Non-Native English Students' Linguistic and Cultural Challenges in Australia.

AbstractThis paper looks into the effect of use of international English on non-native students' dignity in Australian academic and social contexts. The study was undertaken through in-depth interviews with 28 participants from 13 countries. The results partly revealed that there was neither speech convergence nor culture convergence between non-native and native speakers. When native speakers linguistically converged towards non-native speakers, it appeared to backfire as mocking behavior. There was an expectation that host tutors, lecturers and classmates would adjust their speech to a level accommodating non-native speakers, but they did not. Failure to effectively converge linguistically and culturally led to failure in intergroup communication. The failure concomitantly affected participants' self-worth, motivation and identity in a way that diminished their dignity and motivation, impinging on their identity.Key Words: International Students, Academic and Social Context, Dignity, Non-Native English SpeakerEnglish is the most powerful international lingua franca, a language of globalization, a great economic and political source of power and a contributing factor to the growth of intercultural communication in the global context (Hatos, 2006; Tsuda, 2008). Its status has created a rich English language teaching (ELT) industry, which has opened up employment opportunities for both native and non-native speakers of English. As well, the rise of English has motivated non-native speakers to study the language at home and/or abroad in order to acquire fluency and utilize these English language skills as effectively as they can in the globalized professional world. Of the English-speaking countries, Australia ranks the third largest provider of international education after the US and the UK (Novera, 2004). According to Australian Education International (2011), 240,644 international students were enrolled in the Australian Higher Education Sector. Generally, when these international students enter a new social environment, they are taking an intercultural crossing journey, which can be difficult and challenging because it involves coping with unfamiliarity and anxiety. They may find many cultural differences between their host country and their home countries (Gu & Maley, 2008). If they cannot adjust themselves to the differences in such a disorienting environment, they will experience culture shock (Sussman, 2000). Adjustment during an initial transitional stage appears to be a primary and challenging issue for them when coming to an English-speaking country (Bigg, 2003). Language competence is predicted as a having a strong impact on international students' post-arrival adaptation (Andrade, 2006). This is not just because the host language is not their mother tongue. It also follows from the different approaches to language learning pedagogy, where a more traditional focus on grammatical rules and usage (Sawir, 2005), rather than on using the language for real communicative purposes, may not equip them well for their new environment. Given that language and culture are intertwined, the more their first language and culture differ from the host's, the more difficulty they have in coping with academic and social life.In Australia, international students in general have difficulty understanding Australian English (AE) which leads them to feel psychologically distant from the host society and encounter language shock (Tananuraksakul, 2009b). In consequence, they lose confidence (Sawir, 2005) and tend to become confused, embarrassed or lost which tends to hinder their focus and undermine the energy required to learn a second language (Holliday, Hyde & Kullman, 2004). Eventually, they may feel deprived of opportunities to use their mother tongue, partly risking their sense of intrinsic dignity and self-worth (Tsuda, 2000; Tananuraksakul & Hall, 2011). Tsuda (2000) particularly reveals his own personal experiences as a non-native-English-speaking professor of International Communication in Englishspeaking settings where he experienced more than minor inconveniences; he felt his personal sense of human dignity suffer as a result of language challenges. …