留学生英语交流困难探析——以加拿大中国留学生为例

论文总字数：46554字

摘 要

本次研究的目的主要是以加拿大中国留学生为例，探讨留学生的英语交流困难以及相应的解决策略。本研究主要采取个案法和日志记录法，并结合问卷调查和访谈，由点到面进行全面的深入研究加拿大中国留学生遇到的语言困难和相应的解决策略。结果显示，留学生在学习和生活中在听说读写四个方面都遇到了许多英语交流困难。研究表明留学生克服这些困难的最佳策略是在网络搜索。根据研究结果，本研究也为中国留学生和国内学术英语教学和留学前培训提供了一些建议，以供参考。

关键词：交流困难;留学生;交流策略;加拿大

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ⅰ

English Abstract ⅱ

摘要 ⅲ

Table of Contents ⅴ

Chapter One Introduction 9

1.1 Research Background 9

1.2 Research Purpose and Significance 9

1.3 Thesis Outline 10

Chapter Two Literature Review 10

2.1 Related Research on Communication Difficulties of International Students 10

2.2 Related Research on Solutions for Communication Difficulties 12

2.3 Research Gap 13

Chapter Three Methodology 14

3.1 Research Questions 14

3.2 Participants 14

3.3 Instruments for Data Collection 15

3.3.1 Journals 15

3.3.2 Survey 15

3.3.3 Interview 16

3.4 Data Collection 17

3.5 Data Analysis 17

3.5.1 Journals 17

3.5.2 Survey 17

3.5.3 Interview 18

Chapter Four Results and Discussion 18

4.1 Communication Difficulties 18

4.1.1 Communication Difficulties and Strategies in Journals 18

4.1.2 Result of the Questionnaires 20

4.1.3 Communication Difficulties and Gender 23

4.1.4 Communication Difficulties and TOEFL Score 23

4.1.5 Communication Difficulties and Length of Stay in Canada 24

4.2 Effective Strategies 26

4.3 Discussion 26

Chapter Five Conclusions 27

5.1 Major Findings 27

5.2 Implications 27

5.3 Limitations 29

5.4 Future Research 29

References 30

Appendix A 32

Appendix B 34

Chapter One Introduction

• 1. Research Background

Chinese students go to other countries and face double challenges in life and academic communication, such as the completely unfamiliar environment at the time of initial entry, communication barriers caused by lack of listening and speaking skills, unfamiliar culture and vocabulary, and a new language system. As a bridge of communication, language is the first difficulty for international students to overcome. In life, language barriers make Chinese students lack of communication with local people, which leads to the “community of the compatriots”, which seriously affects language acquisition. The lack of communication also delays the adaptation and understanding of culture. In terms of academic communication, language barriers lead to heavy academic pressures, low quality of work, difficulties in writing academic papers, and difficulties in graduation. All those make international students have no faith in themselves (Zhang, 2004).

However, the existing studies have paid more attention to the phenomenon in general. Few of them have sorted out the contexts of the communication difficulties. Fewer of them have studied the strategies ever used by the international students to tackle these difficulties.

1.2 Research Purpose and Significance

Communication difficulties of international students have been one of the most enduring issues with respect to their social, cultural and academic adaptation.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the difficulties encountered by, specific expressions used by and coping strategies of international students studying abroad in their life and academic communication contexts. Thus, this empirical study, by repelling the factors influencing the difficulties and strategies, may provide valuable reference for domestic academic English teaching and those students who are studying abroad at present time. It is hoped that the results of this study can help Chinese students prepare for the survival in a foreign country before going abroad.

1.3 Thesis Outline

This thesis has five chapters all together.

The first chapter is the introduction of the whole paper. It introduces the research background, purpose and significance as well as the layout of this thesis.

The second chapter is a literature review. It includes the related research on communication difficulties of international students, related research on solutions for communication difficulties and the research gap.

The third chapter is the research methodology. It covers two research questions in this study, the detail information about participants and three ways of data collection, that is, journals, questionnaires and interview.

The fourth chapter is about the results of this study. It mainly covers two themes: the communication difficulties encountered by Chinses international students in Canada and how these students tackle these communication difficulties.

The final chapter is about the major findings, implications of this study, the limitations of this study and what is expected to further study in the future.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Related Research on Communication Difficulties of International Students from Home and Abroad

Before going abroad, international students are most worried about the difficulties which may be encountered in “language”, “incorporating foreign cultures” and “communication with foreigners” (Xu, 1998, p. 26). The investigation and research of international students has become an important issue that cannot be circumvented in many related disciplines such as sociology and psychology.

At present, some scholars have paid attention to the adaptation of Chinese international students. For example, He and Tang (2001), Xu (1998), and Chen (2007) studied the cultural impact of Chinese international students' learning and living conditions and experiences in the UK, Japan, and Australia. Chen and Che (2003) studied internal and external factors affecting cross-cultural adaptation, and summarized external factors as life change, social support, travel time, cultural distance, discrimination and prejudice, etc. while internal factors as cognition, evaluation methods, coping styles, personality, and knowledge and skills related to culture. Zhang (2004) studied the psychological impact of cultural differences on international students and their coping strategies.

Moreover, many researchers have paid more attention to lexical achievement and psychological status of Chinese international students' English communication. Cui (2013) studied the changes in English proficiency of Chinese international students in Canada's short-term learning experience. She pointed out that the subjects' grammatical accuracy decreased after participating the study abroad, which was lower than their pre-learning level, but their vocabulary increased in volume and the level of oral fluency improved significantly. Zhang (2017) pointed out that the language anxiety of Chinese international students was widespread. The reason was mainly because they often feared grammatical mistakes when using English, and because of cultural differences, students could not master communication skills and communication habits well. This kind of anxiety is also gradually reduced as the process of cultural adaptation.

Although the purpose of studying abroad varies, the experience of international students studying abroad is accompanied by language barriers to certain extent. Jones (2000) found that international students faced many challenges in their lives abroad, including cultural differences, alienation, social exclusion, economic needs, homesickness, racial discrimination and language barriers. It is worth noting that the most common and dominant problem for international students is language barriers, which can lead to academic difficulties, social exclusion and psychological anxiety.

Jones(1999) stated that adequate language communication skills are clearly an important preparation for international students because they play an important role in the success of learning. However, not only communication skills are a problem, but error communication is also a problem. Gilakjani (2012) stated that the reason for the communication problem was that the incorrect or bad pronunciation produced a greater misunderstanding. And Eisenchlas and Tsurutani (2011) also pointed out that stress problems may also cause students' academic performance and social networks to be adversely affected.

Therefore, solving the problem of language difficulties is the primary task of international students. We need to further study the difficulties and corresponding solutions for the communication difficulties of international students, which not only helps the progress of students' studies and life, but also further alleviates the psychological pressure of international students. Also, this provides implications for domestic academic English teaching.

This study focuses on the communication difficulties Chinese international students in Canada face, and the communicative strategies they employ to enable them to sustain interaction with others and resolve language barriers and communication breakdowns.

2.2 Related Research on Solutions for Communication Difficulties

Studying in other countries can be an exciting and challenging experience for international students who must experience many adaptation problems, especially those situations related to academic, sociocultural, and psychological contexts (Ward amp; Kennedy, 1993). Among all the challenges, communication barrier is a prominent one. In a study conducted by Campbell and Li (2008), the researchers interviewed 22 Asian students regarding their study experience in New Zealand. They found that language difficulty is one of the biggest problems for international students. Thus, overcoming the communication barrier is critical in order to thrive in other countries and culture environment.

Fortunately, there are some existing findings that can provide us some insights on how to overcome communication barrier. Kuo (2011) suggested that listening comprehension and oral proficiency were two major challenges students faced. Moreover, terminology in different fields was also confusing students. The author proposed several strategies regarding those problems. For example, international students should learn the terminology related to their field of study and daily life, such as how to visit a medical doctor, how to open a bank account, and how to order food in restaurants. Moreover, Kuo advised that students could search help from local companies, university learning centers, libraries and churches.

 Improving English learning requires that both learners and teachers work together. Sawir (2005) explored the effects of prior English learning experience. It was found that before the students attended university, the classroom practice was not only mainly didactic rather than interactive and conversational in form but was largely limited to the teaching of grammatical rules. Sawir proposed several suggestions to improve language learning on institutional level. He pointed out that the English education in the home country should be more communicative and interactive, allowing students to build more confidence and speaking skills.

2.3 Research Gap

Although there have been many studies showing that foreign students encounter various language difficulties and problems abroad, but more careful classification work should be done to find out the specific situations of these difficulties, the causes of these difficulties and the effective strategies ever used to tackle the specific difficulties.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out the specific language difficulties faced by international students and provide some effective strategies according to international students’ own experiences.

Chapter Three Methodology

3.1 Research Questions

There are two research questions in this study:

1. What are the communication difficulties encountered by Chinses international students in Canada?
2. How do Chinese international students in Canada tackle these communication difficulties?

3.2 Participants

A total of 48 international students participated in the survey. Among them, there were 28 males and 20 females, most of whom were psychology majors. One of them participated in a case study and interview. He is a senior student with a major in psychology. He has lived in Canada for four years. His TOEFL score is 105 for college entrance and the average score of the courses he has studied in his four years’ college life is about 75 to 80. The situation of this international student represents the average level of most international students and has certain universality. The other 47 international students participated in the survey.

The reason for choosing these people as samples is that: They are all senior undergraduates in Canada. They both come from China and speak Chinese as their mother tongue. They have lived in Canada for about four years or more than four years. After a long time of living and studying abroad, their life scenes are more diverse, and the academic research topics and subjects they discuss in class are more in-depth. Therefore, they face more varied types of communication difficulties. They are more aware of the impact of communication difficulties on them.

In the long period of living and studying abroad, they also accumulated a lot of strategies in dealing with communication difficulties, which is of great reference value for potential students who are going to study abroad. Based on their experience, we can summarize a relatively comprehensive category of communication difficulties of Chinese International students and put forward some advisable suggestions.

3.3 Instruments

3.3.1 Journals

A total of 56 daily separate journals and 8 weekly journal summaries written by an international student were collected. These journals have a total of 5,975 words and all were written in Chinese.

In order to find out what the communication difficulties encountered by Chinses international students in Canada Are, these journals were all marked and categorized by the researcher with the help of her supervisor.

The daily journal contents were supposed to answer three questions:1) On what occasions (time, place, people, events and language usage include listening, speaking, reading or writing) are English used by the international student studying in Canada? 2) Does he have any communication difficulties? 3) How does he react to the communication difficulties? There is no limitation on the word number of everyday journals，but every journals should be written in Chinese for two consecutive months (March and April of 2019).

The weekly retrospective journal describes the communication difficulties, solutions and feelings encountered during the week. It can be a supplement for the communication difficulties that may not have been recorded in daily journals. The retrospective journal is also kept for two consecutive months (March and April of 2019).

3.3.2 Survey

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