International Students in Accounting Course, Challenges and Opportunities - Essay Example

International in accounting in the U.S: Challenges & opportunities Submitted to XXXXX By Olga XX XXXXXXX October Table of Contents Proposed Topic..………………………………………………………………………..1 Introduction…………………..………………………………………………………3 Abridged Literature Review..……………………………………………………………...4 Problem Statement………………………………………………………………………6 Purpose Statement.…………..……………………………………………………………7 Researched Questions……………………………………………………………………8 Summary………………………...………………………………………………………..10 International students in accounting course in the U.S: Challenges & opportunities Higher education is among the United States top service sector exports, as international students provide revenue to the U.S. economy and individual host states for living and maintenance expenses like stationeries, transport, health insurances and loans. Besides the financial attributes international students’ population is important for different aspects of the American life by contributing to the economy, enriching the multi-cultural environment, keeping social diversity thriving, and defining the core values of the country’s immigrant nature. In fact Open Doors report provided by the Institute of International Education (IIE), recorded an increase of 3% to 690,923 of student enrolment during the 2009/10 academic year. So it is crucial how the courses are introduced so that the international students can follow the curriculum given the two most common challenges they have to face; that of having a grasp over English and the associated stress due to culture shift. And when the students are pursuing a highly technical course like accounting, the learning difficulty multiplies. For it is typically assumed that all students are familiar with the basic concepts of accounting, its core definitions, and main transactions. But the general perception of accounting courses among students is that they are difficult to study, and students are expected to work hard to succeed in these courses. One of the big reasons is the difficulty with English comprehension. For this special group of students, which usually enter on F-1 visa, English is a second language and it is imperative that they master it in order to understand and grasp complex accounting matters. Typically, these students need to make extra effort to connect what they just learned and what it should mean. As a result, complex accounting material becomes even more complicated for this particular group to do well and succeed in the accounting courses. The anticipated research study will be conducted on various issues and opportunities that this unique group of students experience while taking accounting courses namely coping with English and its impact on academic performance, the consequent stress of being in a new culture and the intervention services that could be extended to them. Therefore the proposed dissertation topic is as follows: “International students in accounting course in the U.S: Challenges & opportunities”. Abridged Literature Review The impact of foreign students on the educational industry in America could not be ignored both in terms of the financial aspects and the diversity these students bring to American colleges and universities (Institute of International Education (IIE), 2010). While there has been a range of different studies completed in the last ten years on concepts such as student stress, cultural stress and other identified stresses that international students contend with when they commence their educational journey in America, the reports seem to be unable to find a practical solution to the problem. The research conducted to date has focused on identifying key stresses that international students face when they study in America that includes the tendency to lump international students together regardless of their ethnicity (Yoon & Portman, 2004); a lack of identification of specific needs that international students might have (Zunz & Oil, 2009) and the academic and cultural stress they experience (Misra & Castillo, 2004; Thomson, Rosenthal, and Russell, 2006). The overall generality of these studies are not useful in determining solutions to the issue but they do provide a framework to complete further research on. There is very little literature on the direct correlation between English language proficiency and understanding accounting course material (Chang et al., 2011). This area of study would benefit from a more detailed research study and a comprehensive analysis of data. For accounting programs to be effective for international students it is important to determine how much the understanding of course material in English has on international student success rates. There is also very few solutions or programs that can help increase the English proficiency for international accounting students. If a lack of this skill proved to be significantly correlated to student pass rates then improvements or interventions in this area could improve overall international student satisfaction with the learning process. Given the increasing number of international students who enrol in business courses, determining a correlation between English proficiency and student pass rates and student satisfaction with the educational institutions could be an important finding that could form the theoretical framework necessary to implement interventions and teaching aids that will further increase international student’s understanding of accounting course material. Research Method In order to successfully carry out the research study on the proposed thesis, specific questions should be established to be researched in order for hypotheses to be tested. Thus, created signposts act as guidance and assist the research. Based on nature of this study, which sets out to research different challenges and presented opportunities that international students experience while taking accounting courses at U.S colleges and university, there is a strong need for using the quantitative method research and hypotheses. According to Creswell (2009), “in this scenario, the researcher tests a theory by specifying narrow hypotheses and the collection of data to support or refute the hypotheses” (page 16). This method of choice represents a combination of the research questions and hypotheses that study the relationship among different variables that the researcher seeks to know. Provided is a progress development of the research study with the quantitative research questions and hypotheses that will help to conduct investigation. This research will utilize a step-by-step approach and will be conducted on-site of several colleges, not-for-profit and for-profit, located in the New York City area, as well as in on-line format. The study will be conducted at the stage when foreign students are in their first year of study in the U.S. and just starting to take accounting courses. Problem Statement The problem with finding research on international students and their experience while taking accounting courses at U.S. colleges and universities is that research that has been conducted on this population have either been very limited in their scope or have tended to make generalizations about “all” international students. There is a tendency to “lump together” all international students regardless of their ethnicity (Bonazzo & Wong, 2007; Yoon & Portman, 2004) without an attempt to accurately finding out what specific needs international students have (in their case with placement issues). It lends difficulty in providing case specific intervention services to improve their experience (Zunz & Oil, 2009). In the case of the international students pursuing accounting course in the U.S the stress areas experienced by the students are interconnected. The lack of proficiency in English affects both their academic performance as well as competence to adjust to a new culture. As they can neither communicate in English with ease nor comprehend difficult terminology they fail to connect with the subject as well as the local students and suffer from immense stress. They suffer complete alienation from the university setting. It inevitably leads to extreme negativity of the mind that might hamper the individual student’s capacity to adapt to the host country and perform academically (Thomson et al, 2006, p. 7). The purpose of the dissertation will be to assess and evaluate the challenges and opportunities faced by international students while taking accounting studies in U.S. colleges and universities. The study will do a zooming out to examine broader concepts of cultural stress theory and academic stress theory and others to determine if instead a “cultural student stress theory” could provide a framework for identifying and intervening cases in relation to the international students following accounting course. Purpose Statement The purpose of the study “International students in accounting course in the U.S: Challenges & opportunities” is to determine a correlation between English proficiency and student pass rates and student satisfaction with the educational institutions and thereby form a theoretical framework necessary to implement interventions and teaching aids that will further increase international student’s understanding of accounting course material. The proposed study will be a quantitative method model that will focus on international students studying accounting at U.S. colleges and universities. The research will be targeted towards identifying those factors that will enable foreign students to study more effectively and to increase their understanding of accounting study material. It is assumed that improved outcomes for international students in accounting courses will correlate with a more positive study experience for them. Data collection will focus on quantitative method including surveys, questionnaires and tests as well as observations of international students enrolled at colleges in the New York City area. It is anticipated that this method of study with quantitative research data will show both tangible issues that international students studying accounting are facing and the reasons why these challenges are impacting overall student pass rates. Research Questions The following research questions elaborate on how the research purpose will be fulfilled. These questions ensure that the process of identifying main challenges and unique opportunities that majority of international students experience while studying accounting at US colleges and universities is accomplished by viewing from several important perspectives. Q1. Do the TOEFL scores received by international students justify their ability to pursue hardcore professional fields of study like accounting? Q2. How to determine the standard score that would ensure English proficiency of the students? Q3. What ways/methods do the international accounting students adopt to cope with the gap that lack of proficiency in English has created? How far are those effective in enhancing their academic performance? Q4. How do they respond to the issues and problems that prevent them from understanding accounting material on the spot in the classroom? Q5. To what extent do their inability to perform academically due to language problem affect their motivation in adjusting to a new culture? (qualitative) Hypothesis For quantitative and mixed methods studies null hypotheses and alternative hypotheses for each research question are utilize, as per Creswell (2009) guidance on developing hypotheses. The following are null hypothesis that will help to conduct selected research study. These are the main directional hypotheses guiding the research in quantitative study: H1. It was hypothesized that there are various challenges and issues that international students experience while taking accounting courses at U.S. colleges. H2. It was also hypothesized that there is a number of presented opportunities that international students were provided by taking accounting courses at U.S. colleges. H3. It was hypothesized that there is a considerable difference in perception and understanding accounting course material between American students and foreign students, or non-native English speaking students (NNES). H4. It was hypothesized that most of these none-native English speaking students would have difficulties with full comprehension of accounting terms and definitions delivered in English. H5. It was hypothesized that there will be a significant improvement in foreign students’ effective learning, and better understanding of accounting course material, if they would have special vocabulary training on accounting terms and definitions. H6. It is also hypothesized that it would be helpful to use a questionnaire or assessment test at the beginning of the accounting course in order to measure these students’ level of familiarity with accounting terms and definitions. Summary There is a great inflow of international students in the U.S that increases the country’s revenue. But there has not been much attempt to cater to the challenges that these students face in terms of language problem and cultural disconnect. The paper focuses on the difficulties and the needs of the international students in the accounting course, as their primary challenge is to overcome their lack of English proficiency and its direct link with their performance in their subject area. The study attempts to form a theoretical framework, based on previous research in academic stress and cultural stress, for implementing appropriate intervention and teaching aids to enhance the effectiveness of the learning process in students in the accounting course. References Bonazzo, C., & Wong, Y.J. (2007). Japanese international female students experience of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes. College Student Journal, 41(3) 631 Chang, C., Landis, M., & Yu, S. (2011). Investing in accounting: A call for professional involvement in higher education. American Journal of Business Education, 4(2), 27-32. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Creswell, J. W.   (2009).   Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods Approaches. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:   Sage Publications.   Institute of International Education (IIE). (2010). Open Doors 2010: International students in the U.S. Accessed September 30 2011 http://www.iie.org/Who-We-Are/News-and-Events/Press-Center/Press-Releases/2010/2010- 11-15-Open-Doors-International-Students-In-The-US.aspx Misra, R., & Castillo, L.G. (2004). Academic stress among college students: comparison of American and international students. International Journal of Stress Management, 11(2), 132–148 Thomson, G., Rosenthal, D., Russell, J. (2006). Cultural stress among international students at an Australian University. Australian International Education Conference. http://www.idp.com/aiec Toyokawa, T., & Toyokawa, N. (2002). Extracurricular activities and the adjustment of Asian international students: A study of Japanese Students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 26, 363-379. Yoon, E., & Portman, T. A. A. (2004). Critical issues of literature on counseling international students. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 32, 33-44. Zunz, S.J. & Oil, K.R. (2009). A preliminary look at international students in the MSW field placements at nonurban U.S. campuses. Journal of Social Work Education, 45(1) 131 Read More