Teaching English to Nonnative English-Speaking Chinese International Students: A Culturally Responsive Approach

Abstract

With the increase in international students in U.S. higher education institutions in the past forty years (Durrani, 2023), the academic changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing political tensions with China, I sought to understand adaptations made by instructors to address the needs of Chinese international students. The purpose of this study was to explore the practices of instructors who teach English writing to nonnative speakers, specifically international Chinese students at higher education institutions across the United States. Participants were those instructors of gateway English/writing courses at both two-year and four-year higher education institutions who have at least 1 Chinese international student in their course within the last twelve months. This research project used comparative case study to conduct eight semi-structured interviews with participants from universities across the U.S. I used Gay's (2013) culturally responsive teaching theory as a lens for analyzing my findings to determine what mechanisms instructors use to address Chinese international student engagement and development in the course.

This study examined how instructors of gateway first-year writing courses, both in-person and virtually, engage in classroom practices that give attention to Chinese international students for whom English is not their first language. I inquired about whether instructors use external resources and any possible changes or additional practices used in response to COVID-19. I wanted to look more closely at current instructor practices over the past decade with a focus on Chinese international students, given how universities actively court but do not properly support them. I sought to better understand how instructors cultivated and/or constructed better learning practices for nonnative English-speaking students over the course of their teaching careers, as well as the impacts of synchronous and asynchronous teaching in response to COVID-19.

This study illuminated several key concerns instructors have, and these have been organized into two main categories: perceived issues and instructor approaches. I discuss these findings and then apply Gay's (2013) culturally responsive teaching as my lens for analyzing the instructor approaches to teaching NNES Chinese international students, using her four applied attributes to unpack the instructors' classroom experience as well as their perceptions of student experiences.