Challenges Faced By Asian International Students In New Zealand

Key problems faced by Asian students in New Zealand

Question:

Explain about the problem faced by Asian international students in New Zealand. 

New Zealand, which is an island nation in the south-western Pacific Ocean and it is very much famous among students all over the world as study destination. As a result, every year a huge number of students choose New Zealand for their further higher education. In 2015, data released and it was found that, its international enrolments of students are comparatively higher in 2014 than in 2013. It has increased by 12% during the period of January to August 2014. Reason behind this increase, is the quality of education, flexibility in the education and work programme. Main source of international students are from Asian countries such as China, India and South Korea (monitor.icef.com, 2015).

Asian students face major challenges in terms of proficiency in English, relationship with other students, cultural difference and social difference. Irrespective of the country they feel themselves as outsiders. Language barriers are one of the most common challenges faced by the Asian students. In addition to that difference in currencies between their native country and new country, staying apart from their home, from their comfort zone in a complete different culture is seems to be very tough initially. These are the major issues which are faces by the Asian students in New Zealand and it is very important to address these issues (Lee et al., 2013).

Research question helps to emphasise on the crucial aspects of the entire study. The research questions are as follows:

What are the key problems of Asian students in New Zealand?

How Asian study does differ from Western style of learning?

How does culture of both countries affect the performance of the Asian students?

Impact of problems faced by Asian students on their learning outcome?

It has been observed that every year a large number of students choose New Zealand as their study destination. So it is obvious there will be situations they will be excited as they are going to explore a new world as well as their might be cases when they might feel themselves insecure as they are far from their home, their nation. One can see there is significant increase in the number of universities and colleges in New Zealand and reason behind this is excessive demand among international students especially in Asian students. Now it is considered as one of the largest exporter of education, and it has boosted education sector in positive manner (Hou, 2014).

These international students come with higher expectations, strong motivations and with the urge of learning new techniques however it has been seen that they come across many challenges like cultural differences in classroom, teaching techniques, difference in the way of learning, different approach in problem solving, in short the foreign students are facing difficulties in the path of their leaning. In this research, main objective is to examine and explain the issues which are faced by the Asian international students. 

International students can be defined as those students who are living in some other country other than their home country due to the purpose of education. They come from different backgrounds with different cultures and experiences. Not only that they have different knowledge and different English skills. So they find it difficult to cope up with the new pattern of learning. In addition to that they come across language difficulties, lack of social support, financial, psychological issues.

Difference between Asian and Western style of learning

In the year 2015-16 it has been seen that. 125384 students have come from abroad and studying in New Zealand (Kelsey, 2015). Most students are coming from Asian countries like India, China, South Korea, Japan. East Asian students faced problems in as their culture varies from the new culture. Most common problems are language problem, high end class room and teaching technique. These  affects their engagement in education in western country.

After globalization English language is prevalently used in education industry in International universities. Approximately 1.7 million students moves from their native country in order to acquire foreign education and surprisingly half of them are from non English speaking developing nation. It is one of the most common issue faced by Asian students. It has been observed that most of the Asian Universities follows American English so it is obvious they will not be able to cope up with the Australian way of speaking, with their seep etc. New Zealand English is more likely to Australian English (Altbach, 2015). It has been found in many international students that they have lack in the proficiency of English and this is the reason of their failure with the demands in linguistic and thus it reflects on their performance (nzherald.co.nz 2016).

It has been observed that eighty-five per cent students who have crossed the national territory for higher education in New Zealand are from Asian countries. As education industry contributes a high volume of export of New Zealand it is very much important that the Asian students must get satisfied with their learning experience.

Some western teachers think that Asian students are more likely to memorise things instead of learning texts technically with complete understandings. They use to follow surface learning compared to deep understanding of the subject matter. It has been considered that they want to achieve university degree with minimum effort. These cultural backgrounds arises conflict and contradiction about the learning styles of Asian students. Surface learning has very bad consequences on the students; it leads to poor understanding of the subject. However there exists some paradox too that if Asian students are learned by surface learning way out way how do they perform well in the western countries (Moran et al,.2014).

Biggs has explained this as, education in Asian countries is mainly examination oriented. Their all teaching and learning methods are related to the examinations. So they focus on the memorising and recall of their learning. Asian international students hold the brief that is acquired by doing rote learning, and which is reproduced in assessment and examinations (Raid et al,. 2013). It can be said that the memorising power of Asian students can contribute higher level of outcomes. Process of memorisation and understanding the subject in deep for Asian students helps them to achieve their goals. So memorisation and understanding of subject are mutual concepts, one can say these are the two sides of same coin, and if can be used in efficient manner it will give higher outcome (educationcounts.govt.nz 2016). The cultural and social concepts differ from country to country. It is obvious that the Asian cultures and western culture will be different and some Asian students find it difficult to adjust in the new culture, as they come with their local values, traditions and beliefs.

Cultural impact on Asian students’ performance

Cultural difference is one barrier for Asian students. When Asian students do not find similar educational system, in addition to that difficulties in language, financial pressure, loneliness, discrimination affects them in adverse manner. In Asian countries teachers lead the classroom; students do not participate or interact as sign of respect. However in western countries students actively take parts in the classroom and sometimes they lead the classroom. These are the cultural challenges, which are faced by the Asian students and these hinders their performance too. 

In Asian countries students are abide by their teachers and there exists a very strong student teacher relationship. Students’ behaviour is one of the key factors in the learning of Asian students. In New Zealand they follow Socratic Method of teaching. Socratic method refers to give more emphasize on the critical thinking of the study. This way of teaching is predominant in Western countries. They emphasise more on independent learning, participation of the students, knowledge construction and critical analysis of the ideas. These teaching methods facilitate independent learning of students. Asian students are lagged behind this; this is far apart from their expectations. On contrary, Asian leaning  environment is based on the cultural values like collectivism, harmony patience and modesty. Participation of students in the classroom depends upon the permission of the teachers (Johnson, 2016).

They mainly focus on the memorization of the study materials, taking notes and prepare themselves for examination. Surface approach is quite common in Asian institutes and they demonstrate their learning by appearing into examination (Raid et al,. 2013). On the other hand classrooms in New Zealand include individualism, equality, and competition. Students are allowed to learn from their everyday life and experiences gathered from their peers. Students express their thoughts and ideas; share their views in the class room.  So one can see there are complete difference in the teaching approach and methods followed in the classrooms of Asian institutes and Western institutes.

Conclusion:

So from the above discussion one can say that there are major channels which are creating hinders for the Asian students such as cultural difference, difference in the social norms, lack of proficiency in English, and most importantly there exists a significance difference in their learning approaches. One hand it shows that in western culture is more collaborative and on the other hand it shows Asian system of education is completely facilitated by the teacher and it is unidirectional. So unanimously it can be said that goal must be to minimise these differences from the host country as well as from the guest country as it contributes to human capital and boost the growth of both continents.

Outline of research methodology:

Research methodology helps in presenting the overview of entire research that will be undertaken to successfully complete the research. Research methodology includes research approach, research design and methods of data collection employed to undertake the research. Therefore, it can be said that research methodology provides a basic framework that enables the researcher to reach firm conclusion and fulfil research objectives. Determination of research methodology helps in undertaking the research in a systematic manner and provides direction to the research to achieve its objectives (Robson & McCartan, 2016). 

Impact of challenges faced by Asian students on their learning outcome

For this research study, methodology has been designed on the components of problems faced by Asian international students studying in New Zealand. For this research, the various problems faced by Asian international students in prominent major institutions of New Zealand and its impact on the learning outcomes have been analysed. Therefore, to match with the research subject, positivism theory, deductive research methodology and descriptive design of the research has been selected. For the collection of relevant data, non-probabilistic sampling methods would be utilized. Further, both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis would be employed to achieve research objectives (Flick, 2015). 

In order to understand various problems faced by Asian students studying in New Zealand and its impact on the learning outcome a suitable research philosophy needs to be selected. Since, the purpose of this research is to analyse the problems faced by Asian students and its impact on the learning outcomes, it can be better analysed by utilizing positivism research philosophy. Positivism research philosophy aims at finding factual information gained through the process of observation and data collection. Therefore, by applying positivism theory the researcher can distinguish the genuine facts by recognising the elements of problems faced by the Asian students in New Zealand and its impact on the learning outcomes (Mackey & Gass, 2015).

The most common types of research approach are: inductive and deductive. Inductive research involves observation, collection of data (primary as well as secondary), data analysis establishment of relevant theories that satisfies the research objectives. Deductive research approach, on the other hand, follows selection of relevant theories, hypothesis testing, analysis of data, along with implementation of these theories for analysing data and validating the theoretical evidences (Panneerselvam, 2014). 

In this study, relevant theories have already been discussed in the literature review section. In addition, primary would be collected and analysed to support theoretical evidences or secondary data. Hence, for this research study deductive research approach is adopted to that would evaluate relevant theories and highlight major problems faced by Asian students studying in New Zealand and its impact on their learning outcomes. 

Research design helps in interpreting the results of data analysis on the basis of research objectives. Most common types of research design are – exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. Exploratory research helps in identifying the problem statement and preparing background for further research. Explanatory research on the other hands helps to identify the reasons behind the research problems. Descriptive research helps in establishing research objectives with the findings of the research (Yin, 2013). 

The purpose of this research is to relate the finding of the study with the research objectives. By relating the results of data analysis with the research objectives identified at the beginning of the study indicates that the research has been able to meet its goal of identifying various problems faced by Asian international students studying in New Zealand and its impact on the learning outcomes. Therefore, descriptive research design has been used for this research study (Blumberg et al., 2014). 

Language difficulties faced by Asian students

For this study, both primary and secondary methods of data collection would be used. With the use of both methods of data collection, the objectives of research can be effectively achieved. As the study aims at finding a relation between various problems faced by Asian international students and their learning outcomes in New Zealand, the relevant data would be collected from Asian international students and college professors. In addition, for developing theoretical framework, use of secondary data can be employed. Secondary data will be collected from previous researches, journals and other academic articles available online and libraries (Sullivan et al., 2012).

Further, for the collection of relevant primary data, non-probabilistic sampling technique would be employed to reduce the deviation of responses. The primary data would be collected by the researcher by developing interview questions that would be distributed via e-mails to the identified respondents. In some cases, personal interviews would be undertaken particularly for college professors to get a detailed understanding of problems faced by the Asian students and its impact on their learning outcomes. In addition, for the collection of primary data, the sample size of 100 respondents would employed in the ratio of 20:80 (20 professors and 80 Asian international students) (Gast & Ledford, 2014).

For this study, mixed research method would be employed. A mix research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research method. The quantitative analysis would be undertaken by for 100 respondents through interviews and survey questionnaires. On the other hand, qualitative research method is employed while interacting with college professors to better understand the problems faced by Asian international students and its impact on learning outcomes of these students (Neuman & Robson 2012). 

While conducting the research it is important to follow a methodological approach that follows the ethical principles of research. As a researcher, it is important to follow the principles of integrity, honesty, confidentiality and fairness in all the stages of research of research activity.   By following ethics in the research, validity of research can be improved.  Therefore, for this study, ethical principles would be followed. The data collected from the respondents would not be used for commercial purposes and only be used for understanding the research problem and the findings would be used for enhancing the learning outcomes of the Asian international students and other academic purposes. The data collected has been collected by transparent system by informing the respondents about the purpose of research and what the research aims at achieving.

The consent forms would be kept by the principle researcher before the report gets published. The data and the consent forms would have the access of researcher and the authority that has provided grant for the research. Once the report gets published, the data would be achieved and stored in digital format. The questionnaire has been developed in such a manner that no personal questions are asked to the respondents. Adequate attention has been paid to understand the cultural differences of the respondents. In addition, while conducting the research willingness and convenience of respondents have been taken into consideration. The information gathered would be kept confidential and have access to the researcher (Millum & Sina, 2014). 

Reference list:

Altbach, P. (2015). Foreign Study: Patterns and Challenges. International Higher Education, (30).

Blumberg, B. F., Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2014). Business research methods. McGraw-hill education.

Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.

Gast, D. L., & Ledford, J. R. (2014). Single case research methodology: Applications in special education and behavioral sciences. Routledge.

Hou, A. Y. C. (2014). Quality in cross-border higher education and challenges for the internationalization of national quality assurance agencies in the Asia-Pacific region: the Taiwanese experience. Studies in Higher Education,39(1), 135-152.

Johnson, R., Kim, J. Y. C., & Lee, J. Y. (2016). Asians and the Myth of the Model Minority in Higher Education: A Psychocultural Reality. Handbook of Research on Organizational Justice and Culture in Higher Education Institutions, 448.

Kelsey, J. (2015). The New Zealand experiment: A world model for structural adjustment?. Bridget Williams Books.

Lee, B., Farruggia, S. P., & Brown, G. T. (2013). Academic difficulties encountered by East Asian international university students in New Zealand.Higher Education Research & Development, 32(6), 915-931.

Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Neuman, W. L., & Robson, K. (2012). Basics of social research: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.