The Study on Learning Experiences of Vietnamese Postgraduates in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Tran Thi, 陳氏河泰
• Other Authors: none
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92612131445553750968

博士 === 國立臺南大學 === 教育經營與管理研究所博士班 === 100 === Though the traditional pattern of student mobility is from developing countries to Western or developed countries, the new pattern of intra-regional movements is going to be noted in higher education literature. While the intra-European mobility accounts about 60% of international students in Europe, the intra-Asian movements are also growing with such emerging potential players, such as China, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, and Singapore. Among these emerging destinations, Taiwan has been considered as a new attractive one in recruiting international students from Asian countries, especially since the Taiwan government launched the Scholarship Program in 2004. Given this, exploring the learning experiences of international students in non-English speaking Asian country, like Taiwan, not only contributes to the knowledge of intra-regional student mobility but also reflects on the opportunities and challenges from the host in attracting international students. This study, therefore, aims to take Vietnamese postgraduate students examples to explore the learning experiences of international students in Taiwan universities. Learning experiences, identified in this study, included what challenges, coping strategies, previous experiences, and learning interests that happen and affect the Vietnamese participants in linguistic, social, and academic aspects. In-depth interviews with 16 Vietnamese participants who were studying master and doctoral degrees in Taiwan were conducted. The findings reveal that the Vietnamese participants adapted well to Taiwan society. There were not too major challenges for them to study in Taiwan. In linguistic aspect, they faced with challenges in both English and Chinese languages. While English challenges seemed to not seriously affect their learning experiences, the challenge of Chinese language then might become their barrier, problem, minor challenge or interest. The study also shows that the Vietnamese students were interested in Taiwan academic environment although they still faced with some academic challenges, such as academic stress, graduation on time, and lack of experience in using experimental machines. Depending on such contextual factors, such as background, characteristics, language proficiency, and previous experiences of the student, these academic challenge become problems, minor challenge or learning interests. The research findings also show that challenges in linguistic aspect and isolated social living seemed not to affect seriously to academic study of participants, especially who were teaching in higher education as lecturers in Vietnam. Also, fluency in Chinese language, length of residence, university support, being patient and confident were considered as significant factors that help the Vietnamese participants have more capacities to cope with academic challenges in their learning experiences in Taiwan. The argument of this study is that learning experiences cannot interpret simply through such theories of adjustment of sojourners in the host, such as U-Curve framework or cultural similarity. Also, learning experiences cannot be understood simply as such problems the students encounter in the host. Instead, learning experiences should be interpreted in a complex set of contextual factors, including personal background, characteristics, language proficiency, and previous experiences and understood of how contextual factors affect their perceptions about their study in the host. Based on the research findings, the study also reflected on internationalization of Taiwan higher education in terms of opportunities and challenges. Scholarship scheme, study and research environment, and similarities between Taiwan and Asian countries in cultures are considered as significant strength of Taiwan while Anglicization within academic environment seems to be significant challenge one. Suggestions for further research, Taiwan in doing internationalization, and prospective Vietnamese students were included in this study.