International Student

Improving International Students experience of studying in the UK
Improving International Students experience of studying in the UK

Picture : International students in the UK

Name : Bui Cong Thanh

Class : B9

Teacher : Stephen Fisher , Juliette Calow.

1.Introduction
2. A real story of International Student in the UK
3. Common difficulties for overseas students
4. Understanding the international Student Experience
5. The effects of being a foreign student
6. Conclusion

Nowadays , Education play an important role in our life . However , there are some countries which have poor education , poor teaching and learning strategies . Actually , Those students will go to higher education institutions country . It calls ‘’ International Students ‘’ . More importantly , United Kingdom is the most famous about education . The term ‘’ international students ‘’ is taken here to mean those students who have been educated in a national education system outside the UK and who on the whole are likely to be non-native speakers of English .
There is a real story in the UK ‘’ Nicos Story’’ http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/showcase/bamford_international
Nicos was a postgraduate student at the Business School. He was diligent and conscientious and achieved good marks on his MA programme. He was expected to gain an overall distinction grade. He had excellent English language skills.
An excerpt from Nicos' email:
'I really wanted to finish my dissertation by September so that I would not have to go back to London again, but I broke down, I suddenly felt that I could not do it. I was going crazy and could not write a word anymore. I would stand in front of the computer for hours just writing a paragraph. So on Sunday I left and came to Greece. Today I went to the airport for the flight back, so that I could see you in the morning but as soon as I had to leave my parents and go to the boarding gate, I freezed and panicked. I could not picture myself alone again in the same places for even an hour. The last few days I have started feeling a human being again. I can talk with people and they are people who care about me, I go out with friends for coffee and I want to cry. The first morning I woke up, I started crying because my mother had washed my bag, someone had done something for me.'
Common diffiuculties for International students
According to this story , there are clearly challenges for international students studying at higher education institutions in the UK . As University City London adds that major problems

for International students
They go on to say that culture shock . ‘’ As well as having to cope with a new institution and educational environment, international students are having to adjust to a different national culture with often unfamiliar social customs and conventions. They may become very homesick. Where English is not the first language, having to converse with strangers all the time in a foreign language is a strain. Some women students come from cultures where they have had a sheltered life and spent little time on their own or in the company of males outside their family. They may be vulnerable in certain social situations or upset by conventions that they do not understand ‘’.
Secondly , ‘’ Students for whom English is a second language may struggle with their courses , International students are often under considerable pressure to succeed academically and their expectations of themselves may be unrealistic. The transition to a different educational system and new approaches to study is often more challenging than to home students. For example, students from abroad are sometimes unaccustomed to active learning situations, such as participating in discussion and working on a team project. They may have had a much more formal relationship with their teachers and thus be less inclined than home students to seek help from their personal tutors ‘’
Thirdly, ‘’ The number of students experiencing financial difficulties has increased significantly in recent years and is likely to continue doing so. Some students are more or less permanently hard up; others create short-term difficulties for themselves by managing their money badly . It is expensive to come to university ‘’.
More exactly , According to J.K Bamford ( 2008 ) ,’’ The first of the these challenges concerns English language ability, or rather consideration of the fact that many international students are non-native speakers of English. This has two aspects to it. Firstly, there is a minimum language requirement for entry for all overseas students and secondly, even if students have more than met this entry requirement they may not be familiar with technical terminology for a specialist subject area.
For some students who have only just met the criterion for language, studying in English particularly at Masters level can prove onerous and stressful. In this case study this aspect of language ability , that is those students who had just met the language entry requirement, covered half of the students and the levels of independent study required at a very early stage of the course caused a lot of stress. Secondly, there are those that are confident in their language ability and who feel that language support classes do not meet their needs as the classes are too generic and what they are seeking is further explanation of specialised terminology, little time is spent in addressing the more specialist support required by these students. As a consequence, there is frustration expressed by these students as lecturers can mistake their lack of knowledge regarding technical or even political or cultural terminology as the students having difficulties with language, which is not the case. In addition the students have different levels of English, which can hinder the educational experience of the whole group. One student commented in a focus group that 'there are some people who come from different backgrounds - I don't know enough about how people are taught in China but we have different levels of English and different backgrounds - some people just receive and not give'. Not speaking up in class can also make it difficult for tutors to gain a clear picture of the levels of English language ability and the understanding of the students.’’
The second issue is that of the social and cultural adjustments of the students. Volet and Ang (1998) comment that 'tertiary institutions have a social responsibility to design learning environments which foster students' developments on intercultural adaptability' (1998:21) While students did not feel that a lack of social and cultural knowledge of the UK had affected their ability to study, there was a feeling that lecturers should incorporate the knowledge of the students' native cultures into their class discussion as this could benefit everyone.
Class contribution can also be a traumatic experience but this can be facilitated by tutors who make the students feel more comfortable in discussing subjects with other students that they don't know. The importance of class interaction for overseas students is reinforced by Jackson (2003) who comments on the necessity for building a 'considerable rapport' with the group. This rapport is seen as one of the most effective learning and teaching techniques for overseas students.
As De Vita (2001) observes, different discourse styles create tensions that affect a students' performance. Groupwork may also be an issue and the cultural diversity of groups requires students to use intercultural skills which require training.
Understanding the International Student Experience
Moreover , Catherine Montgomery ( 2010 )has written a clear, small study of international students at one UK university, how they network and how they change. Its value lies in the depth of insight into student thinking. She has not drawn her conclusions from a one-off survey, which is the main research tool used to study international students. In surveys of students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, the prior assumptions of the researcher define the issues and pre-set the potential for discovery, the voices of the students are muted and anything different or unexpected is screened out in advance. In contrast, after a tour through part of the literature, Montgomery uses participant observation of the daily lives of seven networked students from China, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Italy and the Netherlands over a period of six months.
The resulting picture challenges conventional thinking about international students. International students are often typecast as slow learners with poor English, limited class-participation skills, inability to think critically and a dodgy approach to referencing. In short, they are in learning deficit - if not social deficit. It is no wonder they are studying abroad, goes the thinking, because their home systems are of a poor standard. They badly need our help.
Montgomery turns all of this on its head. Her students are mature, curious and quick to respond and to learn. They are high achievers - and a couple are truly exceptional within their milieu. After an initial period of academic adjustment, they learn to intervene and they power past the locals. They are conspicuously better motivated, focused and more aware of the benefits of higher education.
These students are studying in an English-speaking country not because its culture is intrinsically superior but because English is the global language of business, professions and knowledge. They do not need to abandon the educational backgrounds and cultural identities that they brought to the UK, but they are eager to layer new learning and new identities on top.

The effects of being a foreign student
‘’ Usually becoming a foreign student in order to study in another city can change your life in many aspects. Living in a city far away from home can bring many consequences and effects which almost always change a student’s form of life. When I became a foreign student, many things changed or had to change. You do not live with your family, so usually you have to learn how to live in harmony with others, how to do things by yourself, how to move to other places, etc. Being a foreign makes you learn a lot of things, but at the beginning it can be somewhat difficult, as it happened to me. That is why the purpose of this paper is to discuss the three main effects of being a foreign student.
The main effect and the one that affects you most is the fact that you do not live with your parents and in your house, which means that you will not enjoy its commodities. It was so good when your mom cooked for you, and when the house maid used to make your bed. Your dad took you to school, and when classes finished, you returned to your room and made yourself completely comfortable. But becoming a foreign student implies that you will live in a dormitory or that you will rent an apartment . Usually you have to take care of dirty dishes, messy rooms, and cooking. This means you have to learn many new things, like how to cook several dishes. In a few words, you have to learn how to be independent.
Another effect is that you have to find your way around the city, so you have to know the main parts of the city. If you have a car, it may be easier to explore the city. You can just get lost and see where each street takes you, and then find a way back home. But if you don’t have a car, you need to learn how to get around by walking, in buses, or with taxis. For this you may find out about bus routes or find out how much costs to use taxis, and in this way you can plan the time it will take you to get from your house to school, for example. This will force you to plan your time better, and maybe you will have less available time along the day. This may decrease the time you have to make homework or to hang out with your friends, for example. But over time, you learn how to plan your activities in a better way.
A foreign student may also find himself feeling somewhat lonely, since arriving in a new city means you don’t know anyone. You may be lucky if another friend from your city comes with, but usually you are alone. It is important to start meeting people and making friends. In this way it will be much easier to get used to being a foreign student. You will have new people with who to hang with, with whom to go to parties. Besides you won’t have to be quiet all the time in classes like when you don’t know someone. Sometimes friends can also help you in a lot of situations, like when you have problems about running out of money, when you need to go to your house quickly but you don’t have a car, or when you need to get something that is not easily found. But most of all, with friends you can have a great time and learn a lot of things.
Leaving your house and going to another city to study is an experience in your life that cannot be compared to any other experience in your life. You learn how to be independent, and you get to meet tons of people. It may be somewhat difficult to live without your parents and in another city, but this makes you learn how to live your life better and how to appreciate what you have, like your parents and your belongings. Besides, you get to appreciate the things you achieve during your life because you learn that your goals are not achieved easily, but that they cost a lot of work and effort. In conclusion, being a foreign student is great! ‘’