This study investigates the cultural and language barriers faced by Lao students at Vietnamese universities of education and proposes solutions for enhancing their academic and social integration. We analyzed the experiences of 624 Lao students across eight major universities in Vietnam through online surveys and in-depth interviews employing a…

International students are an important component of the host country and universities bringing economic, social, and community contributions. International students are the most vulnerable students with challenges related to academic expectations, language proficiency, and socio-cultural integration. This study explores the challenges of…

This research study explores the transition experiences of multilingual Asian immigrant students as they navigate their first year of college. Focusing on counterstories, this study seeks to shed light on the unique challenges, strategies, and successes of these students in crossing cultural, linguistic, and academic borders. Through a qualitative…

Adopting a learning ecology perspective, this study examined sojourners' formal classroom learning and the interactions between their learning in the classroom and their learning in the community. Data for the study were collected from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations involving 14 sojourners learning Chinese as a second…

This dissertation study examines the acculturation experiences of Saudi Arabian students pursuing higher education in the United States. It investigates the relationships among students' acculturation strategies, self-assertion, and academic self-efficacy, while exploring the moderating effects of English proficiency and length of stay. The study…

Quantitative research on the linguistic acculturation of sojourners in non-Western and multilingual social contexts remains scarce. Revising the Framework of Acculturation Variables (FAV), we propose a parsimonious model exploring the effect of acculturation conditions (trilingual language usage and perceived discrimination), orientations (social…

The purpose of this study was evaluating international office services at the university level considering potential improvement for English proficiency and assimilation in the American community for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Programs provided by these offices target different cultural…

This mixed method case study examines South Korean university students' social and academic interactions with international students. Data included a closed-ended survey, an open-ended survey, and a focus group. The participants comprised university students studying at a mid-sized university in central South Korea. Results indicate that students…

The psychosocial adaptation of international scholars is a growing area of inquiry in social sciences. Currently, almost 47,164 Pakistani international scholars are enrolled in various universities worldwide but there is a dearth of literature concerning their psychosocial adjustment. This qualitative inquiry focuses on Pakistani graduate and…

Historically, academic inquiry regarding student mobility was conceptualized within an East-to-West paradigm. However, the number of Americans studying in Thailand increases annually. The United States and Thailand differ in terms of academic culture and sociocultural norms. As such, the visiting American students encounter a variety of academic…

This paper is an overview of key integration challenges facing Chinese students at UK higher education institutions (HEIs). It responds to recent admissions diversification strategies launched by UK institutions as well as increasingly critical narratives surrounding Chinese students. The independently researched report argues that students from…

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study on a group of mainland Chinese students' multilingual experiences during their cross-border studies in a Hong Kong university from a language ideological perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews as the primary dataset, the study investigated the language ideologies held by the participants…

Through qualitative research, which involved qualitative interviews and focus group meetings with members of four student teams, we identified a number of barriers to the development of cohesiveness in teams of local and international exchange (IE) students, who were undertaking service-learning (SL) together. Lack of cohesiveness in such teams…

International students studying at higher education institutions in the United States experience challenges as they adjust to new environments. Social connectedness to American college students could mitigate such challenges and assist international students with social and cultural integration. This study, using qualitative data from interviews,…

Recent studies indicate that the academic and social integration of overseas students in the destination country often plays a major role in their academic performance, employability outcomes and integration into the wider community. This study investigates these issues in more depth from the perspective of overseas Chinese in the Southwest UK,…