The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1 - 86

Christina W. Yao

programs to the larger population of Chinese
students rather than individuals would likely
be more effective. For example, resident assistants can partner with staff from the Career
Center to create opportunities for Chinese students to practice for job interviews. Interview
preparation information can be disseminated
to small clusters of Chinese students mixed
with domestic students and a facilitator. This
would create a more intimate setting that may
make non-native English speakers more comfortable and allow for more verbal interaction
within the group. In addition to marketing
toward groups rather than individuals, the formation of small clusters, as described above,
would create a positive and effective residential community useful for multiple topics (e.g.,
developing effective study habits, networking)
throughout the academic year. By utilizing
opportunities for language development and
social interaction, residence life departments
and partners could positively impact Chinese
students' transition to college. More importantly, developing strategic programs can promote
increased communication and language development for all international students.

Recommendations for Future Research
As indicated earlier, participants were ﬁrst-year
students with limited exposure to their overall
collegiate experience. This study could be
made more robust by extending it into longi-

tudinal research examining how participants'
sense of belonging evolves over a 4- to 6-year
period. Also, understanding how residence
life professionals and paraprofessionals are
trained to engage with Chinese students, particularly related to language barriers and cultural differences, could reveal best practices for
professional training and preparation.

CONCLUSION
Chinese international students are not only the
largest population from Asia at U.S. colleges,
but also overall the largest international population on almost all campuses (Institute of
International Education, 2013; UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2014; Yan & Berliner, 2010).
Chinese students are often excluded from conversations related to their feelings of belonging to their collegiate environment since they
are viewed as temporary visitors to the United
States. However, as indicated by this study's
results, Chinese students experience limited
sense of belonging to their residence halls at
their undergraduate institution. Much of the
feelings of marginalization resulted from participants' language proﬁciency skills, which
affects their interactions with domestic students. Language proﬁciency serves as a barrier
that inﬂuences Chinese students' social and
academic adjustment to the university, which
affect these students' sense of belonging.

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1

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