Meet the Co-Authors of “Why They Struggle: A Research - Teaching Project Highlighting Challenges Faced by Multilingual Students in U.S. Universities”
Panathip Chimrak
Nadiah binti Mohamed Hasnol
Juhua Huang
Apichaya Thaneerat
International Michigan State University students, Panathip (Ky) Chimrak, Juhua (Hayden) Huang, Apichaya Thaneerat, and Nadiah Binti Mohamed came together to research and write their piece on multilingual students.
Ky is a senior studying Supply Chain Management and Business. Hayden, originally from China, is a senior majoring in Mathematics. Nadiah is originally from Malaysia and is a sophomore Psychology major. Apichaya is a senior studying Geography and is originally from Thailand.
Finding a journal that would publish their article was a long and disappointing search for this ambitious group, as only a few accepted works from undergraduate students. The team felt lucky to come across Young Scholars in Writing and were thrilled to publish their work in academia.
Each co-author had a wonderful time working together throughout the research and writing process. They especially appreciated getting to brainstorm together and share their different perspectives. According to Ky, each student came from a different country and therefore learned English and other general studies in their unique ways. As a result, combining their backgrounds was a special opportunity for the team. The group also mentioned how much they enjoyed reading other scholarly articles. Regardless of their personal opinions within their research, they enjoyed hearing different perspectives and reading examples of similar work.
By voicing their opinions, perspectives, and experiences, the group hopes their piece will improve the education of international students at Michigan State University. They created a YouTube channel based on their research and experiences as international students called Multilingual Learner’s Team MSU. The channel consists of videos that answer questions held by domestic students and teachers for international students. It also serves as a platform for other international students to feel heard as they face similar situations.
Juhua is confident that their piece reflects an honest perspective because it is a result of their combined experience on the topic. To any future writer for YSW, he recommends writing about something that is a good fit for them. “It is us,” he said, “I mean, most of the article is really our thoughts as international students.” Apichaya values the importance of authors writing something that will benefit her audience and her as a writer. She found the process of researching and writing to be a very educational opportunity that even indicated whether or not she wanted to attend graduate school. As for Nadiah, who joined the group as a freshman, she had no idea what the professional writing field looked like in the English language in America. She found the idea of publishing journals and the new grammar and vocabulary required for the field challenging to learn at first. However, working with YSW influenced her interest in continuing to do research and scholarly writing, and she looks forward to it in the near future.
This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.
