How can I be a better teacher to international students?

Sigh. I teach ESL, preparing international students to go to college/university in the US. But the fact is, they're often really unprepared (in a different way from local students). There was a study that says it takes SEVEN years to go from "I studied English in high school" to an actual command of academic English. How are they supposed to accomplish this in the short time you and I have them? These students are drowning in typical US classes, and even in ones where you're trying SO hard. (I commend all the efforts you're making!) Here are a few more things you might try: 1) Require all students to go to office hours and/or the writing center x times per semester. Maybe give them slips that they have to turn in to you. Emphasize that these are habits of GOOD students, since many may think those resources are basically for failing students. 2) If you can't do that (some schools don't allow it), give (a teeny amount of) extra credit for attending office hours, going to the writing center, etc. Again, maybe make slips or something. 3) If you can, encourage ELLs to join clubs and go to workshops on campus. Make an explicit connection between these activities and their English skills/cultural skills. 4) Pause after thought groups when you're speaking. 5) Include elements of choice in assignments when possible. (This is general good pedagogy, and I bet you're already doing it.) 6) Try assigning participation roles in groups, using cards or something (reporter, manager, questioner, etc.). This usually takes some modeling. 7) Hand out "Ask a Question" cards to a random subset of students every day. Require them to use it before the end of class. 8) Exit tickets: Have students write a question or comment on an index card and give it to you before they leave (once a week or whatever). You can make it more directed ("What was the most useful thing you learned this week?" "What new vocabulary word is difficult to understand?") or leave it open. There are ideas for questions online. ... On top of all you're already doing, I'm not sure how much more you can do. It's possible that this isn't the kind of teaching you want to do or enjoy doing (it really isn't, for a lot of professors). Though I don't like the "sink-or-swim" mentality of a lot of professors, there is something to the notion that the students are here out of free choice*, and that they may need to step up. And it might not happen in your class; it will take longer. On the other hand, of course, I think the universities are often at fault, because they've greedily let in students who are nowhere near ready to do the work. So it's quite a mess. Hang in there! *wellll...or their parents' free choice.

I want to chime in with an alternate (and by the looks of it, unpopular) perspective. I am a native English speaker attending grad school at a major US university that does happen to have a large number of international students. My education already suffers in classes with large number of ELLs with the problems you describe. In-class discussion isn't as rich as it should be; we waste time on questions that are about translation issues rather than substance; and sometimes the professors (like you) eliminate some of their most valuable teaching tools, such as video clips and thorough examples. And what you're doing - bending over backwards to accommodate ELLs who refuse to try and conform to the North American educational system - is hurting the other students' education even more. Furthermore, by distributing the ELLs throughout the class in group work, you're essentially asking native English speakers to help you teach the ELLs. This is unacceptable. I - and those other native English speakers - are there to learn. They should not have their education compromised by their classmates, especially not to this extent. Finally, you say you have: Reached out to colleagues who are now professors in the U.S. but were once ELL students to ask them for advice. (Most say "they need to shape up and accommodate to the American system!") Have you considered following their advice? I mean, I would never, ever try to attend school in China or any other foreign country without (a) fluency or near-fluency in that country's language and (b) a willingness to work within the confines of that country's educational system - because it wouldn't be fair to my classmates.

I've heard of teachers who would assign a reflection after each paper was handed in, a combination of recall-based stuff like "What was your main point?" or "Which source did you use the most?" and thoughtful questions like "Which section of the paper was easiest to write, and why?" or "How did you choose the title of your paper? What would be a good alternate title?" If students completely fall down on this part, the grade on their paper is docked or they have to rewrite it or whatever. I also know professors who've moved entirely to in-class papers, though this is very hard on the international students who are not plagiarizing/commissioning papers. Finally, like cyml said, I have had the most success by directly describing professors' attitudes toward plagiarism, with words like "VERY BAD" and "dishonest" and so on. But even students who understand this may feel like they're being forced to choose between two terrible choices: 1) Write the paper themselves and be mercilessly graded down for every incorrect preposition choice, missing article, and incorrect verb tense, probably winding up with a C/D/F regardless of good ideas or how many days and hours they spent on it. 2) Risk the chance of getting a zero if they're caught plagiarizing vs. getting a C/B/A if they're not. It's a lose-lose proposition from their point of view. Not many students are able to manage time, pride, knowledge of strategies, etc. to get to option 3: 3) Talk to the professor the day the paper is assigned to get more details and clarity. Find out the teacher's policy on points lost for grammar (though a lot of teachers refuse to say!). Work with the teacher/tutor to get an acceptable starting position on the paper. Work with them to find acceptable arguments and evidence. Get the paper in good shape in terms of reasoning and structure before getting help with grammar and vocabulary. Leave plenty of time for double-checking with the teacher on your progress. (Of course, that's assuming the student knows how to request help in a "polite" and timely way, and that the professor/tutors can offer the kind of help the student needs.)

This is an excellent description of cultural differences amongst international students. www.uwo.ca/tsc/faculty_programs/pdf/PG_3_MentoringAcrossCultures.pdf I actually recommend it to anyone working with international colleagues -- my first reading of this document opened my eyes to how I was working with a co-worker from a very different culture from me. It's a very useful lens for translating how North American expectations are so very different from other cultural expectations. The writer's other publication is also good, but probably not as useful to you right now. http://www.uwo.ca/tsc/faculty_programs/pdf/PG_1_Supervision.pdf We had her out to do some training sessions for our faculty and graduate program assistants, and she was excellent.

Some students, I think, are buying papers - not downloading from the Internet - but giving someone an assignment and they write it. I will ask the student about their paper and they have no idea what the content was. And the way it is written shows a sophistication that isn't evident in other writing from the student. But there is no way to prove this. I have found one way to deal with this issue: I first remind myself that there is such a different social expectation about student originality in the U.S. than in some other places that they don't feel they are cheating, often, even when it's totally obvious that the paper is way beyond their level of sophistication. My method is to ask the student, kindly, who wrote the paper. More than once, they have beamed and told me they bought it for me by paying a grad student. I then explain -- yes again -- that they must rewrite it because "I need to see what YOU write even if it isn't perfect." They get anxious, beause they've gone to the trouble of getting and turning in a *good* paper for me. I just repeat: I need to see what YOU write, even if it isn't perfect. This has worked for me, but it's not magic -- it's part of a process of their adapting to a lot of my system's naturalized values about originality before mastery. I don't believe in failing them for plagiarism if they confess in a way that convinces me they're still confused -- after all they're 18, here alone, barely speak English and still trying not to drown in a sea of new things.

On the plaigarism, flunk them; give the lecture, send them to the writing center, but flunking them is the best deterrent. People get the point VERY quickly when there are immediate consequences. Be clear in the syllabus that the first case is an "F" on the assignment followed with communication via email and a one on one with you about how to remedy their misunderstanding on how to cite properly. In this conversation and in the syllabus be clear that the next incident is a failure of the course. Express clearly that if they are in doubt then they should seek guidance from the writing center or whatever you deem as proper resources. If you want to be effective and a bit of a jerk, have your GA or proctor verify the ID of the person taking the exam and also provide the blue books. Find out if you have a "kill" switch for wireless in the room or do what another prof I know does, and have them check in their mobile devices. I recall a class where the ID thing was done and man, it was revelatory. Trust me, the grapevine will inform incoming students that you are dead serious. It also telegraphs to the native English speaking students that the rules apply equally to all students and that there is no favortism being granted by a student's international standing. A lot of resources at the university, hopefully, are being provided to international students to work in the university environment and that includes the cultural expectations of the university regarding integrity and productivity. I loathe cultural excuses for a lack of intellectual integrity. First cases are ignorance, while repeat offense is willful disregard for expectations and rules for a scholarly community. I congratulate you in trying to work under very difficult circumstances.

I don't have any experience in this area at all, but maybe one of the reasons the OP is not just flunking the plagiarists is because if s/he starts failing an inordinately higher proportion of students than his/her colleagues, his/her own performance may be called in to question (especially if this subject is already taboo). (However - FWIW, and again, with no experience - I also happen to think that an "F" sends an excellent and unambiguous message.)

The students you probably are seeing are amongst the highest performers in their cohorts, otherwise they would not be able to go overseas to study. I guess that may have been (perceived to be) true in previous generations, but it's absolutely not the case now. Many Chinese students, for example, come to the US after failing to pass the entrance exams to get into their/their parents' desired universities. The US is their backup school. Others come after being expelled, or because their parents consider them a bad influence on their other kids or too much trouble to manage, etc. (A recruitment agent--the guys who get paid by US schools and Chinese students families--told us some surprising stories.) Obviously, there ARE lots of bright and/or hardworking international students--I'm just saying that you can't expect that automatically. Here's one http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-03/the-unintended-consequences-of-chinas-ultra-high-stakes-college-entrance-exam; many more online. That's without getting into the whole buy-your-way here thing. (Again, again, there are lots of good, smart, hard-working, and honest students coming here, and I love working with them!)

I tutor primarily Chinese international students at a university level. I don't have a lot of advice for other things but the one thing I have also dealt with a lot is plagiarism. A lot of the students I tutor have professors and instructors that go into great detail on what plagiarism is, but they will still plagiarize. I'm not sure what part of it is misunderstanding or lack of care, but I found that if I demonstrate what exactly plagiarism looks like, and emphasize that it is a VERY, VERY bad thing to do, they usually get the hint. For example, I had a girl that pulled parts of her assignment from her friend and parts from the internet. She did not think it was plagiarism because she never got a full sentence from one source - essentially, she was putting together little parts of sentences from other places into new sentences. I had to show her that even that is plagiarism, and even if she did not copy and paraphrased, it would still be plagiarism. It took a few times, but she understood after a while. You are also right that they might be paying people to do their assignments. I have been offered money to finish their assignments and although I refuse, I have heard there are places that specifically perform this job. If you are trying to reduce this behaviour, I would test them on their own papers. If they cannot recall their own writing, they probably did not write it. Also, I have one more suggestion for writing assignments - if possible, allow them to do drafts. Like wintersweet said, a lot of them are painfully unprepared for English universities. If you allow them to do drafts, and you are willing to provide detailed notes or meetings to explain what they could have done better, then they are less likely to cheat/plagiarize. They will probably learn in the long run too. Overall, I think you're doing a good job already! Don't feel pressured to change much more - if you're asking students to come see you in office hours and they're not showing up, I'm inclined to think they don't care rather than they don't understand. A lot of the students I tutor really want to learn, but there are a few of them who are just coasting by because it's what their parents want, and unfortunately, there's not much you can do for those ones.