International Students, Learning Environments and Perceptions: A case study using the Delphi technique

By Margaret J. Robertson, M. Line, Sandra C. Jones, Sharon Thomas. 2000

545 citations recorded by the source corpus.

While there are a number of reports on problems faced by international students in Australia, there is little information on the perceptions of such students relative to those of the academic staff teaching them. Using the Delphi technique, whereby problems identified are narrowed by consensus, a study conducted at one Australian university highlighted some expected and some unexpected outcomes. Difficulty understanding colloquial language, cost of tuition and feelings of isolation ranked highest amongst the problems cited by international students. Academic staff were critical of their own speed of lecturing, as well as international students' poor writing and critical thinking skills.

Subfields: Communication, Language and Linguistics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b20b064a0b048a54281cb64d3af76fb0cfbb50f2

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Communication

In Language and Linguistics

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Language Difficulties of International Students in Australia: The Effects of Prior Learning Experience. (2005, background): “Robertson et al. (2000) concluded that language issues were the major area of unsolved problems facing international students. were unable to contribute effectively, as required, in tutorial discussion; and that due to poor grammar their written work was often hard to read and to assess.”
International Student Security and English Language Proficiency (2012, background): “As Table 1 shows, confirming Robertson et al. (2000) and others, problems with writing were cited most often, being mentioned by 52 interviewees, just over one quarter of the group.”
Determinants of International Students’ Academic Performance (2010, background): “Robertson et al (2000) found that the most common references of international students (from Far East) were feelings of isolation from local (Australian) classmates, homesickness, and the need for social activities.”
Success factors for international postgraduate students' adjustment: exploring the roles of intercultural competence, language proficiency, social contact and social support (2013, background): “…or in a lingua franca such as English if this is the main language of instruction and assessment, is centrally important to academic success (e.g. Robertson et al. 2000; Ramburuth 2001; Mendelsohn 2002; Woodrow 2006; Duru and Poyrazli 2007; Ramsay et al. 2007; Gu, Schweisfurth, and Day 2010).”
Linking learning style preferences and ethnicity: international students studying hospitality and tourism management in Australia. (2002, background): “…results in an expectation and/or requirement to identify specific reading for a subject (Burns, 1991; Ballard and Clanchy, 1994; Samuelowicz, 1987; Robertson et al., 2000); being passive, quiet and non-participative in class (Kember and Gow, 1990; Ballard and Clanchy, 1991; Yanhong Li and Kaye,…”
General Academic Difficulties and Reading and Writing Difficulties among Asian ESL Postgraduate Students in TESOL at an Australian University (2011, background): “…students experience many similar difficulties that other ESL international students in other fields of study have also experienced (e.g. Barker et al., 1991; Burns, 1991; Campbell and Li, 2008; Lin and Yi, 1997; Robertson et al., 2000; Wan, Chapman and Biggs, 1992; Zhang and Brunton, 2007).”
Exploring cultural differences in critical thinking: Is it about my thinking style or the language I speak? (2010, background): “Based on the assumption that the observations made by university teaching professionals (e.g., Lee & Carrasquillo, 2006; Robertson et al., 2000) reflect a kernel of truth, we hypothesize that Western students would perform better than Asian students in an objective measure of critical thinking…”