Residential housing programming for international students : a focus upon intercultural sensitvity and cross-cultural understanding

Degree Name

MA in International and Intercultural Management

First Advisor

Linda Gobbo

Abstract

This research project explores the issues surrounding international students living within a residential housing situation on a US college campus. Left alone to their own resources, how would they learn to deal with issues that came up with their roommate, other residential students or within a residential living environment? The students interviewed were not traditional international students in that they were enrolled in the college courses; rather, they were international students who had chosen to study in an intensive English language program. A private institution (Aspect International Language Academy) that was partner with the host college ran this English language program. The school was virtually self-contained, and all the students had separate classes from the regular college students. Those students, however, that chose to live within the residence halls were integrated with other college students. The Aspect school was struggling to provide the residential students with a positive and satisfying campus living experience. Therefore, the researcher decided to look at many components in order to identify areas for improvement that would ultimately provide students with a more positive living experience. The main research question identified suggestions for types of programs to implement within the residence hall in order to increase intercultural sensitivity and reduce tension among the international students, and contribute to a rewarding living experience during their English language course. While many themes were identified from the collected data and programs were created to respond to the data, there are many avenues that this research has not explored and are therefore left as future research endeavors.

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