Communication as a student in a foreign land depends heavily on knowledge of the language. But there’s more to it than translation, sentence structure, and comprehension. The Ask a Tech Teacher international team has a few broader issues to think about when considering what barriers face students in foreign lands:
Language: The Biggest Communication Barrier for Foreign Students?
You’ve found your dream course in a foreign university and got accepted. A new adventure begins for you. Your education abroad could have been such a pleasant and thrilling journey.
But when you get off the flight, it hits you that it’s a foreign country. New people, culture, and most importantly, a new language!
All of a sudden, you are outside your comfort zone. But you must overcome the language barrier as soon as possible.
If this story rings a bell in your mind, too, don’t worry. I’ve been on the same page also. I understand that speaking, note-making, and working on assignments in another language is quite hectic.
What Language Barriers Do Foreign Students Face?
Do you remember season 6 of Modern Family? Gloria from Columbia had a hard time in the US. On that note, she said something very relevant- “Do you know how frustrating it is to have to translate everything in my head before I say it? Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?”
If you can empathize with international students, you will know what problems they face, day in and day out! A recent study says that language barriers impact well well-being of many international students. And the issues that they face the most are:
1. Lack of Effective Communication in The Classroom and Other Academic Settings
Students face a series of problems when they communicate in their academic setting. Around 68% of the non-vernacular students have issues following class notes and participating in academic discussion sessions.
This is a genuine issue for students with non-English backgrounds mainly.
What are the issues they face? Firstly, they cannot participate freely in project groups with native English speakers. Secondly, their assignment quality is frailer due to their frail language strength, especially during dissertation writing.
Linguistic experts say that long-form papers demand an exceptional grip on the language. Otherwise, you will quickly run out of vocabulary and feel saturated.
2. All Round Wring Proficiency Takes A Hit
Academic writing becomes a stable grey area for students weak in English. Not only dissertations. But in essays, research papers, and reports, you need a strong command of the language.
It allows you to convey ideas, opinions, or arguments easily. I’ve seen that students of diverse vernacular backgrounds usually write fact-based papers. You may use the language’s help in the secondary source when documenting secondary information.
However, the problem happens when you need to analyze the data. Let’s take the example of the fifth chapter of a dissertation. When you draft the statistical analysis, it’s all fine. But the following analysis section would seem complicated to pull off!
What Can You Do?
You must understand one thing here. It is rather impossible to grease your basic English at this advanced level. Meanwhile, it is also challenging to tackle a project of the level of a dissertation, provided most colleges don’t allow you to submit papers in any other language.
Watch YouTube videos on structuring a dissertation chapter or your academic essay to improve proficiency. Meanwhile, free courses guide students on everything, from sentence structuring to common vocabulary used in research papers.
But, the fact’s that most students don’t have the time required for such rigorous practice. At least 40% of international students work part-time to satisfy educational, living, and social costs.
A Secret Trick
You may seek help from experts in the field. Ivory Research is an online platform for educators and academic consultants who will make a structure for your paper. What it’ll do is it will make your paper seem more professional and reflect your research well.
Meanwhile, you may read or request similar sample research papers. Not only those papers will give you fresh insights you can use in your research. But you will also get abundant references to write a good research paper in English.
3. Misunderstandings From Misinterpretations
Non-native English speakers face this problem in general. The communication styles of people from different cultures are also diverse. When you’re working on group projects or in collaboration, teamwork might be spoilt due to such misunderstandings.
When you’re the odd one in the group, unable to follow up on discussions well, you lack confidence. You might not be familiar with specific idioms, slang, and even cultural norms. That’s why it would be almost impossible for you to match the vibe of a native.
When there are such cultural nuances, you feel left out. And miscommunication ensues. For example, you can’t put forward your research inputs in group meetings properly. In addition, other group members will struggle to understand what you are trying to express.
What Can You Do?
Most experts suggest that online learning guides are reasonable solutions for such problems. Platforms like Ivory Research have an ecosystem of advisory, guides, and exercises for practice.
Most importantly, Ivory Research can provide guidelines, report structure, and even reference papers based on the topic you’re working on.
Meanwhile, you may also join local language clubs. Alums often host club sessions for interaction with non-natives. This could help you to overcome the communication problem. At least.
To improve academic writing, Ivory Research is there to guide you on all fronts.
Lastly, I suggest using translation apps, dictionaries, and tools like Duolingo. Whenever you hear any unfamiliar word, take note. Try to incorporate the same as much as possible.
Conclusion
The modern world is a product of globalization. Studying abroad is becoming an everyday norm. But cultural and language barriers will follow you.
However, you can overcome these issues with the right mindset and strategic approach. Online help is there and easily accessible. Meanwhile, practice reading, participate in discussion forums, and build confidence.
Remember: You need to express freely, to learn from your mistakes. For academic writing like dissertations, Ivory Research can help!
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“The content presented in this blog are the result of creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.”
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
This is a very interesting post. I think it should be very helpful to foreign students. When I came to the US as a college level exchange student my English was not very good. Luckily, engineering and physics classes rarely require you to write essays. There are dissertations of course, but that comes later.
One problem I had was that I sometimes could not follow what the teachers were saying, and naturally I could not interrupt and ask them to translate to Swedish. It was not a problem when the teacher was following the book. It was not that hard for me to read books in English, and I had a dictionary. The problem was when teachers did their own thing and did not follow the book or even follow the syllabus. I had one teacher in Engineering math who taught his research topic in advanced Calculus instead of Engineering math. There was not one item from the book mentioned in the class. First of all, buying the book was pointless. In addition, this makes it very difficult for students who are weak in English since they had to understand every word the teacher said in addition to taking notes of everything said. Luckily the entire class were foreign students, and everyone had the same problem.
Later on, I was writing research papers and dissertations (master’s and PhD) but my advisor/professor proofread and corrected everything for me before we sent it to journals and conferences or presented a dissertation. He said my English writing sounded German, but he fixed it, and without putting himself first on the papers (but he was on there).
As for American students going abroad to, for example, Sweden. No one expected them to speak Swedish, so professors accommodated them by providing information and tests in English and/or choosing a book that was written in English and sticking to it.
Very interesting. We aren’t as sensitive as we could be to other languages. Your experience is fascinating. I’m thinking of my teaching, but I had no non-English speakers. I hope if I had, I would have been more helpful.