Working with International Graduate Students: Increasing Student Engagement
In 2015‌ 974,926 international students Roughly 350,000 graduate students 31% are from China 1 out of 3 studies in CA, TX or NY (Institute of International Education (IIE), 2015)
International Graduate Students at Parsons‌
42% of student body
--Suk Mei Man, English Language Studies, NSPE
Icebreaker Workshop Discussion Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement Campus Resources Q&A
Please take a moment to respond in writing to the question below: Where do international students in your class struggle?
What are some positive contributions your nonnative English speakers have made in your classes? Where do you feel you need more support for your teaching practice related to non-native English speakers?
Awareness + Strategies
Where are my students coming from? What barriers to participation exist for my students? How can I tweak my teaching practice to minimize barriers?
Issue #1: Discourse in the U.S. classroom requires a lot of jumping in, turn-taking, digression, shifting back to the main point, polite interruption, etc. Many ESL students have little experience with these discourse strategies.
“They [Chinese students] don't know the right time to cut people off, the right time to jump in. That takes a lot of culture and a lot of experience to ask the right question at the right time, to cut people off at the right time, to jump in at the right time.� (Valdez 2015)
Assigning speaking roles in advance (e.g., reading moderation). Giving discussion questions in advance. Writing responses before sharing in an open class. Providing time in class to prepare answers: think, pair, share. Pacing
Issue #2: The U.S. classroom is highly collaborative. Many international students are experiencing this approach for the first time or have minimal experience working in groups.
Structuring groups with assigned roles for each participant. Instructing collaborative groups on equal speaking time. Pairs instead of groups often encourage more engagement for international students. Having more gregarious students pair up with quieter students.
Explicit instructions (e.g., In pairs, take 8-10 minutes to come up with a solution for X. One person should then describe the solution to the class and the other should say how you arrived at this solution.). Without this, students may continue to work on their own and/or rely on one person to present. Assign heterogeneous (by gender, native language) groups in advance.
Issue #3: The American conversation style has been described as a tennis game with “speakers� serving ideas and expecting a direct response back. Some students may not realize they are expected to respond directly or at all.
Explicitly state in verbal directions and on handouts that you want students to respond directly to each other’s ideas. Paraphrasing technique: Paraphrase a student response and then call for a direct response (e.g., “Do you agree with X that Y…?”)
Issue #4: Affective factors play a role (e.g., fear of giving a wrong answer or fear of making grammar errors or having accented English).
Phrasing for clarification (e.g., Is there anything I can help clarify? or Were the findings clear?) Cultivating a positive, inclusive classroom environment: Building rapport early in the term: questionnaires, icebreakers (pairing native with non-native speakers before social status positioning), structured group activities, affirmation techniques, learning names, humor.
Issue #5: In the U.S. classroom, debate and dissent are highly valued. Many international students do not have experience with this and/ or may feel it is impolite to disagree.
Structure debates with detailed directions. (Open debates may encourage some students to hang back and listen to others.) Encourage dissenting points of view. Use of discussion boards for debate and/or follow-up to in-class debates.
Issue #6: American students are often encouraged to participate without worry about giving ‘correct’ answers. Many international students grew up staying quiet unless they felt they had a ‘correct’ answer.
Explicitly state that you want students to make guesses based on their reading and research (i.e., offer an informed opinion), but that you do not expect ‘correct’ answers per se. Encourage a discovery-based classroom atmosphere.
Issue #7: Social status in the classroom can impact participation. Some ESL students may encounter resistance from classmates, which can lead to decreased engagement and/or clustering of international students by native language.
Design groups and pairs in advance with diverse groups. Positively affirm students to extend your authority to students that may face exclusion. Highlight genuine strengths of a particular student that may face exclusion (e.g., “Your game design is highly original.�).
Which strategies just discussed have you used or think you may use? Are there any other strategies you have used with success?
The New School’s University Learning Center: http://www.newschool.edu/university-learning-center/
Parsons Language Support Resource site: http://portfolio.newschool.edu/lsintegrativessupport/
The Provost’s Office Teaching and Learning Workshops https://sites.google.com/a/newschool.edu/faculty-professional-development-network/home/calendar
Jamie Kruse’s Open Resource site http://portfolio.newschool.edu/krusej/2015/04/25/open-source-ls-materials/
Scott Thornbury’s “The Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Hall of Fame” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j31Bj-XIFSk
Certificate in TESOL (Upcoming Info Session, Nov. 10) http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/teaching-english-second-language-certificate/
Cambridge Conversations (Cambridge University Press) http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/ Helping Foreign Students Speak Up (Inside Higher Education article, September 2016)
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/09/20/howencourage-foreign-students-participate-class-essay#.VSKRILWfcg.mailto
Valdez, G. (2015) U.S. Higher Education Classroom Experiences of Undergraduate Chinese International Students. Journal of International Students, 188-200.
Q&A