FOREIGN STUDENTS’ ADAPTATION CHALLENGES IN THE US UNIVERSITIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24919/2413-2039.10/42.186312Keywords:
a foreign student, adaptation challenges, aspects of adaptation, facilitation, academic environment, university staff, USAAbstract
SMOLIKEVYCH Nadiya – PhD (Education), Associate Professor of Foreign Languages for Natural Sciences Department, Ivan Franko Lviv National University, 1 University Str., Lviv, 79000, Ukraine
E-mail address: sm.nadia.ua@gmail.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0723-3782
ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/1769624/nadia-romanivna-smolikevych/
TURCHYN Iryna – PhD (Education), acting Associate Professor of Foreign Languages Department, Lviv National Agrarian University, 1 V. Velykoho Str., Dubliany, 80381, Ukraine
E-mail address: irynocka1988@gmail.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4630-8273
ResearcherID: https://publons.com/researcher/2942979/iryna-turchyn/
HOROKHIVSKA Tetiana – PhD (Education), Associate Professor of Pedagogy and Innovative Education Department, Lviv Polytechnic National University, 12 Stepan Bandera Str., Lviv, 79013, Ukraine
E-mail address: t.gorohivska@gmail.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5997-4676
Researcher ID: https://publons.com/researcher/3217033/tetiana-horokhivska/
To cite this article: Smolikevych, N., Turchyn, I., & Horokhivska, T. (2020). Foreign students’ adaptation challenges in the US University. Human Studies. Series of Pedagogy, 10/42, 76‒86. doi: https://doi.org/10.24919/2413-2039.10/42.186312
Article history
Received: October 28, 2019
Received in revised form: November 15, 2019
Accepted: March 11, 2020
Available online: April 28, 2020
Journal homepage:
p-ISSN 2313-2094
e-ISSN 2413-2039
© 2020 The Authors. Human studies. Series of Pedagogy published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
In spite of the existence of a lot of authors’ researches on the issues of international students’ problems, while studying abroad, we state that the adaptation challenges they face are the issue of vital importance to solve for today’s pedagogy and psychology in order to facilitate the foreigners’ adaptation process. The article offers an analysis of the organizational and pedagogical support of foreign students’ adaptation to the US university environment. The paper argues that direct-acting factors that are means of training and indirect factors, among which there are the spatial-objective organization of the environment and interpersonal interaction, influence foreign students’ adaptation to the American university environment.
The main aspects that cover foreign students’ adaptation at the US universities have been studied, namely: learning the language the host country, adopting its culture and social support. The article also outlines a number of competencies and abilities of students needed to be adapted to the educational environment while studying abroad, as: foreign-language communicative competence, sociocultural, intercultural, and strategic competences; ability to overcome cultural shock and stress associated with it, abilities to adapt to a new cultural environment. The major teachers’ competences necessary in the work with foreign students for their successful adaptation and the study process have been singled out. The results of the survey defined the key foreign student’s challenges of the adaptation process to a new university environment from different aspects, namely: the psychological, social, cultural, and academic ones. The organizational and pedagogical basics of the university staff’s work with foreign students on ensuring the facilitation of their adaptation to a new academic environment and an important role of the campus in this process have been substantiated. The possibility of implementing the US progressive ideas and experience concerning foreign students’ adaptation to university education of Ukraine has been also outlined.
Acknowledgments. We extend our gratitude to Professor Nataliya Mukan of the Department of Pedagogy and Innovative Education at Lviv Polytechnic National University for critical reading of the article. We also thank the editors of the journal for the opportunity to contribute our article.
Funding. The authors did not receive any financial support for the research.
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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