A Study of Drop-out Chinese International Students from a Canadian Pre-University English Language Improvement Program: Acculturation Experiences and Challenges

摘要

With an increasing number of international students coming to Canada for higher education, Canadian universities are offering diverse English Language Improvement Programs (ELIP) to increase education opportunities. However, some Chinese international students are found cannot pass this program, eventually result in withdrawing. The purpose of this study is to understand the life and learning experiences of drop-out Chinese international students who used to study in ELIP, and also seeks to explain the their retention and dropout in this program. Data were collected through interviews, and five participants took part in this study. Chinese international students in this study dropped out of ELIP due to academic failure and largely regard ELIP learning as a waste of time. Possible factors have been raised may cause students’ academic failure, which include low learning and integrative motivation, lack of time management and self-regulation, and an inability to adapt to distinctive learning and teacher-student relationships.