Why They Struggle: A Research-Teaching Project Highlighting Challenges Faced by Multilingual Students in U.S. Universities
Abstract
U.S. institutions of higher education should go beyond statistical diversity to ensure inclusion and equity in the classroom environment—treating multilingual students fairly, being mindful of their varied cultural norms, and giving them the best possible opportunities for success. Our project supports these goals, as we brought together writing faculty and a group of four multilingual students to make videos for use in faculty workshops. Based on scholarly research and our own experiences, each of our three completed videos addresses the concerns of international students in the classroom, including the listening, speaking, and writing barriers they face. This paper also describes why we chose video specifically as the tool by which to convey our concerns.
Author Biographies
Panathip Chimrak is majoring in Supply Chain Management at Michigan State University. Panathip plans to graduate in May 2023, pursue a PhD in Supply Chain, and become a professor in Thailand.
Nadiah Hasnol is majoring in Psychology at Michigan State University and is planning to graduate in 2025. She is an international student from Malaysia and is involved in undergraduate research.
Juhua Huang is an international student in Math major at Michigan State University. After graduating in 2022, He plans to attend graduate school to further explore his interests in Data Science. At the same time he will continue studying concerns about the learning environment for international students at U.S. universities.
Apichaya Thaneerat is an international student from Thailand majoring in Geographic Information Science and minoring in Social Science Quantitative Data Analysis. After graduating in the spring of 2024, she hopes to attend graduate school to pursue her interest in remote sensing and GIS.
Individual authors retain the copyright of their work published in Young Scholars in Writing.
