Example of Coursework

Your Name: Qianqi Yang

Courses: EAP 507

Professor Name: Habib Anna; Namubiru Esther

Date: March 14,2015

Analytical Summary of CPP5

A large number of international students come to America to obtain the better education, and, at the same time, they contribute to America in many aspect, such as financial aspect. Therefore, understanding the concerns and needs of international students is very important and many studies about international students came out. The authors found even though there was a large number of studies about the challenges for international students, they rarely improve the real practice. Moreover, there is still a gap between the institution which real designs and executes the program for international student and the international students themselves. For filling this gap, Özturgut and Murphy(2009) reflected the literature about the challenges for international students in the U.S. to improve the practical program and put forward some practical methods for the institutions. This review can help the professors and staff to adjust their strategies for international students’ adjustment issues.

In this article, “challenges for international students” is one of most important key concepts. Actually, in this review, the authors did not define this term explicitly and directly. In my opinion, it is because this concept is easy to understand. As the authors said, there is already extensive study about it, so it is a common concept in the field. Moreover, this article’s readers are the educational professors and staffs. However, for explaining the concept in this article, the authors also use a lot synonyms and modifiers. One of key terms is “challenges related to their academic lives, social interactions, health, transportation, and discrimination” (p.378). The authors used participial phrase to limit the challenges. Therefore, in this study, the challenges are about the problems that international students would face with in various aspects, such as academic study. Actually, other study also indicated these challenges are related to “the students’ academic problems” ( Thomas & Althen, 1989 ). In addition, other author considered these problems would impact students’ success (Wan, 2001).

After reading this article, I found a very important language pattern, integrated and non-integrated citations. The difference between integrated and non-integrated citations is the place of the author’s name and date. In integrated citation, the author’s name and date is in the sentence and most them are as the subject. Taking an example, “The most recent Open Doors Report (2008) explained that international students contribute ……” (p.376). First of all, Open Doors Report is an authoritative report, so it can support author’s study powerfully. Secondly, this report is very important for this article. The data from the report showed the benefits from international students to the U.S that it is one of motivations in this article. For these two reasons, Özturgut and Murphy chose integrated citation to show the importance of Open Doors Report and give the reward to this report. On the contrary, non-integrated citation means the author’s name and date is not in the sentence but in the brackets, such as “As the number of international students entering U.S. colleges and universities increase (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999; Sarkodie-Mensah, 1998; Zikopoulos, 1991), ……” (p.374). From this example, we can know the information that is cited is known widely. Because of three studies were cited here, we know that this information has been talk several times, so that is not new and doesn’t need to discuss. In addition, because many studies all talked about this information, this content is very important in the field. Therefore, using non-integrated citation can make the audiences focus on the content itself. Therefore, using integrated and non-integrated citations depends on the function of the sources and shows the purpose of the author.

Actually, all the articles in CPP are about the problems that the international students or graduate students face with. Therefore, there are some connections between these articles. For example, Özturgut and Murphy’s study and de Araujo (2011)’s study all talked about the background of the increasing international students in America. However, Özturgut and Murphy also pointed out the contributions of international students. Moreover, because of the benefits from international students, the authors thought it was necessary to understand the needs and concerns of international students and help them to overcome these challenges. This enriched the importance of de Araujo’s study. Moreover, Phillips’(2014) case study didn’t talk about the background about the international students, but other two studies told us why this group of students is so special and needs to be understand. I think that’s why Phillips chose an international graduate student as his object of study. In addition, Özturgut and Murphy’s article indicated the lack of practical operations related to the literary studies. Therefore, although there is extensive research, it does not really help the students. For filling this gap, the authors not only reviewed the previous research, but also gave some suggestions for the education institutions, such as the qualifications and skills for the staffs who aim to help international students. De Araujo also considered his study can help to improve the international programs. However, he just listed the needs of international students, but didn’t gave the real suggestions for the staffs. Therefore, Özturgut and Murphy’s study enriched this aspect. Finally, as a review, Özturgut and Murphy mentioned several challenges for international students, however, they didn’t describe them in detail. For example, they talked about the academic problems that may because of the different educational systems. But in Li’s(2008) article, she indicated argumentative edge was very important in American writing, because American emphasized in critical discernment. Therefore, Li’s article added more detail in Özturgut and Murphy’s study.

References

  1. de Araujo, A. A. (2011). Adjustment issues of international students enrolled in American colleges and universities: A review of the literature. Higher Education Studies, 1(1), 2-8. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/1045399495?accountid=14541
  2. Özturgut, O., and C. Murphy. 2009. “Literature vs. Practice: Challenges for the International Students.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 22 (3): 374–385.