Global learning: Definition, assessment, and approaches

Global learning has become a fundamental aspect of international education. Yet, a clear understanding of global learning and how to develop it remain unclear. Using the dynamic systems approach, this paper analyzed the reasons, methods, and knowledge, skills, and attitudes(KSA) of global learning in higher education. Global learning is the higher education institutions’ critical response to globalization. It is the essential learning outcome of comprehensive internationalization of curriculum requiring students to develop KSA about the external world and their internal selves in their daily lives across local and global communities. With survey results from 142 undergraduate students in one U.S. university and a global learning rubric and publication, this paper demonstrated how global learning is interpreted and approached differently at various levels and further proposed pedagogical approaches to enhance global learning in higher education.

Encountering American higher education: First-year academic transition of international undergraduate students in the United States

This study explored how international undergraduate students perceive their academic transition into American higher education. Schlossberg’s (1984) 4S Transition Theory served as the framework for exploring what academic challenges, if any, international students experience during their first year of undergraduate studies in a new cultural and educational setting. The findings revealed that students’ academic transition into the U.S. higher education was characterized by difficulties in understanding the academic system of their new environment; overcoming educational, instructional and pedagogical differences; building social relationships with domestic students; and receiving the support necessary from the appropriate institutional services.

Immigrant students and global education

Research on immigrant students in higher education often articulates a deficit narrative emphasizing the challenges immigrant students face in comparison to their native-born peers. In education for global competence, however, immigrant students’ life experiences give them a potential advantage. This study investigated whether project-based learning designed to take advantage of immigrant students’ intercultural life experiences could contribute to the development of global competence among undergraduate students. Developing and teaching a collaborative, project-based course where undergraduate students researched the intercultural experiences of their immigrant peers, researchers measured specific learning outcomes using quantitative and thematic analysis of student research papers and reflective essays. The study concluded that project-based assignments designed to take advantage of immigrant students’ intercultural experiences could yield significant contributions to the global education of immigrant and non-immigrant students alike.

Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Towards Learning English in Rural University Branches in KSA: A Case Study of Al-Kamil's Branch

The present study was conducted to assess and investigate the attitudes of the Preparatory Year students towards leaning English at rural branch of the University of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The author endeavours to examine and measure the University students’ opinions and perceptions regarding the importance of Learning English. He also attempts to explore the areas of difficulties in foreign language Learning within the rural context of AlKamil College of Sciences and Arts (Makkah, Saudi Arabia). 75 randomly selected students (40 male and 35 female) participated in this study project. In this study, the researcher opted for a mixed research method. For quantitative data collection a five-point Likert scale questionnaire was adapted from Gardner’s ‘Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) along with a silent interview for a qualitative data collection in order to assess the participants’ attitudes and perceptions regarding learning English. Overall, the results reveal that students in rural university branches in Saudi Arabia hold positive attitudes towards learning English and they are constantly attempting to improve their language proficiency. This study also explores the different obstacles impeding the students’ sought progress in language learning along with the possible solutions that may enable them to use and practise English in a more spontaneous way.

Aspects of writing knowledge and EFL students' writing quality

Writing knowledge pertaining to process, system, content, and genre plays an essential role to produce an intelligible composition. The purpose of the present study is twofold – to investigate the correlation between aspects of writing knowledge and quality of writing, and to investigate the contribution of the overall and individual aspects of writing knowledge to writing quality. The participants were 54 second-year ELT undergraduate students of a university in Indonesia. A writing test and multiple-choice test on writing knowledge were used as the instruments of data collection. The analysis employed Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. The result revealed a significant positive correlation between writing knowledge and writing quality. As a unit, the knowledge of process, system, content, and genre, indicates a significant contribution to the writing quality. Individually, however, only process knowledge significantly contributes to the writing quality. It provides additional pieces of evidence that process knowledge be given special attention, thus writing instruction should allow students to learn writing knowledge explicitly and implicitly.

Rhetorical pattern of the Indonesian EFL undergraduate students’ writings

The present research aimed to study the rhetorical patterns in students’ writings, whether they follow a deductive pattern or an inductive pattern, and whether the pattern is similar when writing in English and the Indonesian language. The sample for this study was 20 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education majoring in English Education in several universities in Indonesia. Participants were requested to write two essays and two email-format letters, one of each was written in English, the other in the Indonesian language. The results showed that all students preferred the deductive pattern for their two types of essays. However, for the letter writing, students preferred the inductive pattern more than the deductive one, with 12 students using the inductive pattern in their letters in English and 16 students using the inductive pattern in their letters in Indonesian. It is suggested that the Indonesian culture and the teaching instructions received in the classrooms may influence students’ choice of the patterns they use in different types of writings. The findings should give valuable information for the design of teaching writing courses in English Education majors in Indonesia.

The effectiveness of writing techniques in improving students’ writing ability with different self-esteem

Identifying appropriate writing techniques to help students with different self-esteem improve their writing ability needs to be considered by educators. This study attempted to examine the effectiveness of two writing techniques, Reflective Learning Portfolio (RLP) and Dialogue Journal Writing (DJW) in improving the writing ability of undergraduate students with different self-esteem. A quasi-experimental design was employed in this study. The participants of the study were 62 undergraduate students from a private university in West Java, Indonesia, which were divided into two groups that received different treatments, RLP and DJW techniques. A set of questionnaires to measure students’ self-esteem and writing tests were utilized to collect the data. Data from questionnaires were analyzed by using Likert Scales. Data from pre-test and post-test, to know the effectiveness of RLP and DJW was administered by using a paired t-test. The finding revealed that the writing performance in RLP class was significantly better than in DJW class. In other words, RLP is more effective in teaching writing to students with different self-esteem. The use of explicit teaching, peer feedback, and teacher feedback in RLP class could have caused the RLP technique to be more effective in improving the students’ writing ability compared to the DJW technique.

Revisiting integrative motivation: Validation of International Posture among Malaysian undergraduates

Gardner’s (1985) in his socio-educational model introduced the variable of ‘integrativeness’ as a construct that focuses on English as a Second Language (ESL) learners’ attitudes towards the native English community. Later, Yashima (2002) proposed ‘international posture’ as an affective construct that re-examined ‘integrativeness’. Research conducted to reach a common operationalisation of ‘international posture’ is very limited. Hence, our objective in this study is to determine the level of each measurement construct under the affective variable of International Posture as well as to validate the measurement constructs of this variable among Malaysian undergraduates. In this quantitative study, 540 undergraduate students from a public university were selected. These students responded to a questionnaire that contained the four measurement constructs. For analysing the data, we used Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Our results have proven that the International Posture among Malaysian undergraduates is high, and the measurement constructs of this variable are valid and can be operationalised in the Malaysian English language learning context. The scale validated in the study can contribute to future studies on this variable in the Malaysian English language learning context.