%) of local students have no problems

with their in-class presentation skills.

3.2 Language and Culture Challenges:

Facts from the Interview

The interview, as a compliment method, was

conducted to verify and complement the main

findings of the survey. The interview, as a

compliment method, was conducted to verify and

complement the main findings of the survey. The

interviews were done in three groups: undergraduate

Asian international student interview, postgraduate

Asian international student interview, and teaching

staff interview. All students who participated in the

interview were requested to fill in the survey

questionnaire if they didn’t do so in our survey stage.

As such, student interview is to find some more

0.00%

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35.00%

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45.00%

50.00%

language unfamiliar

environment

teaching

method

university

education

management

systems

local

international

0.00%

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language unfamiliar

environment

teaching

method

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education

management

systems

local

international

0.00%

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not confident

in English

language

lack of common

interests

only like to

use my own

language

other

local

international

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detailed facts that may not be covered in the

questionnaire. And staff interview is to check

whether or not the student survey (and student

interview) results represent the similar view from the

staff side. Detailed interview results will be

published in another paper.

Based on an incomplete number of interviews

(i.e., interview done from Edith Cowan University

only), we have found some interesting results. Not

surprisingly, both students and staff agreed that

English language support is needed for many

international students, especially for first-year Asian

non-English background international students.

While most Asian international students experienced

some level of language difficulties in all four macro-

skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in

their first-year study, the interview results confirm

that speaking and writing skills of many Asian

international students are not to the standard. Poor

speaking (or communication) skill prevented these

students from being able to confidently ask questions

during lectures, or to express their idea in class

discussion. Some Asian international students

indicated that they were not confident that their

speech could be easily understood by their lecturer

/tutor and local students. Poor writing skills resulted

in poor quality of assignment, which, most of them

believe, was one of the main reasons that they often

receive lower assignment marks than other students.

Some Asian international students also indicated

that they experienced listening difficulties in their

first year study in Australian university. While they

thought their English was not too bad in their English

course before getting into Australian university, they

found them wrong after entered the university. Some

of them had certain difficulties in comprehending

lectures and tutorials, and/or had difficulties in class

discussions because local teachers/students speak too

fast and other international students from other

countries may have strong accent in English. Due to

these reasons, some of them indicated that they were

reluctant to speak in lecture/tutorial sessions and/or

in class discussion. Reasons include: they felt not

confident with their speech; their spoken English was

not as fluent as that of local students; they were shy

about speaking up; they did not want to challenge

lecturers/tutors because their culture does not

encourage this in classroom; they felt more

comfortable with lecturer-centre approach but not

with the student-centre approach, and so on.

4 STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE

FIRST-YEAR ASIAN STUDENTS’

ENGLISH ABILITY AND

CLASSROOM SKILLS

Teaching and learning method is one of the most

important parts in the questionnaire. Related

questions in this part include: If students feel that the

current teaching methods are suitable; what are the

main differences of teaching methods between

Australia and their home countries; whether they like

lecturers ask questions in classes; what aspects of

teaching the students are most concerned about; and

how students satisfy with the teaching methods in

their current subjects, and so on.

Our survey data show similarity between local

student group and international student group in a

few aspects of teaching methods. For example, both

local and international students prefer the teaching

methods such as face-to-face teaching, case-study,

fewer lecturer and more labs, etc. However both

groups were less interested in self-learning method.

When seeking local and international students’

opinions on teaching activity arrangement and

assessment settings, we saw different opinions for

some questions. For example, more international

students than local students (25.9% vs. 14.2%) are in

favorite of statement “fewer questions from students”.

On the other hand, more local students than

international student (48.5% vs. 39.7%) are in

favorite of statement “fewer group assignment”.

Meanwhile, more local students than international

(44.7% vs.35.1%) object to statement “lecturer

arrange assignment groups”. The most significant

difference in opinions between the two groups lies in

the statement relating to mixing work groups

between local and international students. While both

local and international students (49.1% and 51.5%,

respectively) show being interested in “working with

local students”, the two groups show significant

difference in statement “working with international

students” – while 47.9% of international students in

favorite of this statement, only 16.7% local students

shows agreement to it. Detailed agreement rates to

individual statements can be seen from Figure 4.

CROSS-CULTURAL LEARNING CHALLENGES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST-YEAR ASIAN

STUDENTS IN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES

301

Figure 4: Local (up) and international (bottom) students’

opinion to individual statements.

Both the survey and interview results show the need

of improving international students’ English

language ability, especially in their first year study in

Australian university. While this is a complex issue,

most students and staff agreed that, apart from

university level English support programs offered,

teaching staff can do something in their teaching

activities to help international students about their

English ability. Based on some students’ suggestions

and authors’ teaching experience, following

suggestions are made:

• For lecture/tutorial sessions, lecturers should

invite specific international students to

participate in discussion or asking/answering

questions, after giving adequate time for them to

reflect on what to say; encourage international

students to respond to in-class discussion from

both the teacher and fellow students.

• Lecturers should be encouraged to mix local and

international students when forming groups or

make a structured intervention for forming

groups wherever possible.

• Lecturers should set aside one-to-one

consultation time, or provide office hours for

clarifying and explaining material that students

did not fully understand in class. Instead of

answering questions via emails, lecturers should

encourage face-to-face consultation.

5 CONCLUSIONS

As a part of our ALTC research outcomes, this paper

examined the challenges, especially from language

and culture background aspects, that face Asian

international students studying in Australian

universities. We summarized the responses to a set of

relevant survey questions from both local and

international students. Some initial interview

comments in these aspects from both Australian

university teaching staff and Asian international

students were also analyzed. The findings of the

study will help Australian universities in making

more aimed cross-culture teaching and learning

strategies, which will further help local lecturers

improve their teaching quality in cross-culture

environment, and at the same time help our

international students effectively overcome their

difficulties and frustrations caused by cultural

barriers in their learning practice.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work presented in this paper was supported by

Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)

by the project “Strategies and approaches to teaching

and learning cross cultures” (project No.: CG7-494).

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