Rivid
Instructor: Namubiru and Habib
Date: 3/14/2016
EAP 507-P05
Analytical Summary of Ozturgut & Murphy(2009)
Recently, I read an article published by Ozturgut & Murphy(2009). In this article, the authors review many previous research focused on the successful acculturation for different international students. Although there is much previous research focused on this topic, the researchers in previous research just care about the challenges the international students faced in the field of acculturation. There is little research focused on the suggestions that can be given to international students to deal with the challenges they faced in acculturation. Ozturgut & Murphy wanted to change the sight from only understanding the challenges to dealing with the challenges for international students in acculturation. The researchers have to focus on the advises for international students. This change also can attract many scholars on researching the life of the people who are from different places to the West. And that can promote a deeper understanding of the needs of international students. As a result, more and more international students will wish to live and study in the US because they will feel at home in the US. This result obviously can have a positive effect on the economy of the US. Ozturgut & Murphy reviewed many previous in their article and they have several findings. Firstly, current research has a limitation that there is little concentration on the ways for international students to deal with the challenges they faced. Secondly, international students not only faced academic challenges but also faced social challenges. Finally, there is little communication with international students in the society. In the conclusion, the author thought that if administrations focus more on the acculturation and know more about the needs of international students, the students can adapt the new society more quickly.
In this article, there is a very important key concept mentioned many times. That is the students’ English language skill. The author thought that this concept determines the success of the students’ acculturation. They gave many examples to support their idea. For example, Dillon and Swann (1997) claimed that one of the major areas of their insecurity was the limitation in their English language skills. Wan and associates thought that the students who have better English language skills were more possibly to know better in their academic situations and deal with the difficulties they faced. As the author said, English language skills are very important to international students in acculturation. But the author did not point out which aspect of English language skills is the most important. I think the most important aspect is speaking and listening because the usefulness of language is communication. Furthermore, we also do not know if the English language skills have the same role to graduates and undergraduates. Scholars have to focus on these questions in the future research.
For the language pattern, there is a special language pattern in this article. The author used two tables to support their research. The first table is about the requirements, responsibilities, and preferred qualifications and skills. Authors used three rows in table 1 to describe the three aspect. In table 2, the author used two rows to describe recommendation and what this looks like in practice separately. This language pattern makes the content the authors want to describe more clear. If the authors just use words and sentences to describe them, readers could be very confused. So this strategy makes the things the authors want to describe clear in order to make their research more understandable and persuasive.
When I read this article, I recalled several other articles. In this article, Ozturgut & Murphy talked about the challenges the international students faced when they were studying aboard. And they focused on a key concept that is English language skills to operate their research. They gave some examples to demonstrate that English language skills are common challenges international students faced in their academic writing. In the article of De Araujo(2011), the author talked about the adjustment the international students have to make when they were studying in America including the English language skills. De Araujo spread the concept of English language skills to many sections of students’ daily life. Ozturgut & Murphy just pinned to a particular field of academic writing to talk about the English language skills. So this research is deeper and more well-focused. In the article of Phillips (2014), the author described an improvement on writing skills of a international student. He gave a good example to show the strategies he think is useful to give suggestions to international students on improving their writing skills. But it is probably special to a particular section of students. Ozturgut & Murphy’s opinions are more normal to general international students.