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The Making and Remaking of the Chinese International Students: Perceptions as L2 Learners/Users

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The Lived Experience of Chinese International Students in the U.S.

Part of the book series: Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects ((EDAP,volume 56))

Abstract

This chapter discusses two important learning contexts that make and remake the Chinese international graduate students: first, as foreign language learners back in China, then as second language users and learners at Blue Fountain University in the United States. After reviewing the sociocultural context in which the students prepared to study abroad, namely, China’s English language teaching and learning, national curriculum reforms, evolution of ELT pedagogy, as well as NEST and NNEST dichotomy. We present the learning environments in the United States that nurture and shape them to be successful graduate students, critical thinkers, conscious L2 learners/users, and competent intercultural individuals. Along the journey to receiving an academic degree in the United States, the various cultures of their respective departments reflect different departments’ efforts and phases toward internationalization. The pre-departure sociocultural context that produces the Chinese international students as EFL learners, not only provides a rich context for the reader to understand what makes the Chinese international students who they are, but also reflects on China’s history of English language teaching and the reality of college English education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Chap. 1 for the explanation of “making and remaking.”

  2. 2.

    Chinese students in natural sciences and computer science traditionally call the professor “boss,” in a sense that they have to do a lot of experiments in the lab for the single professor. The other reason is that often their funding comes from that professor, so they are technically their boss because they pay the salary.

  3. 3.

    A popular TV opera in 1990s describing a Chinese couple’s life in New York: no money, no English, no dignity.

  4. 4.

    An Internal Revenue Code for NPO tax exemptions.

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  1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Yalun Zhou

  2. University of Missouri–Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA

    Michael Wei

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Zhou, Y., Wei, M. (2021). The Making and Remaking of the Chinese International Students: Perceptions as L2 Learners/Users. In: The Lived Experience of Chinese International Students in the U.S.. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 56. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9449-6_3

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