The purpose of the research was to discover the views of three groups of International students who were undertaking their Higher Education (HE) in a publicly-funded college, rather than a university setting. A comparative survey was undertaken by International students attending an American Community College, an Australian Technical and Further…

This dissertation had a three-pronged approach by examining (1) the role and sustainability of university-based intensive English programs (IEPs), (2) the value of a master's in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and (3) relevance of attending an IEP for international/English as a second language (ESL) students. IEPs face…

Research shows that international college students experience high levels of acculturative stress, which can adversely impact their health and college success. The levels of immersion in one's native culture and the culture of the U.S. may impact levels of acculturative stress in international students. This cross-sectional study examined…

This interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) studied the acculturation experiences of six adult immigrant students who were enrolled in a local community college adult basic education (ABE) program. The main study question was seeking how adult (ESOL) students perceive themselves and their overall position in mainstream American society.…

The authors present two experiences of assimilation, "melting-pot" and "salad-bowl" processes, their connections to the WASP framework of skin color, language, and religion, and their influences in the classroom. They focus on how fluency in the English language is the dominant assimilation factor for immigrant students and share their experiences…

Adults who immigrate to the United States recognize the value of fluency in the dominant language as a bridge to social mobility in their new homeland. In California, many of them invest time and energy in noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) programs offered within the community college system to gain communicative competence and enhance…

The authors carefully followed for a year or more the inner experiences of learning and change of 41 ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners from all over the world. They were enrolled in three distinct U.S. programs (a community college, a family literacy site, and a workplace site), each oriented to…

How do ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs shape adult learners, and how do adult learners, in turn, shape their programs? Beyond the acquisition of important skills (such as greater fluency in the English language) what are the bigger internal meanings for adults of participating in ABE/ESOL…