International students will sooner or later be confronted with the difficulties and problems being at a university where most teachers and the majority of the students have English as their first language. One of the most common problems is that of communication. This assignment will treat the issue of international first-year Curtin students’ confrontation with the communication-problems that arise as English is the spoken and written language at universities all across Australia.
There are several reasons why this topic is worth researching, one of the most important reasons is connected with the concept of ‘educational globalization’, which has become an issue in recent times. More and more students decide to go to universities where English is the tuition-language mainly because they want an international education that is recognized by employers in the contemporary world. It is therefore of greater general interest to research the topic of problems, difficulties and issues that arise at university, as most international students’ mother tongue is not English. In order to straighten up in these communication-problems, you must first find out what sort of problems and obstacles are most commonly encountered. Is it more difficult for international students to write correct English in essays and assignments, or is speaking the language accurately and fluently the most common problem? The purpose of this research is to find out what kinds of problems are most commonly encountered, and analyze these results to form solutions.
There is a number of different ways to study this topic, however the method selected reflects on the purpose of the research. The very first thing you will have to do is find relevant background information including a review of the literature on the topic. Next, a decision must be reached regarding the type of research, that is, should it be qualitative or quantitative research, or a combination of both? Qualitative research includes...