English Background of East Asian Students in the College of Engineering

This complete research paper describes different pathways that East Asian engineering students take to learn English before starting college and their impact on student’s performance in an introductory engineering class. The language proficiency of students from East Asian countries and their adaptation to the active learning style of American classrooms is frequently questioned. However, a fraction of East Asian students has studied in English and has been emerged in American style classrooms before starting their first year of engineering. Here, we investigate how these previous experiences using English as a medium of instruction and in contact with the American culture impact the performance of East Asian students in the context of a mandatory introductory class in engineering.