Open AccessAre International Undergraduates Struggling Academically?
Author(s) -
Barry Fass-Holmes,
Allison A. Vaughn
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of international students
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.47
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 2166-3750
pISSN - 2162-3104
DOI - 10.32674/jis.v4i1.497
Subject(s) - mathematics education , community college , psychology , english language , public university , multilevel model , variance (accounting) , pedagogy , political science , medical education , statistics , mathematics , medicine , accounting , public administration , business
Are international undergraduates struggling academically, and are their struggles due to weaknesses in English as a second language? The present study showed that 1) at most 10% of these students in three cohorts (ranging in size from N=322 to N=695) at an American west coast public university struggled (quarterly grade point averages below C) in their university classes; 2) up to 63% of them struggled with English (they were required to take a local community college’s English Composition and/or English as a Second Language classes, and up to 42% earned course grades of D or F in those classes); and 3) predictors shown to be statistically significant by hierarchical linear modeling each accounted for less than 5% of the total variance (“small” effect sizes). These findings suggest that only a minority of this university’s international undergraduates struggle in their university classes even though a majority of them struggle with English.