International Students in Higher Education: Language, Identity and Experience from a Holistic Perspective

Over the last decade, international student enrollment in Canadian universities has increased significantly (Statistics Canada, 2018). This rapid growth in enrollment has often led us to view and discuss international students as static numerical figures rather than as whole individuals with unique needs and diverse experiences. In response to this and other concerns, this study constructs and adopts a holistic framework in order to better understand the lived experiences of four multilingual international students at a university in Canada. This study is informed by a multidisciplinary theoretical framework. Language and second language acquisition are viewed through the lens of multilingualism and socio-cognitive theory, respectively, while identity is understood through insights stemming from post-structuralist theory as well as social and cultural psychology. To explore experience in detail, this study draws on case study and portraiture for its methodological design, and on interviews, photographs, newspapers, and observations as its instruments of data collection. In addition to the four students whose experiences are the focus of this study, the voices of 38 other participantsdomestic students, faculty, and support staffare also included in this investigation to better understand the context of the institution to which the students belong. Findings highlight some of the complexity in and uniqueness of individual multilingual international student experience. The students experiences are generally characterised by challenge, but also success, as the students navigate life in another language and culture while attempting to both meet the expectations of their academic studies, and enact new identities which they progressively construct for themselves. In terms of community, the students experiences reveal a social distance between multilingual international students and their domestic peers, despite the importance placed by the international students on developing meaningful connections with domestic students. Recommendations and implications for theory and practice are presented in light of these findings.