Abstract
The growth of China’s economy over the last two decades saw many Chinese students going overseas to study. Like many western countries, New Zealand benefited from increased international student enrolments, with Chinese students making up the largest proportion of the numbers. Many of these students experienced ‘culture shock’ in their new home, not the least being in their studies. To succeed, they needed to ‘unlearn’ many of their previous ways and adjust to new academic demands. The study reports the experiences of Chinese undergraduates enrolled in a compulsory first year management course where they encountered radically different ways of doing things; different styles of lecturing, group work, participative tutorials and an emphasis on application rather than textbook based study. Data for the study was obtained from observing lectures and tutorials, and from interviews with students and the lecturer. The findings illustrate the difficulties many Chinese students encountered; meeting written and spoken English requirements, dealing with challenging internal assessments, group work, participative tutorials and coping with very different lecturing styles. For many, the paper was a major hurdle to be overcome in studies.
Key words: International students, learning adjustment, language barriers, Internal assessment, socio-cultural pressure
