Skip to main content

An Ethnographic Study of the Friendship Patterns of International Students in England: an Attempt to Recreate Home through Conational Interaction.

Brown, L., 2009. An Ethnographic Study of the Friendship Patterns of International Students in England: an Attempt to Recreate Home through Conational Interaction. International Journal of Educational Research, 48 (3), 184-193.

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF (Word to PDF conversion (via antiword) conversion from application/msword to application/pdf)
IJER_updated_May.pdf - Accepted Version

94kB

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijer.2009.07.003

Abstract

This paper reports findings from an ethnographic study into the adjustment experience of a group of postgraduate international students at a university in the South of England. Friendship emerged as a major theme in this study; of particular importance to students was the desire and need to mix with conational friends. This desire was driven by the urge to obtain the comfort offered by shared language, shared heritage and access to instrumental support. It was also informed by fear of discrimination and compounded by an absence of host contact which was a source of deep disillusionment for students. The negative impact of segregated friendship groups on the improvement of linguistic and cultural knowledge was understood, but only a handful of students broke away from the confines of the monoethnic ghetto.

Item Type:Article
ISSN:0883-0355
Uncontrolled Keywords:Friendship; Segregation; Shared language; Shared culture; Instrumental support; Restricting cultural learning
Group:Bournemouth University Business School
ID Code:10122
Deposited By: Lorraine Brown
Deposited On:28 Jun 2009 19:56
Last Modified:14 Mar 2022 13:22

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

More statistics for this item...
Repository Staff Only -