Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Students, Foreign Australia Case studies'

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.

Michael Fullan (1991) commented that little was known about how students viewed educational change, as no one had thought to ask them. By 2004 there was a small but growing literature seeking the views of students on a range of issues associated with schooling. This thesis presents the findings and analysis of a study of students’ perceptions of educational change. Much educational change involves shifts in power and responsibilities between the different actors, such as governments, school administrators, teachers, parents, the community and students. Despite widespread interest in educational change it is usually the macro-level policy elite who exert the most influence, using their power, privilege and status in order to propagate particular versions of schooling; students continue to be the ‘objects’ of policy initiatives, submerged in what Freire referred to as a ‘culture of silence’. Students are frequently excluded as participants in both the process and decision making phases of change. This research was based on exploring the exclusion of students from the processes of change in schools, resulting from a top-down policy initiative by the State department of education in WA, the Local Area Education Planning (LAEP) Framework. How policy is defined and acted on is explored, and the roles students could have, but often do not, are highlighted. An eclectic hybrid conceptual framework drawing on both critical theory and a postmodern policy cycle approach was used to analyse the LAEP Framework policy processes and students’ perceptions of the changes that ensued. The research comprised in-depth case studies of three schools undergoing substantial educational restructuring as the result of the macro-level LAEP Framework policy in the State of WA. Key elements of the policy were school amalgamations, closures and the creation of Middle Schools. Data collection methods included focus group and semi-structured interviews with students from the three schools, as well as document analysis, staff interviews and field notes. The research found that students were very perceptive about educational change, that they were deeply impacted by educational change and that they wanted to participate in restructuring agendas. Several meta-level themes emerged from the students’ ‘voices’, including issues associated with disempowerment, and competing social justice and economic discourses. The findings foreground the often messy and contradictory tensions evident in policy processes. The thesis concluded by developing theory on ways in which students could be included meaningfully as participants in educational change

This research focussed Singaporean student decision-making when choosing an institution for university studies. It is contended that if a university does not understand the dimensions of how prospective students make decisions when choosing an institution it cannot meaningfully offer representation to these potential customers. Fittingly, this thesis drew on past research from buyer behaviour and college choice studies. Adapting an established model of consumer decision-making (Engel, Blackwell and Miniard, 1990), the study investigated the degree of compliance with the Extended Problem Solving concept (Howard, 1963), including what factors determined and influenced choices, and whether students learn from past decisions. To this end, an exploratory / descriptive study used mixed methods (Creswell, 1994) to map out the dimensions of student decision-making within an Australian University and Singaporean Association case. Results indicated students? decision-making was closely aligned to simple models and their decision-making steps could be best described as (1) having a need, (2) searching and gathering information, (3) evaluating alternatives, (4) making choice/s, and (5) accepting an offer and enrolling in a university program. Further, respondents did not necessarily engage in extensive searching and gathering activities, as theorised, demonstrated limited learning and had few discernible influences on their choices. The implications for the University-Association case included the need to guide students through their decision-making processes by providing relevant data on which they could make informed choices, relative to career and income advancement. For those indicating that they would choose an institution for postgraduate studies, ensure undergraduate post-choice regret is minimised and offer more choices of management programs so that respondents would consider continuing their studies with the same institution. The study contended that, despite delimits and limitations, contributions to both theory and practise had been made and concluded with several ideas for future research, including proposing two alternative hypotheses.

This study involves an exploration of the perceptions of four overseas Kenyan students about their educational experiences at La Trobe University. A related aim of this research is to find out how these four students� previous learning in Kenya affects their learning and living experiences in Australia, for instance, in terms of demands associated with differences in learning and teaching styles, cultural expectations and proficiencies in English. A non-positivist, qualitative methodology is adopted for this research which employs an interview-based case study approach. Qualitative research demands that the world be approached with the assumption that nothing is trivial and that everything has the potential of being a clue which might unlock more comprehensive understanding of what is being researched. While the findings of this study confirm current understandings of the issues that international students commonly face, they also provide a more complex and individualized picture of the needs and aspirations of overseas Kenyan students. As the case studies demonstrate, the academic and related challenges four Kenyan students have encountered at La Trobe University are best understood in relation to several contexts. The difficulties these international students have experienced in the context of transition or border crossing � between two countries, cultures and educational systems � were exacerbated by inadequate pre-departure preparation and orientation on arrival. Incongruities between two educational systems � in particular between their prior teacher-centred schooling in Kenya and the unfamiliar student-centred university education in Australia � colour the academic and related challenges such students struggle to address, at least in their initial year at University. The broader, global context of the commodification and marketization of higher education � along with increasing strains of an under-resourced university sector in Australia � also impinge upon the lives of these four La Trobe students, in a variety of ways.

There is a need in the field of international education to form sound assessment practices to provide support for the study abroad experience. This study conducted assessment research using the CrossCultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) as a pre and post-test as well as structured interviews to assess the impact and determine the cultural learning outcomes of the two main types of study abroad programs at Ball State University.According to the CCAI, there was meaningful cultural learning that occurred for the students who participated in study abroad programs for the Fall 2001 semester. The interviews revealed that the student participants experienced gains in self-perception, communication skills, and worldview concepts. Further implications include the continuation of assessment in the international education field and the move towards learning based study abroad models.
Department of Educational Studies

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the educational experiences with computers of nine female international graduate students at Ball State University. Their experiences with computers before they came to the United States, their current use of computers during their study at Ball State University, challenges faced related to the use of computers during their graduate study in the United States, and the support received from the university to help them overcome these barriers were described. Descriptions of ways computers supplemented and enriched the experiences of female international graduate students in the completion of their graduate work at Ball State University were reported.Participants of the present study were nine female international graduate students from Ball State University. They were identified through cooperation with the Center For International Programs, which provided a list of names and e-mail addresses of female international graduate students who were enrolled in graduate studies at Ball State University. Nine female international graduate students were selected from the list.The researcher interviewed each participant for two hours on one occasion. Following each interview participants were asked to complete a brief questionnaire to identify age, country of origin, academic program, and length of time spent in the United States.The following conclusions were established based upon this research study: (1) most participants did not use computer applications on a daily basis during their undergraduate study in their native countries; (2) all participants used computer applications on a daily basis during their study at BSU; (3) some participants faced two important academic adjustments at the same time, the adjustment to the English language and the adjustment to the use of computer; (4) most participants received support from friends regarding the use of computers; (5) most participants faced problems regarding their typing skills; (6) using the library web site was a challenge for most participants; (7) all participants believed that the use of computers enriched their experiences during their study at BSU; and (7) all participants used the Self-Learning Theory to improve their computer skills.
Department of Educational Studies

The increase in Indigenous participation in university courses in recent years has not been matched by an increase in graduation. In the mainstream university population, student success has been linked to approaches to learning, which are linked to conceptions of learning. This study investigates what conceptions of learning Indigenous students identify at the beginning of their university career. Thirty six students completed a 'Reflections on Learning Inventory' developed by Meyer (1995). Nine of these students were interviewed in depth about what they thought learning was and how they would go about it. The interview analysis for each of the nine students was compared with their individual inventory profile. It was anticipated that the use of such complementary methods would increase the validity of the findings, but this was not the case. The participants identified a range of conceptions comparable with those identified by mainstream students, but with a greater emphasis on understanding. However, the descriptions of how learning happens were undeveloped and not likely to result in the kind of learning described. The findings will be useful in making curricula decisions in an Indigenous university preparation course that encourage students to adopt successful strategies for learning. In addition, it will also be useful information for the participants themselves as they become reflective learners.

A case study approach was adopted for this study. Four Taiwanese students enrolled in the writing program for international students at The University of Arizona were interviewed individually about (1) how they acquired the code of written English and what their L2 writing assumptions were upon entering The University of Arizona; and (2) what writing difficulties they experienced in a university writing program for international students and what their L2 writing assumptions were after completing a university writing program for international students. Findings from this research indicated that the four Taiwanese students did not have sufficient comprehensible input from pleasure reading or other voluntary, extracurricular sources. They acquired the code of written language from reading, participating in varied classroom activities such as small-group and whole-class discussions, peer review, teacher-student conferences, writing texts to different audiences for various purposes, analyzing model essays, practicing sentence combinations, and formal instruction in the composing process. Their writing difficulties could be summarized as follows: (1) not making good use of classroom activities to reshape ideas in terms of readers' expectations and their own writing intentions; (2) lack of experience to develop necessary reading and writing skills; (3) inadequate knowledge of the composing process; (4) inadequate syntax, vocabulary, or mechanics to express themselves in L2; (5) being influenced by their L1 rhetorical convention; (6) no intrinsic motivation to integrate with the target language, culture, or society; and (7) low expectations of success related to negative or weak teacher-student relationships. This research both reinforces and expands Krashen's (1984) model of second language acquisition and writing, showing the critical role of comprehensible input, the significance of natural acquisition over direct teaching of grammar rules and error correction, and the presence of an "affective" filter which is socially and culturally mediated, as well as cognitively and linguistically based.

The relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender identity has been largely a quantitative endeavor that has shown contradictory results. Furthermore, sexual identity has not been researched in foreign language anxiety literature. A qualitative account of LGBTQ+ language learners with different gender identities has been absent from the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between foreign language anxiety and sexual and gender identity. To gain insight into this relationship, this qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of four LGBTQ+ foreign language university students who represented three gender identities. Data were collected through multiple, in-depth interviews, observations, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS, Horwitz et al., 1986), and a questionnaire. The four participants were further situated through the results of the FLCAS, which was distributed to the research site and garnered 141 responses. Presentation of the data includes portraits of two of the participants and a cross-case analysis of the four participants. The portraits provided rich, thick descriptions of the educational and historical backgrounds of the two learners as well as themes related to their individual anxiety levels. The cross-case analysis found that foreign language anxiety across participants related to invalidated identity, privileged identities, context, and trait anxiety. These themes largely caused participants to experience communication apprehension, possible cognitive interference, avoidance behavior, and a lack of willingness to communicate. This study offers pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research. The data show that language teachers need to be aware of the pervasive nature of foreign language anxiety and how the identities of LGBTQ+ students can play into foreign language anxiety. Furthermore, teachers need to affirm the identities of their students.

This research addressed two major questions: (1) what effect does instruction in writing heuristics have on the expository writing of E.S.L. students? (2) is one writing heuristic better than another? In an experiment involving 116 twelfth-graders in eight classes, the subjects were randomly assigned within classes to one of three groups. Each of the three groups received ten hours of instruction: two groups in writing heuristics, and a third group which served as an experimental control received instruction in grammar. The study was a pretest/posttest design where essays were administered as the tests. The students' essays were scored for quantity (number of words) and quality. Scores were analyzed in a repeated measures design. The results revealed that there were no significant differences between the three groups on either the quantitative or qualitative measures. Although a review of the literature indicated support for the use of writing heuristics with E.S.L. students, the experimental evidence in this study does not substantiate this view.
Education, Faculty of
Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of
Graduate

The study examines the life and educational experiences of five Generation 1.5 students at California State University, San Bernardino and analyzes how the first cultural socialization affects later English academic language learning. The study used three methods of gathering data: a survey questionnaire, participant-observation, and one-on-one interviews. The study also reviews other case studies that describe life and educational experiences as well as the language and cultural connections of Generation 1.5 students. An analysis of lexical, structural and interactional differences of the spoken and written modes of the English language is also included. The study's findings indicate that learning the vocabulary of the written language was a key factor in being a member of the academic community.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a group of Chinese business students understood the nature and the purpose of the instruction techniques they were exposed to in Britain, and the attitudes the students, Chinese lecturers in China and British lecturers in Britain held towards seminar discussions. The study also investigated how and to what extent students’ prior learning experiences predisposed them to certain attitudes towards seminar discussions. The student participants in this study undertook Part I of their degree programme at a Chinese university for two years before transferring to Britain to study for one year, graduating with a British Bachelors Degree in International Business. Data was gathered from classroom observations, follow-up and exploratory interviews, and a questionnaire survey to discover more about the students’ learning experiences in Part I in China, and from classroom observations, audio-recordings, and follow-up and exploratory interviews to investigate the same group of students’ learning experiences in Part II in Britain. A ranking task and interviews were used to identify the preferences of Chinese students, British lecturers, and Chinese lecturers from China in terms of specific group discussion methods. The study identified three discussion methods used by students in British seminars: these have been termed ‘spiral’, ‘exploratory’ and ‘individual’ methods. The Chinese students tended to use the ‘spiral’ method, repeatedly bringing the discussion back to the question provided by the seminar tutor, whereas the non-Chinese students tended to use the ‘exploratory’ method, reformulating each other’s opinions and building on them by bringing in new information. When discussing within Chinese-only groups, the Chinese students used the ‘individual’ method whereby a group leader took responsibility for the outcomes of the discussion and the other members did not build upon each other’s contributions. Chinese and non-Chinese students sometimes misunderstood each others’ intentions, but were not likely to notice that miscommunication had occurred. The ranking task and the follow-up interviews revealed that the British lecturers preferred the ‘exploratory’ discussion method, whereas Chinese lecturers from China and Chinese students preferred the ‘spiral’ method. The British lecturers were found to adopt a constructivist approach to group discussion tasks, seeing them as a means by which students could obtain professional experience. They treated Business and Management knowledge as divergent and ‘soft’. Chinese lecturers and students, on the other hand, were found to perceive group discussion as a kind of assessment and were keen to find ‘correct’ answers to case study problems, treating Business and Management as convergent and hard disciplines which offered judgements on good practice. The Chinese lecturers in Part I of the programme organised group discussion so that students could exchange answers and check their accuracy, and, perhaps because of this, in Part I the students learnt in an exam-oriented way, strategically dividing up their tasks and working individually on their own task portions in order to find an acceptable answer as quickly as possible. These students were found to continue to employ these strategies during group work after they had transferred to the British component of their degree programme. The study has made a theoretical contribution to knowledge concerning the cultural influences on students’ classroom interactional practices. The findings from the study have implications for the teaching of intercultural business communication, and the enhancement of students’ learning experiences in international business programmes, in business English programmes in China, and whilst learning within groups.

This study works with Rotary Youth Exchange to investigate the role of predeparture intercultural training in preparing students to study abroad so that they 5 positively integrate their experience to become interculturally competent people. The Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) along with an intercultural background survey were administered to each student during the first one to four months of his or her exchange to measure his or her intercultural competency development and to learn li about the student's intercultural background. Developing explicit evidence for the role of intercultural training through this study proved unsuccessful because of the students' Jack of knowledge about the subject. However, through analysis of students' answers to decipher the quality of training received and comparing that information to the students' IES scores, the vital role of intercultural training in predeparture orientation is implied.

When selecting a study abroad program, some students undertake a semester or academic-year study abroad program, while other students undertake a two-to eight-week study abroad program. Both study abroad opportunities allow students to become immersed in a culture different from their own. This research project is an exploratory study that looks at the impact of short-term study abroad programs on undergraduates at a public institution. This study examines how participants change in regards to their understanding of the host culture, explores what students learn about their host cultures, and looks at the intercultural development that the students gain from spending a short time abroad on an academic program. The people who participated in this research project are students from the University of Utah who spent time on a short-term (two to eight weeks) study abroad program. The literature reviewed in this study looks at number of articles that have been written about both short-term study abroad programs as well as long-term study abroad programs. The participants in this study came from a variety of academic backgrounds and class standings. A list was compiled of participants who indicated on their study abroad application that they did not have any previous international experience prior to their short-term study abroad experience. From this list, students were randomly emailed asking if they would like to participate on this study. This study revealed that individuals who participate in a short-term study abroad program do have transformative experiences. This study concluded that individuals who participate on short-term study abroad programs experienced personal growth as a result of studying abroad.

This was a qualitative study that used the procedures of case study design while incorporating ethnographic techniques of interviewing and non-participant observation in classrooms with six selected students, six teachers, and eight interviews of selected administrators and staff members in one middle school in a large Texas urban school district. The purpose of this study was to understand the educational experiences and perceptions of selected immigrant students and their mainstream teachers. Following the method of case study design, the educational experiences of English Language Learner (ELL) students were examined in the naturally occurring context of the school and the classroom. Because the goal of case studies is to understand a given phenomenon from the perceptions of the participants (referred to as “emic” perspective) all participants were interviewed in-depth in order to understand their unique perceptions. The study took place during a five-month period in the spring of 2002. Data were analyzed concurrently during data collection and were framed by Geneva Gay's (2000) characteristics of culturally responsive teaching. The findings and interpretation of data are divided into three parts that encompass the results of the five research questions that guided this study. Part one presents the teachers' perceptions and addresses the themes that arose from research questions one and two: what are teachers' perceptions of the academic problems facing (ELL) students as they enter the mainstream classroom? What instructional practices do regular teachers use to meet the academic needs of students? Part two presents the students' perceptions and addresses the findings from research questions three and four: what are (ELL) students' perceptions of the academic challenges facing them in the mainstream classroom? What are the ELL students' perceptions of the instructional practices used by mainstream teachers to meet their academic needs? Part three addresses the fifth research question that guided this study: What administrative policies and procedures are in place in the school and district to meet the educational needs of ELL students?

It is widely assumed that participation in study abroad contributes to developing second language (L2) proficiency, as well as related outcomes such as higher levels of L2 learning motivation and intercultural competence. However, empirical studies into the outcomes of participation in study abroad have been affected by a series of methodological limitations, including complete reliance on participant self-assessment, the omission of longitudinal design elements, failure to control for non-equivalent comparison groups where these are included and insufficient sample sizes for testing programme effects. Thus, the present study investigates further the impact of studying abroad with the EU's ERASMUS programme on the participants' overall L2 proficiency, their self-efficacy and anxiety in using the L2 with native and non-native speakers and on their self-motivation to continue learning the L2. To this end, a longitudinal mixed methods design was employed in which 143 German university students who applied for an ERASMUS exchange with a British university for the academic year 2012-2013 and were either accepted or rejected/ withdrawn formed the abroad and comparison groups. All students completed C-tests of overall English language proficiency and questionnaires that inquired into the students' mobility history, their L2 learning background, L2 motivation, intergroup attitudes and aspects of the study abroad experience itself. Both instruments were administered online at the onset of the study abroad period (September 2012), one term into the programme (December 2012) and prior to the students' return (either December 2012 or June 2013). This predominantly quantitative group-level study served to establish the outcomes of participation in study abroad for the students' linguistic and motivational development. Repeated interviews with a sub-sample of 15 participants served to illuminate the observed outcome patterns in terms of the motivational dynamics during study abroad, as well as common factors associated with individual differences in linguistic development. The results of the study show that during the first 3 months abroad the ERASMUS students made significantly higher gains in overall English proficiency than the group of potentially mobile students who continued to study at home. The effect of the learning context was large and highly significant (p =.001), even after the influence of pre-existing participant characteristics on the students' proficiency development was controlled for. During the subsequent 6 months of the study abroad period, however, progress among the ERASMUS group slowed and the between-group differences were no longer significant. The participants' L2 proficiency level at programme entry emerged as the strongest predictor of overall L2 proficiency gain, explaining up to 31.5% of the variance. The students' attitudes towards their own national group, their perceptions of self-efficacy and feelings of anxiety when using English in social interactions, the perceived present-future L2 self-discrepancy and gender explained another 13.6% of the variance in overall L2 proficiency gain. Learner-external factors, including participation in English language instruction, participation in clubs and societies, the number of academic contact hours and type of enrolment, and free time spent with co-national peers, including friends and family back home explained a further 10.9%. The qualitative analysis of the students' accounts provided further insights into the ways in which these factors play out in L2 learning abroad, as well as into the students' perceptions of aspects of studying abroad that contributed most to their linguistic development. Regarding the motivational impact of the study abroad experience, the study found that ERASMUS students tended to develop significantly higher levels of self-efficacy in using English in social interactions as compared to the group of potentially mobile students who continued to study at home, while both the levels of perceived present-future self-discrepancy and English use anxiety with native and non-native speakers fell during the first 3 months abroad. While the overall impact of the study abroad experience on the students' motivation to continue learning the L2 was perceived as positive by the vast majority of participants, a decline in learning motivation was observed for most students after the initial 3-month period. The qualitative analysis showed that this decline can be plausibly explained by developments in the students' English self-concept that occurred in response to the study abroad experience. Evidence-based recommendations are made regarding ways in which the linguistic and motivational development of ERASMUS students can be more effectively supported by higher education institutions.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-270) Based on 18-months fieldwork, 1997-1999, in various organisations, social clubs and radio programs that were constructed by participants and 'outsiders' as an expression of a local migrant community. Attempts to answer and challenge what it means to be a Latin American in Adelaide and in what sense Latin American migrants and refugees in Adelaide can be spoken about as members of an 'ethnic/migrant community' in relation to the official multiculturalism discourse and popular representations of migrants in Australia.

This study examines two groups -international and domestic students at Portland State University (PSU) - in terms of their motivations to seek university-health services, and their satisfaction with university-health services. The Theory of Motivated Information Management (W. A. Afifi & Weiner, 2004) served as the foundation for this study to examine the preferences of students in terms of the ways they seek information about their health concerns. Differences in international and domestic students' anxiety, efficacy, and satisfaction with physicians were supported. International students reported more anxiety than domestic students. Domestic students reported being more efficacious than international students when talking to a medical provider about a current medical issue. Also, international students reported higher satisfaction with a medical provider at their last university health services visit. First, subjects were asked if they currently have a medical concern for which they might consider consulting a physician at PSU health services. If this scenario applied, subjects were asked to rate a variety of possible, theoretically informed motivations for seeking medical information by consulting a physician, to test the Theory of Motivated Information Management. Second, subjects were asked if they have previously consulted a physician at PSU health services. If this scenario applied, subjects were asked to provide satisfaction ratings of the physician and staff. The results contribute to the understanding of information-seeking processes and support the theory's effectiveness in this situation, explaining where international and domestic students are significantly different in regard to their responses.

The present dissertation, which contributes to the dearth of research on the acquisition of Spanish as a foreign language by Filipinos, is a pseudolongitudinal study of their Spanish interlanguage (IL) whose two-fold objective is to provide a descriptive analysis of their developing IL based on errors produced in their speech as influenced by language proficiency levels and crosslinguistic similarity of their other known languages, and to identify the thresholds of their IL based on the prompted and unprompted self-repair of these errors. Participants of the study were four groups of students learning Spanish in a Philippine university who have had 432 hours, 1,008 hours, 1,872 hours, and 2,160 hours of formal instruction in Spanish, respectively. They were recorded in their own classroom contexts and individually in order to build two complementing oral corpora for the analysis of their speech. For the gathering of monologic data elicitation procedures from the research project El desarrollo del repertorio lingüístico en hablantes no nativos de castellano y catalán (Tolchinsky & Perera, 2006), which form part of the larger research project Developing Literacy in Different Contexts and Different Languages (Berman & Verhoeven, 2002) was adopted. All 20 recorded classroom sessions and 40 monologic texts were transcribed according to the conventions of a transcription program. Errors were categorized according to their formal linguistic levels (Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2010), while prompted and unprompted self-repairs were identified as a result of classifying teacher feedback based on an adapted taxonomy of recasts and prompts (Lyster & Ranta, 1997). To respond to the objectives the following were analyzed: (a) the distribution of error types and subtypes in relation to the targetlanguage (TL) proficiency, (b) the frequency of attempts to self-repair these errors with and without the prompting of the teacher, (c) the rate of success of prompted and unprompted self-repairs in relation to TL proficiency, and (d) the effect of crosslinguistic similarity of previously learned languages and their corresponding proficiency levels on error production. Results showed that morphosyntactic errors were produced the most, followed by lexicalsemantic errors, and lastly, by phonetic-phonological errors, with each proficiency group producing such errors quite differently (e.g., omission of determiners is largely a characteristic of a beginner). Results likewise showed that while TL proficiency has a negative effect on the production of errors, it has no effect on the distribution of error types nor in the recognition of these errors. Teachers and students alike verbally recognized approximately 20% of the errors; teachers called out lexical-semantic errors the most, while students most independently recognized and successfully self-repair morphosyntactic errors. Of the recognized errors, about 60% of teacher-prompted errors and roughly 80% of independently recognized errors were successfully repaired. Albeit inconclusive, TL proficiency may have a positive effect on success in self-repair. By contrast, SL proficiency was observed to have a positive effect on the production of transfer errors, however, in the case of the multilingual learner, transfer mostly comes from the more objectively similar language and not from the language that he perceives to be more similar to the TL. The implications of these findings for future research and language pedagogy are outlined in the final chapter, which concludes the present dissertation.
Esta tesis, que contribuye a la carencia de estudios sobre la adquisición de los filipinos del español como lengua extranjera, tiene el doble objetivo de proporcionar un análisis descriptivo de su interlengua (IL) en desarrollo, partiendo de los errores encontrados en su producción oral influidos por el conocimiento de otros idiomas y el dominio de éstos; y de identificar los límites de su IL partiendo de las autorreparaciones. Se recogieron y transcribieron los datos de interacción en el aula (20 horas) y datos monológicos producidos (40 textos) por cuatro grupos de alumnos de español de una universidad filipina, que habían pertenecientes a los niveles A1-, A1+, B1- y B1+. Para responder a los objetivos, se analizaron los siguientes aspectos: (a) la distribución de los tipos y tipos de errores en relación con el dominio de la lengua objeto (LO), (b) la frecuencia de las autorreparaciones con y sin la ayuda del profesor, (c) la tasa de éxito de las autorreparaciones en relación con el dominio de la LO, y (d) el efecto de la similitud de lenguas previamente aprendidas y del nivel de dominio de dichas lenguas en la producción de errores. Los resultados indican que los errores morfosintácticos son los que aparecen con mayor frecuencia, seguidos, en este orden, por los léxico-semánticos y los fonético-fonológicos. También se observa que si bien el dominio de la LO tiene un efecto negativo en la producción total de errores, no determina la distribución de los tipos de error ni el reconocimiento de estos errores por parte de los aprendices. Por otra parte, los alumnos se autorreparon con más éxito en el caso de aquellos errores que son capaces de identificar por sí mismos en contraste con lo que ocurre con los detectados con la ayuda del profesor. Por el contrario, el dominio de otras lenguas y/o su cercanía tipológica con la LO tienen un efecto positivo en la producción de errores de transferencia. Es decir, cuánto más dominio y más similitud tiene, mayor es su influencia en la producción de errores. Se concluye el trabajo con una discusión de las implicaciones de estos hallazgos.

This research thesis set out to better understand the professional knowledge bases of Western teachers working in offshore education in Indonesia. This research explored what two groups of Western teachers said about the students they taught, their own role, professional and social identity, the knowledge transmitted, and their pedagogical strategies whilst teaching offshore. Such an investigation is significant on a number of levels. Firstly, these teachers were working within a period of rapid economic, political, cultural and educational change described as 'New Times' (Hall, 1996a). Secondly, the experiences of teachers working in offshore education have rarely been reported in the literature (see Johnston, 1999). A review of the literature on teachers' professional knowledge bases (Shulman, 1986a, 1986b, 1987; Turner-Bisset, 1997, 1999) concluded that, in general terms, teachers draw on three main interrelated and changing knowledge bases: knowledge of content, knowledge of teaching processes and knowledge of their students. This review also explored the notion that teachers had an additional knowledge base that was in a continual state of negotiation and closely related to the aforementioned knowledge bases: teachers' knowledge of their own and students' pedagogic identities (Bernstein, 2000). A theoretical framework appropriate to exploring the overarching research problem was developed. This framework drew on models of teachers' knowledge bases (Elbaz, 1983; Shulman, 1986a, 1986b, 1987; Nias, 1989; Turner-Bisset, 1997, 1999), the sociology of knowledge (Bernstein, 1975, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000), and notions of pedagogic identity (Bernstein, 2000). This framework theorised the types of knowledges taught, categories of teaching process knowledge, and the range of pedagogic identities made available to teachers and students in new times. More specifically, this research examined two case studies (see Stake, 1988, 2000; Yin, 1994) of Western teachers employed by Australian educational institutions who worked in Central Java, Indonesia, in the mid-to-late 1990s. The teacher participants from both case studies taught a range of subjects and used English as the medium of instruction. Data for both case studies were generated via semistructured interviews (see Kvale, 1996; Silverman, 1985, 1997). The interviews focused on the teachers' descriptions of the learner characteristics of Indonesian students, their professional roles whilst teaching offshore, and curriculum and pedagogic design. The analyses produced four major findings. The first major finding of the analyses confirmed that the teacher participants in this study drew on all proposed professional knowledge bases and that these knowledge bases were interrelated. This suggests that teachers must have all knowledge bases present for them to do their work successfully. The second major finding was that teachers' professional knowledge bases were constantly being negotiated in response to their beliefs about their work and the past, present and future demands of the local context. For example, the content and teaching processes of English lessons may have varied as their own and their students' pedagogic identities were re-negotiated in different contexts of teaching and learning. Another major finding was that it was only when the teachers entered into dialogue with the Indonesian students and community members and/or reflective dialogue amongst themselves, that they started to question the stereotypical views of Indonesian learners as passive, shy and quiet. The final major finding was that the teachers were positioned in multiple ways by contradictory and conflicting discourses. The analyses suggested that teachers' pedagogic identities were a site of struggle between dominant market orientations and the criteria that the teachers thought should determine who was a legitimate teacher of offshore Indonesian students. The accounts from one of the case studies suggested that dominant market orientations centred on experience and qualifications in unison with prescribed and proscribed cultural, gender and age relations. Competent teachers who were perceived to be white, Western, male and senior in terms of age relations seemed to be the most easily accepted as offshore teachers of foundation programs for Indonesian students. The analyses suggested that the teachers thought that their legitimacy to be an offshore teacher of Indonesian students should be based on their teaching expertise alone. However, managers of Australian offshore educational institutions conceded that it was very difficult to bring about change in terms of teacher legitimisation. These findings have three implications for the work of offshore teachers and program administrators. Firstly, offshore programs that favour the pre-packaging of curricula content with little emphasis on the professional development and support needs of teachers do not foster work conditions which encourage teachers to re-design or modify curricula in response to the specific needs of learners. Secondly, pre-packaged programs do not support teachers to enter into negotiations concerning students' or their own pedagogic identities or the past, present and future demands of local contexts. These are important implications because they affect the way that teachers work, and hence how responsive teachers can be to learners' needs and how active they can be in the negotiation process as it relates to pedagogic identities. Finally, the findings point to the importance of establishing a learning community or learning network to assist Western teachers engaged in offshore educational work in Asian countries such as Indonesia. Such a community or network would enable teachers to engage and modify the complexity of knowledge bases required for effective localised offshore teaching. Given the burgeoning increase in the availability and use of electronic technology in new times, such as internet, emails and web cameras, these learning networks could be set up to have maximum benefit with minimal on-going costs.

This research thesis set out to better understand the professional knowledge bases of Western teachers working in offshore education in Indonesia. This research explored what two groups of Western teachers said about the students they taught, their own role, professional and social identity, the knowledge transmitted, and their pedagogical strategies whilst teaching offshore. Such an investigation is significant on a number of levels. Firstly, these teachers were working within a period of rapid economic, political, cultural and educational change described as 'New Times' (Hall, 1996a). Secondly, the experiences of teachers working in offshore education have rarely been reported in the literature (see Johnston, 1999). A review of the literature on teachers' professional knowledge bases (Shulman, 1986a, 1986b, 1987; Turner-Bisset, 1997, 1999) concluded that, in general terms, teachers draw on three main interrelated and changing knowledge bases: knowledge of content, knowledge of teaching processes and knowledge of their students. This review also explored the notion that teachers had an additional knowledge base that was in a continual state of negotiation and closely related to the aforementioned knowledge bases: teachers' knowledge of their own and students' pedagogic identities (Bernstein, 2000). A theoretical framework appropriate to exploring the overarching research problem was developed. This framework drew on models of teachers' knowledge bases (Elbaz, 1983; Shulman, 1986a, 1986b, 1987; Nias, 1989; Turner-Bisset, 1997, 1999), the sociology of knowledge (Bernstein, 1975, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000), and notions of pedagogic identity (Bernstein, 2000). This framework theorised the types of knowledges taught, categories of teaching process knowledge, and the range of pedagogic identities made available to teachers and students in new times. More specifically, this research examined two case studies (see Stake, 1988, 2000; Yin, 1994) of Western teachers employed by Australian educational institutions who worked in Central Java, Indonesia, in the mid-to-late 1990s. The teacher participants from both case studies taught a range of subjects and used English as the medium of instruction. Data for both case studies were generated via semistructured interviews (see Kvale, 1996; Silverman, 1985, 1997). The interviews focused on the teachers' descriptions of the learner characteristics of Indonesian students, their professional roles whilst teaching offshore, and curriculum and pedagogic design. The analyses produced four major findings. The first major finding of the analyses confirmed that the teacher participants in this study drew on all proposed professional knowledge bases and that these knowledge bases were interrelated. This suggests that teachers must have all knowledge bases present for them to do their work successfully. The second major finding was that teachers' professional knowledge bases were constantly being negotiated in response to their beliefs about their work and the past, present and future demands of the local context. For example, the content and teaching processes of English lessons may have varied as their own and their students' pedagogic identities were re-negotiated in different contexts of teaching and learning. Another major finding was that it was only when the teachers entered into dialogue with the Indonesian students and community members and/or reflective dialogue amongst themselves, that they started to question the stereotypical views of Indonesian learners as passive, shy and quiet. The final major finding was that the teachers were positioned in multiple ways by contradictory and conflicting discourses. The analyses suggested that teachers' pedagogic identities were a site of struggle between dominant market orientations and the criteria that the teachers thought should determine who was a legitimate teacher of offshore Indonesian students. The accounts from one of the case studies suggested that dominant market orientations centred on experience and qualifications in unison with prescribed and proscribed cultural, gender and age relations. Competent teachers who were perceived to be white, Western, male and senior in terms of age relations seemed to be the most easily accepted as offshore teachers of foundation programs for Indonesian students. The analyses suggested that the teachers thought that their legitimacy to be an offshore teacher of Indonesian students should be based on their teaching expertise alone. However, managers of Australian offshore educational institutions conceded that it was very difficult to bring about change in terms of teacher legitimisation. These findings have three implications for the work of offshore teachers and program administrators. Firstly, offshore programs that favour the pre-packaging of curricula content with little emphasis on the professional development and support needs of teachers do not foster work conditions which encourage teachers to re-design or modify curricula in response to the specific needs of learners. Secondly, pre-packaged programs do not support teachers to enter into negotiations concerning students' or their own pedagogic identities or the past, present and future demands of local contexts. These are important implications because they affect the way that teachers work, and hence how responsive teachers can be to learners' needs and how active they can be in the negotiation process as it relates to pedagogic identities. Finally, the findings point to the importance of establishing a learning community or learning network to assist Western teachers engaged in offshore educational work in Asian countries such as Indonesia. Such a community or network would enable teachers to engage and modify the complexity of knowledge bases required for effective localised offshore teaching. Given the burgeoning increase in the availability and use of electronic technology in new times, such as internet, emails and web cameras, these learning networks could be set up to have maximum benefit with minimal on-going costs.

Reforms to the national research and research training system by the Commonwealth Government of Australia sought to effectively connect research conducted in universities to Australia's national innovation system. Research training has a key role in ensuring an adequate supply of highly skilled people for the national innovation system. During their studies, research students produce and disseminate a massive amount of new knowledge. Prior to this study, there was no research that examined the contribution of research training to Australia's national innovation system despite the existence of policy initiatives aiming to enhance this contribution. Given Australia's below average (but improving) innovation performance compared to other OECD countries, the inclusion of Finland and the United States provided further insights into the key research question. This study examined three obvious ways that research training contributes to the national innovation systems in the three countries: the international mobility and migration of research students and graduates, knowledge production and distribution by research students, and the impact of research training as advanced human capital formation on economic growth. Findings have informed the concept of a research training culture of innovation that aims to enhance the contribution of research training to Australia's national innovation system. Key features include internationally competitive research and research training environments; research training programs that equip students with economically-relevant knowledge and the capabilities required by employers operating in knowledge-based economies; attractive research careers in different sectors; a national commitment to R&D as indicated by high levels of gross and business R&D expenditure; high private and social rates of return from research training; and the horizontal coordination of key organisations that create policy for, and/or invest in research training.

Reforms to the national research and research training system by the Commonwealth Government of Australia sought to effectively connect research conducted in universities to Australia's national innovation system. Research training has a key role in ensuring an adequate supply of highly skilled people for the national innovation system. During their studies, research students produce and disseminate a massive amount of new knowledge. Prior to this study, there was no research that examined the contribution of research training to Australia's national innovation system despite the existence of policy initiatives aiming to enhance this contribution. Given Australia's below average (but improving) innovation performance compared to other OECD countries, the inclusion of Finland and the United States provided further insights into the key research question. This study examined three obvious ways that research training contributes to the national innovation systems in the three countries: the international mobility and migration of research students and graduates, knowledge production and distribution by research students, and the impact of research training as advanced human capital formation on economic growth. Findings have informed the concept of a research training culture of innovation that aims to enhance the contribution of research training to Australia's national innovation system. Key features include internationally competitive research and research training environments; research training programs that equip students with economically-relevant knowledge and the capabilities required by employers operating in knowledge-based economies; attractive research careers in different sectors; a national commitment to R&D as indicated by high levels of gross and business R&D expenditure; high private and social rates of return from research training; and the horizontal coordination of key organisations that create policy for, and/or invest in research training.

In listening to members of different cultures, it is possible to feel bad, even while recognising that the speaker is trying to speak politely. Sometimes we do not feel very comfortable with someone else’s speech, even though their expressions might be very polite with the choice of specific linguistic forms to show a high level of formality such as terms of address and specific types of formulaic expression such as ' I (don 't) think ... ' or ' I (don't) believe' . The speaker may be intending to speak politely in a considerate way. But the hearer's reaction may be quite different.

Research on projectably multi-unit tellings (e.g., stories) has largely focused on their contexts of emergence, beginnings, endings, and uptakes (or lack thereof), rather than on their ‘middles.’ The relatively small literature on such ‘middles’ has focused on different types of responsive behaviors when they do occur (e.g., continuers). However, there is virtually no research on relevance rules that might systematically organize these ‘middles,’ including the production of responsive behaviors (or lack thereof) and the management of intersubjectivity. This thesis describes and defends one such relevance rule: Advisors are strongly accountable for responding – either vocally and/or nonvocally – at each and every complex possible-completion place. This relevance rule provides an inferential framework with which to monitor and manage advisors’ understanding of ‘middle’ units. The method used is conversation analysis – including the analysis of deviant cases – complemented by the coding of data and resultant distributional patterns. Data are dual-camera-videotaped, drop-in, advising sessions conducted in English between 20 non-native-English-speaking international students and native-English-speaking advisors working for a university's Office of International Affairs. Specifically, data involve students’ projectably multi-unit problem presentations (e.g., related to Visa status, course scheduling, international travel, housing, etc.).

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was designed to investigate whether metacognitive instruction could be used to improve the reading comprehension of isiXhosa-speaking English Second Language (ESL) learners in the FET phase. The metacognitive instruction encompassed increasing the learners’ metacognitive awareness, equipping them with metacognitive reading strategies and facilitating the transfer of these strategies to content subjects such as Life Sciences and Geography. The Vygotskian sociocultural theory that accounts for the roles of social, cultural, and historical contexts in comprehending text during academic reading tasks provided an appropriate theoretical framework for conducting the research. The study was comprised of one cycle of action research, framed within a paradigm of praxis. It took place in a high school in a disadvantaged community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. A qualitative methodology allowed for in-depth insight into the metacognitive habits of ESL learners through various forms of data collection. Eight participants in Grade 10, ranging between 16 and 19 years of age, took part in the study. Their reading comprehension abilities varied, as did their English proficiency. The data were presented as collected in the phases of the action research cycle and summed up in three data processes. Each data set was embedded in the chronological timeline of the study’s progress and discussed in light thereof. Three broad themes were derived from the data, using qualitative content analysis. The data revealed that metacognitive instruction can improve the English reading comprehension of isiXhosa-speaking learners. This was reflected in both the quantitative and qualitative data sets. The quantitative data were used descriptively and interpreted qualitatively, in line with the qualitative methodology. The results of the study indicated that before metacognitive instruction can be successful, language proficiency, basic linguistic skills, and mental representations are crucial. The findings showed that mind mapping and constructing mental representations of the text are two effective metacognitive reading strategies that are easily transferable across the curriculum. They also revealed the strong link between culture and reading practices amongst different population groups. Cultural understandings of concepts such as respect and authority had a profound influence on the learners’ considerations of what it means to learn, read and understand.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het ten doel gehad om te bepaal of metakognitiewe onderrig aangewend kan word ter verbetering van leesbegrip by Xhosasprekende leerders wat Engels Tweede Taal (ETT) in die fase verdere onderwys en opleiding (VOO) neem. Metakognitiewe onderrig het behels om die leerders se metakognitiewe bewustheid te verhoog, hulle dan met metakognitiewe leesstrategieë toe te rus, en hulle laastens daardie strategieë na inhoudsvakke soos Lewenswetenskappe en Geografie te laat oordra. Vygotsky se sosiokulturele teorie het ’n toepaslike teoretiese raamwerk gebied vir die navorsing, wat die rol van sosiale, kulturele en historiese kontekste in teksbegrip gedurende akademiese leestake in ag geneem het. Die studie het uit een siklus aksienavorsing binne ’n praktiese paradigma bestaan. Dit is in ’n hoërskool in ’n benadeelde gemeenskap in die provinsie Wes-Kaap, Suid-Afrika, onderneem. ’n Kwalitatiewe metodologie het deur middel van verskeie vorme van data-insameling diepe insig in die metakognitiewe gewoontes van ETT-leerders gebied. Altesaam agt graad 10-leerders van tussen 16 en 19 jaar, met wisselende leesbegripvermoëns én vaardigheid in Engels, het deelgeneem. Die data is aangebied soos dit in die fases van die aksienavorsingsiklus ingesamel is, en is in drie dataprosesse saamgevat. Elke datastel is op die chronologiese vorderingstydlyn van die studie geplaas en teen daardie agtergrond bespreek. Drie algemene temas is met behulp van kwalitatiewe inhoudsontleding uit die data afgelei. Die data het getoon dat metakognitiewe onderrig wél Xhosasprekende leerders se leesbegrip in Engels kan verbeter. Dít het uit sowel die kwantitatiewe as kwalitatiewe datastelle geblyk. In pas met die kwalitatiewe metodologie, is die kwantitatiewe data beskrywend aangewend en kwalitatief vertolk. Die studie het beklemtoon dat taalbedrewenheid, basiese taalvaardighede en geestesvoorstellings noodsaaklik is vir suksesvolle metakognitiewe onderrig. Die bevindinge toon dat konsepkaarte (“mind mapping”) en die konstruksie van geestesvoorstellings van die teks twee doeltreffende metakognitiewe leesstrategieë is wat maklik op die hele kurrikulum toegepas kan word. Die studie het ook ’n sterk verband tussen kultuur en leespraktyke onder verskillende groeperinge uitgewys. Die kulturele begrip van konsepte soos respek en gesag het ’n diepgaande invloed gehad op wat die leerders onder ‘leer’, ‘lees’ en ‘begryp’ verstaan het.

Mito, Susanna K. A.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-226).
Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix also in Japanese.
ABSTRACT (English) --- p.i
ABSTRACT (Chinese) --- p.ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.v
TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vii
LIST OF TABLES --- p.xix
ACRONYMS --- p.xx
Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1.1 --- Background to this Study --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Purpose of this Study --- p.2
Chapter 1.3 --- Research Questions --- p.3
Chapter 1.4 --- Significance of this Study --- p.4
Chapter 1.5 --- Organization --- p.5
Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.7
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Terminology --- p.7
Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- Study Abroad --- p.7
Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Program Duration --- p.8
Chapter 2.2 --- Overview of Study Abroad Literature --- p.8
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Product-Orientated Studies of Language and Intercultural Learning --- p.9
Chapter 2.2.2 --- Process-Orientated Studies of Language and Intercultural Learning --- p.11
Chapter 2.3 --- Intercultural Communicative Competence --- p.16
Chapter 2.3.1 --- Byram's (1997) Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence --- p.21
Chapter 2.4 --- Individual Differences and Study Abroad --- p.27
Chapter 2.4.1 --- Attitude --- p.28
Chapter 2.4.2 --- "Motivation, Investment and Language Learning" --- p.31
Chapter 2.4.3 --- Willingness to Communicate (WTC) --- p.33
Chapter 2.4.4 --- Language Anxiety --- p.35
Chapter 2.4.5 --- Self-Efficacy --- p.36
Chapter 2.4.6 --- "Ecology, Linguistic/Cultural Affordances and Agency" --- p.37
Chapter 2.4.7 --- Culture Shock and Adjustment --- p.39
Chapter 2.5 --- Summary --- p.44
Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM OVERVIEW AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.46
Chapter 3.2 --- Part One: Overview of the Micro-term Study Abroad Program --- p.46
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Overview of the Micro-term Study Abroad Program --- p.46
Chapter 3.2.1.1. --- Program Aims --- p.46
Chapter 3.2.1.2 --- Home Institution --- p.47
Chapter 3.2.1.2.1 --- Background --- p.47
Chapter 3.2.1.2.2 --- International Course --- p.47
Chapter 3.2.1.3 --- Host Institution --- p.48
Chapter 3.2.1.3.1 --- Background --- p.48
Chapter 3.2.1.3.2 --- Homestay Family Selection Process --- p.48
Chapter 3.2.1.3.3 --- The Buddy System --- p.49
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Program Components --- p.49
Chapter 3.2.2.1 --- Pre-Sojourn --- p.49
Chapter 3.2.2.1.1 --- Pre-Sojourn Preparation --- p.49
Chapter 3.2.2.1.1.1. --- Pre-Sojourn Recruitment --- p.50
Chapter 3.2.2.1.2 --- Orientation Materials --- p.51
Chapter 3.2.2.1.3 --- Orientation Procedures --- p.53
Chapter 3.2.2.1.3.1 --- Cultural Exchange Preparation --- p.53
Chapter 3.2.2.1.3.2 --- Comparative Study --- p.53
Chapter 3.2.2.1.3.3 --- Goal Setting --- p.54
Chapter 3.2.2.1.3.4 --- Linguistic Preparation --- p.54
Chapter 3.2.2.2 --- Sojourn --- p.54
Chapter 3.2.2.3 --- Post-Sojourn --- p.55
Chapter 3.3 --- Part Two: Investigation of the Micro-term Study Abroad Program --- p.55
Chapter 3.3.1 --- Research Design --- p.55
Chapter 3.3.2 --- The Researcher --- p.56
Chapter 3.3.3 --- Pilot Study --- p.57
Chapter 3.3.3.1 --- Aims --- p.57
Chapter 3.3.3.2 --- Instrument Testing --- p.57
Chapter 3.3.3.3 --- Data Processing and Analysis --- p.58
Chapter 3.3.3.4 --- Findings --- p.59
Chapter 3.3.3.5 --- Lessons Learned --- p.60
Chapter 3.3.4 --- Main Study --- p.61
Chapter 3.3.4.1 --- Stakeholders --- p.61
Chapter 3.3.4.1.1 --- Home Institution --- p.61
Chapter 3.3.4.1.1.1 --- Ms Mori --- p.61
Chapter 3.3.4.1.1.2 --- Mr Fujimori --- p.62
Chapter 3.3.4.1.1.3 --- Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) --- p.62
Chapter 3.3.4.1.2 --- Host Institution --- p.63
Chapter 3.3.4.1.2.1 --- Ms Ross --- p.63
Chapter 3.3.4.1.2.2 --- Mrs Farmer --- p.63
Chapter 3.3.4.1.2.3 --- Mr Cressing --- p.64
Chapter 3.3.4.1.2.4 --- Mr French --- p.64
Chapter 3.3.4.1.3 --- Host Family Profiles --- p.64
Chapter 3.3.4.2 --- Data Collection --- p.66
Chapter 3.3.4.2.1 --- Questionnaires --- p.67
Chapter 3.3.4.2.2 --- Interviews --- p.70
Chapter 3.3.4.2.3 --- Journals --- p.71
Chapter 3.3.4.2.4 --- Observation and Field Notes --- p.72
Chapter 3.3.4.3 --- Triangulation of Data --- p.73
Chapter 3.3.4.4 --- Time Frame and Data Collection --- p.73
Chapter 3.3.4.5 --- Data Processing and Analysis --- p.75
Chapter 3.3.4.6 --- Participants --- p.76
Chapter 3.3.4.6.1 --- Selection Criteria for Four Case Participants --- p.76
Chapter 3.3.4.6.2 --- Demographic and Language Background --- p.77
Chapter 3.3.5 --- Validity and Reliability --- p.79
Chapter 3.3.6 --- Ethics --- p.80
Chapter 3.3.7 --- Limitations --- p.81
Chapter 3.3.8 --- Summary --- p.83
Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- STUDENT STORIES:HlROKO AND KENJI
Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.85
Chapter 4.2 --- Hiroko's Journey --- p.85
Chapter 4.2.1 --- Profile & Family Background --- p.85
Chapter 4.2.2 --- Background in English --- p.86
Chapter 4.3 --- Pre-Sojourn --- p.87
Chapter 4.3.1 --- Concerns --- p.87
Chapter 4.3.2 --- Sojourn Aims --- p.87
Chapter 4.4 --- Sojourn --- p.88
Chapter 4.4.1. --- Sabrina & the Host Family --- p.88
Chapter 4.4.2 --- First Impressions --- p.88
Chapter 4.4.3 --- Interaction with her Buddy..............................: --- p.90
Chapter 4.4.4 --- School Recess Time --- p.91
Chapter 4.4.5 --- Stomachaches --- p.91
Chapter 4.4.6 --- Rejecting her Buddy --- p.92
Chapter 4.4.7 --- Outpourings --- p.93
Chapter 4.4.8 --- Different Styles of Mentoring --- p.94
Chapter 4.4.9 --- Growing Calm --- p.95
Chapter 4.4.10 --- A Good Ending --- p.96
Chapter 4.5 --- Immediately Post-Sojourn --- p.96
Chapter 4.6 --- Four Months Post-Sojourn --- p.98
Chapter 4.7 --- Kenji's Journey --- p.100
Chapter 4.7.1 --- Profile & Family Background --- p.100
Chapter 4.7.2 --- Background in English --- p.102
Chapter 4.8 --- Pre-Sojourn --- p.103
Chapter 4.8.1 --- Concerns --- p.103
Chapter 4.8.2 --- Sojourn Aims --- p.103
Chapter 4.9 --- Sojourn --- p.104
Chapter 4.9.1. --- Nancy & the Host Family --- p.104
Chapter 4.9.2 --- Sudden Apprehension --- p.104
Chapter 4.9.3 --- Feeling I11 --- p.106
Chapter 4.9.4 --- Return to School following his Illness --- p.108
Chapter 4.9.5 --- Inability to Connect with his Buddy --- p.108
Chapter 4.9.6 --- Kenji´ةs Need for Company Satisfied --- p.110
Chapter 4.9.7 --- Starting to Feel Part of the Family --- p.111
Chapter 4.9.8 --- Program Participation --- p.112
Chapter 4.9.9 --- Departure from the Australian School --- p.113
Chapter 4.10 --- Immediately Post-Sojourn --- p.114
Chapter 4.11 --- Four Months Post-Sojourn --- p.116
Chapter 4.12 --- Summary --- p.118
Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- STUDENT STORIES: CHIAKI AND YUMI
Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.119
Chapter 5.2 --- Chiaki´ةs Journey --- p.119
Chapter 5.2.1 --- Profile & Family Background --- p.119
Chapter 5.2.2 --- Background in English --- p.120
Chapter 5.3 --- Pre-Sojourn --- p.121
Chapter 5.3.1 --- Concerns --- p.121
Chapter 5.3.2 --- Sojourn Aims --- p.121
Chapter 5.4 --- Sojourn --- p.122
Chapter 5.4.1 --- David & the Host Family --- p.122
Chapter 5.4.2 --- First Impressions --- p.123
Chapter 5.4.3 --- “Enviable´ح --- p.123
Chapter 5.4.4 --- A Full Homestay Program --- p.124
Chapter 5.4.5 --- Easy Communication with her Buddy --- p.125
Chapter 5.4.6 --- Lack of Agency --- p.126
Chapter 5.4.7 --- New Perspectives on Gender Relations --- p.128
Chapter 5.4.8 --- Deepening Buddy Friendship --- p.128
Chapter 5.4.9 --- Departure from the Australian School --- p.129
Chapter 5.5 --- Immediately Post-Sojourn --- p.130
Chapter 5.6 --- Four Months Post-Sojourn --- p.132
Chapter 5.7 --- Yumi´ةs Journey --- p.134
Chapter 5.7.1 --- Profile & Family Background --- p.134
Chapter 5.7.2 --- Background in English --- p.135
Chapter 5.8 --- Pre-Sojourn --- p.136
Chapter 5.8.1 --- Concerns --- p.136
Chapter 5.8.2 --- Sojourn Aims --- p.136
Chapter 5.9 --- Sojourn --- p.137
Chapter 5.9.1 --- Joy & the Host Family --- p.137
Chapter 5.9.2 --- First Impressions --- p.138
Chapter 5.9.3 --- Feeling Rejected by her Hosts --- p.139
Chapter 5.9.4 --- An Ethnocentric Lens --- p.140
Chapter 5.9.5 --- The Role of the Japanese Group --- p.141
Chapter 5.9.6 --- Host family Perspectives --- p.142
Chapter 5.9.7 --- Breakdown and Mediation --- p.143
Chapter 5.9.8 --- Identifying with her Group --- p.144
Chapter 5.9.9 --- Departure from the Australian School --- p.146
Chapter 5.10 --- Immediately Post-Sojourn --- p.146
Chapter 5.11 --- Four Months Post-Sojourn --- p.147
Chapter 5.12 --- Summary --- p.150
Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.152
Chapter 6.2 --- Guiding Question One --- p.152
Chapter 6.2.1 --- Savoir etre --- p.152
Chapter 6.2.2 --- Savoirs --- p.157
Chapter 6.2.3 --- Savoir faire --- p.159
Chapter 6.2.4 --- Savoir apprendre --- p.163
Chapter 6.3 --- Guiding Question Two --- p.166
Chapter 6.3.1 --- Personal Development --- p.166
Chapter 6.3.2 --- Intercultural Development --- p.167
Chapter 6.3.3 --- Linguistic Development --- p.169
Chapter 6.4 --- Guiding Question Three --- p.170
Chapter 6.4.1 --- The Japanese Home Institution --- p.170
Chapter 6.4.2 --- The Australian Host Institution --- p.173
Chapter 6.5 --- Guiding Question Four --- p.173
Chapter 6.5.1 --- Yumi --- p.173
Chapter 6.5.2 --- Hiroko --- p.175
Chapter 6.5.3 --- Chiaki --- p.175
Chapter 6.5.4 --- Kenji --- p.176
Chapter 6.6 --- Summary of Findings --- p.178
Chapter 6.7 --- Summary --- p.180
Chapter CHAPTER 7 --- CONCLUSION
Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.182
Chapter 7.2 --- Pedagogical Implications --- p.182
Chapter 7.2.1 --- Pre-Sojourn --- p.183
Chapter 7.2.1.1 --- Initial Stages and Procedures --- p.183
Chapter 7.2.1.1.1 --- Needs Analysis --- p.183
Chapter 7.2.1.1.2 --- Program Design --- p.184
Chapter 7.2.1.1.3 --- Advance Planning and Communications --- p.186
Chapter 7.2.1.2 --- Home Institution --- p.186
Chapter 7.2.1.2.1 --- Pre-Sojourn Orientation --- p.187
Chapter 7.2.1.2.2 --- Linguistic Preparation --- p.188
Chapter 7.2.1.2.3 --- Intercultural Learning Preparation --- p.190
Chapter 7.2.1.2.4 --- Intercultural Awareness Building --- p.191
Chapter 7.2.1.2.5 --- Student Goals --- p.191
Chapter 7.2.1.2.6 --- Cultural Exchange Preparation --- p.192
Chapter 7.2.1.2.7 --- Access to Past Sojourners --- p.193
Chapter 7.2.1.3 --- Host Institution --- p.193
Chapter 7.2.1.3.1 --- Selection of Buddies and Peer-matching --- p.193
Chapter 7.2.1.3.2 --- Orientation of Buddies --- p.194
Chapter 7.2.1.3.3 --- Selection of Homestay Families --- p.195
Chapter 7.2.1.3.4 --- Orientation of Homestay Families --- p.196
Chapter 7.2.2 --- Sojourn --- p.198
Chapter 7.2.2.1 --- Arrival Orientation --- p.198
Chapter 7.2.2.2 --- Program Content --- p.198
Chapter 7.2.2.3 --- Mid-Sojourn Debriefing --- p.199
Chapter 7.2.2.4 --- Reflective Learning using Diaries --- p.200
Chapter 7.2.2.5 --- Programmed Cultural Learning --- p.201
Chapter 7.2.2.6 --- Activities with Buddies --- p.202
Chapter 7.22.7 --- Support and Guidance throughout the Sojourn --- p.203
Chapter 7.2.2.8 --- Closure --- p.204
Chapter 7.2.3 --- Post-Sojourn --- p.204
Chapter 7.2.3.1 --- Home Institution --- p.204
Chapter 7.2.3.1.1 --- Reentry Shock --- p.204
Chapter 7.2.3.1.2 --- Sojourner Debriefing --- p.205
Chapter 7.2.3.2 --- Host Institution --- p.205
Chapter 7.2.3.2.1 --- Buddy Debriefing --- p.205
Chapter 7.3 --- Research Implications --- p.206
Chapter 7.3.1 --- Limitations of this Study --- p.206
Chapter 7.3.2 --- Suggestions for Further Study --- p.207
Chapter 7.4 --- Summary --- p.209
REFERENCES --- p.211
APPENDIX A Stakeholder Interviews
Chapter A.1 --- Mr Oda (JTB) --- p.227
Chapter A.2 --- Mr French --- p.228
Chapter A.3 --- Mr Cressing --- p.229
Chapter A.4 --- Mrs Farmer --- p.230
APPENDIX B Pilot Study - Questionnaires (Japanese & English)
Chapter B.1 --- Pre-Study Abroad Language Contact Profile --- p.231
Chapter B.2 --- Pre-Study Abroad Questionnaire - Students --- p.236
Chapter B.3 --- Pre-Study Abroad Questionnaire - Teachers --- p.239
Chapter B.4 --- Pre-Study Abroad Questionnaire - Parents --- p.241
Chapter B.5 --- Adapted SES Survey 1 --- p.243
Chapter B.6 --- Adapted SES Survey 2 --- p.247
APPENDIX C Main Study - Questionnaires (Japanese & English)
Chapter C.1 --- Pre-Study Abroad Language Contact Profile - Students --- p.251
Chapter C.2 --- Pre-Study Abroad Questionnaire for Students --- p.257
Chapter C.3 --- Pre-Study Abroad Questionnaire for Parents --- p.261
Chapter C.4 --- Pre-Study Abroad Questionnaire for Teachers --- p.265
Chapter C.5 --- Adapted SES Survey 1 --- p.268
Chapter C.6 --- Adapted SES Survey 2 --- p.272
Chapter C.7 --- Homestay Family Questionnaire --- p.276
Chapter C.8 --- Post-Study Abroad Language Contact Profile --- p.278
Chapter C.9 --- Post-Study Abroad Questionnaire for Students --- p.282
Chapter C.10 --- Post Study-Abroad Questionnaire for Parents --- p.286
Chapter C.11 --- Post SA Questionnaire for Teachers --- p.289
APPENDIX D Four Month Post-Sojourn Interviews (Semi-structured)
Chapter D.1 --- Group Interview Session --- p.291
Chapter D.2 --- Individual Interview - Hiroko --- p.292
Chapter D.3 --- Individual Interview - Kenji --- p.293
Chapter D.4 --- Individual Interview - Chiaki --- p.294
Chapter D.5 --- Individual Interview - Yumi --- p.295
APPENDIX E Nisshi Diary (Japanese & English) --- p.296
APPENDIX F Consent Form --- p.302

The purpose of this embedded case study was to describe the academic experiences of international graduate students at Ball State University. Purposive and snowball sampling procedures were used to select nine international graduate students for this study. Their countries of origin were Ghana, Kenya, China, Iceland, Greece, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Ball State University was the case in this study and the nine international graduate students the units of analysis. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed by means of constant comparison and cross-unit analysis. The findings of the study revealed the reasons why these international graduate students came to Ball State University to pursue their education, the students’ assessments of their academic experiences, and descriptions of their personal and professional development as outcomes of their educational experiences at Ball State University. The main reasons why the international graduate students came to Ball State University were, due to connections they already had with someone affiliated with the university, the quality of the programs offered at Ball State University, and through the award of scholarships. The international graduate students described their academic experiences as beneficial to their development in a number of ways including, development of research and publication skills, increased competence in the use of technological aids to enhance teaching and learning, and the opportunity to put into practice the skills and knowledge they had acquired through practica and internships. The study participants also expressed that they acquired skills that made them competent to perform in the areas they were trained, for example, therapeutic skills or team skills. They shared that they had grown as individuals because of the experience that they gained at Ball State University. In addition, some stated that their worldview had expanded, and their self-confidence had increased. The study discusses the findings in the light of the current literature on international graduate student education in the U.S., as well as the implications for future research. The study makes recommendations as to how Ball State University can make use of this new information to better market itself as a first class institution of higher learning, and to make the experiences of international graduate students at Ball State University a more appealing choice to prospective international graduate students.
Department of Educational Studies

This study examines the psychological problems that were overcome, and the social and cultural adaptations which were made, by Arab immigrants in the process of settling in Australia. The research was based on a group of forty participants, sixteen of whom migrated to Australia between 1973 and 2004. The other twenty-four were all of Arab descent and born in Australia. The methodology for undertaking this research utilized humanistic sociology principles for the collecting and analysis of qualitative data. The major finding of this portfolio of stodies is that the Arab immigrant families did adjust to the new country wholeheartedly, even in the first generation, partly by maintaining the core values of their Arab home culture.
Thesis (D.Ed.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Education, 2007

A qualitative study of how first year foreign language students perceive different interactions in an online environment. In depth interviews were conducting with ten students after the completion of an online second semester Spanish course. Individual case studies recorded the unique experiences of each study participant and those experiences were then compared and analyzed for common themes. Emerging themes included the value of explanatory feedback programmed into the course, the use of message boards for making interpersonal connections, the difficulty of conducting online chats, the role and value of announcements and the importance of immediacy behaviors for creating social presence. The themes were then applied to the following research questions: 1) What is the effectiveness of the available interactions in a web-based Spanish course as perceived by community college foreign language learners? 2) How do these interactions work together to facilitate learning based upon their purpose? 3) How do these interactions work together to facilitate learning in an online foreign language learning environment based upon with whom or what the student is interacting? The results of this study included three attributes of effective interaction. The participants indicated a need to make a connection between their personal learning goals and the available interactions. Timeliness was also identified as a key component of effective interactions. Automatic feedback, archives for previous information and a quick turnaround on email correspondence were listed as important aspects that created a feeling of timeliness. The third attribute was identified as a low level of frustration when compared to the potential benefit of an interaction. The study participants indicated a willingness to endure some frustration if they thought it would be worth it in the end. Final recommendations suggested that designers of online foreign language courses should include non-linear instructional activities, carefully designed chat opportunities, quality automatic feedback and reading and listening passages that are level appropriate. Instructors should engage in behaviors that enhance the effectiveness of interactions by making regular announcements, helping learners draw connections between the interactions and their learning goals, maintaining and organizing archives and keeping response times as close to 24 hours as possible.
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This study examined the language socialization of international students in the graduate school context of a western Canadian university. Focusing on one pervasive speech event, academic presentations (APs), this study explored the role this socioculturally organized activity played in facilitating students' linguistic and sociocultural development, and how it aided them in negotiating their entry into the academic world. The participants in this study included 55 graduate students and nine course instructors. Thirty seven students were native speakers (NSs) of English, while the remaining 18- -the focal participants of this study—were non-native speakers of English (NNSs). The sites were seven graduate courses in six different departments in three different faculties (Faculty of Medicine, Faculty o f Arts, and Faculty o f Applied Science). A qualitative approach was employed, and thus multiple kinds of data were gathered over a four-month period. Data collection methods included: (a) open-ended interviews with participants; (b) tape-recorded observations of APs; (c) researcher's fieldnotes of APs; and (d) collection of written documents (e.g., course outlines). Data were analyzed following Bogdan and Biklen (1992) by identifying major and minor themes while iteratively going over the data. A comparison of APs across disciplines is included, examining aspects such as A P content, sequence, length, and format. As well, an analysis of the qualities promoted in each field and of the multiple purposes APs fulfil is provided and related to the complex socialization (i.e., both linguistic and sociocultural) of international graduate students. Findings of the study suggested that APs are a complex task whose meaning is not fixed, but rather is determined by the interplay of the broad context of the academic world, the micro-context of each community of practice, and ultimately by each individual. With regard to the language socialization 6f NNSs, APs challenged students in both linguistic and sociocultural ways. However, by observing, participating in, and reflecting on APs, students gained increased membership and competence within their academic communities.

No research to date has involved ESL students as researchers in investigations of community language practices. This study examined the research processes of 23 international college students in an advanced ESL course. The students worked on an original curriculum, the Language Research Project, through which they performed ethnographic and discourse analytic tasks and engaged in collaborative action research. As the students uncovered the tacit rules that regulate communicative practices in the university community, they sought to improve their own performance in academic interactions. The teacher-researcher simultaneously observed and analyzed students' perspectives, seeking to improve her teaching practice. An analysis of the classroom dialogues showed that intertextual links made by the teacher and the students served to build a system of scaffolds for the group. These intertextual links acted as cognitive and affective support for reflection and evaluation of ideas. The students' comments to each other resembled comments made by the teacher, which indicates that they appropriated the teacher's expert role. Thus, this study reveals that learners of similar levels can offer each other expert assistance in the completion of tasks. The students developed a high level of metacognition. Their reflections uncovered serious conflicts between themselves and native English speakers. They observed that they performed better in social settings. Conversely, they felt awkward in academic settings when interacting with domestic classmates and professors, who were often unsupportive and unwilling to engage in communication. This denial of access by Americans resulted in feelings of inadequacy and inferiority for the students. Nevertheless, some students rejected and transformed certain dominant practices of the community. By adopting the identity of researchers, the students were empowered to engage in their own realities from a position of strength and to assert their individual needs. These findings demonstrate that the students developed a sense of critical language awareness. This dissertation portrays an emerging Vygotskian sociocultural perspective on second language acquisition research. The findings support social constructivist teaching approaches that incorporate students' lived experiences. Finally, this study reveals an urgent need to sensitize faculty and students in higher education in the United States about the experiences of language-minority students.
Graduation date: 2003

The following is a case study of grade 12 English as a Second Language (ESL) students enrolled in a British Columbia secondary school during the 2001-2002 academic year. The principal objective of this research was to uncover the following: 1) if ESL students made course choices at grade 12 which differed from those of non-ESL student choice patterns at grade 12; 2) the role of familial preferences, cultural influences and prior learning styles which predispose student choice for post secondary concentrations. This research examined the academic transcripts of 238 (94 ESL, 144 non-ESL) students, analyzed the responses of 145 (65 ESL, 80 non-ESL) student questionnaires, and considered interviews with 26 ESL students and 12 school staff (4 counselors, 8 teachers). The findings suggest that a significant difference exists in the academic courses in which ESL grade 12 students enroll compared to non-ESL students. Cultural and familial influences were found to affect both the types of senior courses ESL students chose and their aims about future educational and career aspirations. The findings suggest that secondary schools examine critically their policies regarding broadening the exposure of ESL students to more expressive courses in Arts to extend equality of opportunity in determining their career choice directions.

Study abroad programs are a common component of many foreign language programs across the United States. Of these university-based study abroad programs, short-term language-focused programs are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Despite the growing popularity of short-term study abroad programs, there is little research on students’ sociocultural experiences under these short, intensive language-immersion conditions. Relatively few studies have addressed the issue of gender in the study abroad context. Brecht et al. in their longitudinal study on the effects of a study abroad stay on language proficiency gains in Russian found that gender was one of the significant predictors of language learning. The impact of gender on the process of second language and culture acquisition becomes particularly important in countries like Russia where perception and construction of gender roles is very different from that in the United States. These gender-related differences may cause students to have negative attitudes towards the Russian language and culture. Students belonging to ethnic minorities have different study abroad experiences from students who belong to the ethnic majority or mainstream culture. In the rise of terrorist attacks administered by Chechen separatists on the territory of Russia in the past several years, native Russians are becoming less tolerant with representatives of ethnic minorities and therefore, more suspicious and hostile towards individuals with non-Caucasian features. Being constantly racially-profiled can turn an otherwise pleasant language and culture learning experience into a nightmare. A better understanding of how race and ethnicity affect learning processes in a study abroad setting will result in rethinking of how learners’ differences (and the outcomes of those differences) enter the formal language teaching curriculum. The present study investigates how American college students visiting Russia on a five-week-long study abroad program perceive and describe their cultural, gender, and ethnic experiences. The results of this ethnographic case study are analyzed through the lens of critical theory that argues that human society is essentially oppressive and that societal inequality is reproduced through the dominant ideology.
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碩士
靜宜大學
社會工作與兒童少年福利學系碩士班
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The purposes of the study are: 1.The family factors affect self identity of foreign spouses'' children ; 2. The school factors affect self identity of foreign spouses'' children ; 3. The correlation between self identity of foreign spouses'' children and adjustment in school life .It is a qualitative research which used in-depth interviews to collect research data.The subjects of the study are students of Lukang junior high school and their mother are from Southeast Asia and China. According to the collected data and the findings are: 1. Family life of foreign spouses'' children : (1) Low socioeconomic status , low resources of family education . (2) The main communicating language of family is Taiwanese , so the score of Chinese in school is poor . (3) The attitude of educational expectation from parents is “Allows nature to take its course”. (4) If parents pay more attention to their children , they will behave better in school work. 2. School life of foreign spouses'' children : (1) Children’s school performance is related to their intelligence and personality. (2) The encouragement and teaching of teacher would not necessarily influence children to study hard , try hard to make progress and identify themselves. (3) Peer elationships will influence children’s learning attitude, like school life and work together. (4) When children encounter problems , they wouldn''t necessarily turn to teacher or consulting office . 3. The self identity of foreign spouses'' children :(1) Children’s adjustment in school life will influence the self identity of foreign spouses'' children. (2) The different status of children will not affect their self identity According to the above findings, few recommendations are proposed for the government, the related workers in the field, the public and for future research.

The phenomenon of students traversing the globe in search of higher education has increased over the past decade. They travel from every region of the world to institutions of higher learning - to colleges and universities - that accept them. Altogether, countries in Africa welcome thousands of students into their various colleges and universities. Ghana, where this study is based, boasts of well over 140 state-run and privately - run universities. Over the past two decades, these institutions have experienced significant increases in their admission numbers in their international student population. Some of the research on the academic experiences of international undergraduate students shows that they do not perform well during their first years on campus and that they experience what is defined as adjustment issues. The thesis research uncovers and examines adjustment issues experienced by international students (between ages 17-29) pursuing undergraduate degrees at a small, co-educational, private university college (XUC) in Ghana. Located within Ghana’s capital city, Accra, this four-year college annually admits thirty to forty international students and accommodates nearly three thousand students who are at various stages of their study. During the academic year 2017-2018, the college had enrolled 126 international students. In this study, the researcher focuses on the effect of adjustment issues on the academic performance of international students. The researcher posits that there is a correlation between adjustment levels and Grade Point Averages (GPAs). Therefore, international students who have high adjustment levels to student life and life at XUC, Ghana experience average to high Grade Point averages. Conversely, international students who experience low adjustment levels to student life and life in XUC, also experience low Grade Point Averages.
Educational Management and Leadership
Ph. D. (Education Management)

Cui, Jiaying.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 410-426).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstract also in Chinese.