International students’ enrollment in higher education in the US has expanded considerably in the last decades. In this study, international students’ experiences were examined in academic and sociocultural settings. Through qualitative interviews, the findings revealed that international students deal with academic challenges, social isolation, and cultural adjustment. Specifically, academic challenges included communication with professors, classmates, and staff. Consequently, they have to deal with social isolation when engaging in different group activities. Culturally, they need to confront the different ways of thinking and doing in the US. In order to overcome these challenges, students have adopted resources that mainly are derived from the university to overcome these challenges. Thus, as demonstrated in this study, having a better understanding of these students’ academic challenges, university faculty and staff can recognize students’ needs and effectively offer supportive campus resources and services. The university needs to be prepared to meet students not only academically but also socially and culturally. This study also suggests that some preparations need to be made by the university that will embrace international students upon their arrival.

Abstract-This study seeks to explore five 6 th grade EFL learners' major writing problems by analyzing the nature and distribution of their writing errors and it also investigates factors that cause errors in their writing in English through email communication. This study examined EFL learners' writing samples and followed taxonomy: grammatical, lexical, semantic, mechanics, and word order types of errors. Findings showed that participants made more mistakes on interlingual/transfer errors than on intralingual/developmental errors. Students used their L2 habits, rules, and patterns in the second language writing. However, students also had intralingual errors due to the overgeneralizations and partial exposure to the target language. In addition, students also included internet linguistic features in their writing. Some implications are drawn this study.

This survey study, which involved 108 language learners enrolled in first-year Chinese as a foreign language classrooms in the United States, intended to address the research questions, 'What types of Chinese-character learning strategies do US learners use?' and 'Do US learners' Chinese-character learning strategy use differ based on the following learner differences: (1) Gender, (2) Home background, and (3) Previous foreign language learning experiences?' Factor analysis and MANOVA tests were run using the participants' responses in the Character Learning Strategy Inventory and the background surveys. The results of factor analysis illustrated that the participants used six types of strategies: practicing naturalistically, associating, paying attention to the characters, using mechanical techniques, grouping, and paying attention to the pronunciation. The MANOVA test results found significant interactive effect between gender and home background on strategies of using mechanical techniques. Another interactive effect was found among gender, home background, and previous foreign language learning experiences on strategies of paying attention to the characters.

Pre-service teacher preparation in the United States is becoming progressively more challenging with respect to the demands on teachers. This study examined the impact of tutoring approach on pre-service teachers" skills to work with English language learners through a qualitative research design. Content analysis was used at the thematic level on student journals written to accompany the semester-long experience of tutoring. Thirty pre-service teachers participated and data was collected from 300 written journal reflections for two semesters. Overall, the pre-service teachers gained an understanding of challenges of working ELLs and other positive impacts through tutoring. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers have perceived value of the use of tutoring approach in the teacher preparation program, use of strategies during field-based experiences, instructional realizations, cultural sensitivity, and professionalism. This paper concluded by discussing the need for teacher education program to assist pre-service teachers to assimilate pedagogies and apply through a tutoring approach.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand the impact of four high school students' multimodal literacy practices in blogging and instant messaging (IM) on academic writing and how they construct their identities in terms of language use in Taiwan. Sources of data are questionnaires, academic writings, blog entries, chatting scripts, and online interviews. Computer-mediated discourse analysis was employed to examine the impact of IM features in academic writing and identity construction when engaging literacy practices in English. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study confirms that online context is an important site for literacy practices, and it affects language use and identity. Findings showed that literacy practice online provided fluency in students' writing. Students also performed different identities to practice English in IM. The study suggests future researchers and educators can incorporate and validate students' favorite sites for literacy practice and learning.