Another Look at the Language Difficulties of International Students

International students encounter language-related problems in their academic studies. Specific problem areas have been identified and possible underlying causes have been explored. The present study investigates the impact of two variables—length of study and academic disciplines—in relation to the problems. The findings from a survey and interview of 40 Chinese students at 8 Australian universities reveal that though listening and speaking pose a lot of difficulties for the majority of the informants, the difficulties are confined to the first 2 years, and they do not seem to affect the academic study of those informants in linguistically less demanding courses. Reading does not seem to be a problem area but writing does, across academic disciplines, defying the 2-year mark. These findings call for a more balanced and nuanced understanding of the language difficulties experienced by international students.