FOREIGN STUDENTS’ ADAPTATION CHALLENGES IN THE US UNIVERSITIES
Keywords:
a foreign student; adaptation challenges; aspects of adaptation; facilitation; academic environment; university staff; USA.Abstract
In spite of the existence of a lot of authors’ researches on the issues of international students’ problems, while studying abroad, we state that the adaptation challenges they face are the issue of vital importance to solve for today’s pedagogy and psychology in order to facilitate the foreigners’ adaptation process. The article offers an analysis of the organizational and pedagogical support of foreign students’ adaptation to the US university environment. The paper argues that direct-acting factors that are means of training and indirect factors, among which there are the spatial-objective organization of the environment and interpersonal interaction, influence foreign students’ adaptation to the American university environment. The main aspects that cover foreign students’ adaptation at the US universities have been studied, namely: learning the language the host country, adopting its culture and social support. The article also outlines a number of competencies and abilities of students needed to be adapted to the educational environment while studying abroad, as: foreign-language communicative competence, sociocultural, intercultural, and strategic competences; ability to overcome cultural shock and stress associated with it, abilities to adapt to a new cultural environment. The major teachers’ competences necessary in the work with foreign students for their successful adaptation and the study process have been singled out. The results of the survey defined the key foreign student’s challenges of the adaptation process to a new university environment from different aspects, namely: the psychological, social, cultural, and academic ones. The organizational and pedagogical basics of the university staff’s work with foreign students on ensuring the facilitation of their adaptation to a new academic environment and an important role of the campus in this process have been substantiated. The possibility of implementing the US progressive ideas and experience concerning foreign students’ adaptation to university education of Ukraine has been also outlined.
References
Altbach, P., & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: motivations and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11 (3–4), 290–305. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1028315307303542.
Bennett, J., & Bennett, M. (2004). Developing intercultural sensitivity, an integrative approach to global and domestic diversity. In D. Landis (Ed.), Handbook of inter-cultural training (pp. 147–165). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. doi: https://doi.org/ 10.4135/9781452231129.n6.
Grant, C., & Sleeter, C. (2006). Turning on learning: Five approaches to multicultural teaching plans for race, class, gender, and disability. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kim, Y. (2016). Communication and cross-cultural adaptation: An integrative theory. Bristl: Multilingual Matters.
Knight, J. (2012). Student Mobility and Internationalization: Trends and Tribulations. Research in Comparative and International Education, 7 (1), 20–33. doi: https://doi.org/10.2304%2 Frcie.2012.7.1.20.
Lin, Y.-C., Chen, A.S.Y., & Song, Y.-C. (2012). Does your intelligence help to survive in a foreign jungle? The effects of cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence on cross-cultural adjustment. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36 (4), 541–552. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.03.001.
MacWhinney, B. (2002). The Competition Model: The Input, the Context, and the Brain. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and Second Language Instruction (рр. 1–18). New York: Cambridge University Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524780.005.
Mukan, N., Shyika, J., & Shyika, O. (2017). The development of bilingual education in Canada. Advanced education, 8, 35–40. doi: https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.100924.
Mukan, N., Yaremko, H., Kozlovskiy, Yu., Ortynskiy, V., & Isayeva, O. (2019). Teachers‟ continuous professional development: Australian experience. Advanced Education, 12, 105–113. doi: https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.166606.
Smolikevych, N. (2018). Orhanizatsiyno-pedahohichne zabezpechennya adaptatsiyi inozemnykh studentiv v universytetakh SShA [The organizational and pedagogical provision of foreign students’ adaptation in US universities]. (Candidate‟s thesis). Lviv: LLC “Western Ukrainian Consulting Center” Press [in Ukrainian].
Smolikevych, N. (2019). The teacher‟s main competences in modern higher education. European humanities studies: State and Society, 3 (1), 30–42.
Tafarodia, R.W., & Smith, A.J. (2001). Individualism–collectivism and depressive sensitivity to life events: the case of Malaysian sojourners. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 25, 73–88. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(00)00043-2.
Yu, B., & Wright, E. (2016). Socio-cultural adaptation, academic adaptation and satisfaction of international higher degree research students in Australia. Tertiary Education and Management, 22 (1), 49–64. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2015.1127405.
Villegas, A., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: Rethinking the curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 3 (1), 20–22. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2 F0022487102053001003.
