The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1 - 84

Christina W. Yao

a really hard time understanding. They get
together to talk and discuss a question. I
try to listen and understand, so I don't have
any time to speak up and give my opinion.
So what I do is keep quiet during three-hour
meetings. I really feel uncomfortable. So I quit
and I dropped that class.
Derek had a difﬁcult time engaging with students in his classes and in his residence hall.
He felt disengaged from peers who, at ﬁrst,
would attempt to engage him in class discussions but then quickly stopped because he was
unable to keep up with the pace of conversation. Derek felt incapable of having meaningful interactions with American students and
this lack of a sense of belonging to his LLC
affected his satisfaction in classes and the residence hall.
Overall, language continuously emerged
as a theme when participants discussed their
interactions with domestic students in the
residence halls. Every participant brought up
English language proﬁciency as the biggest
factor in their feelings of belonging to the
Midwest University community. Most students
recognized their language skills were the foundation of all interactions with students, especially with domestic students.

DISCUSSION
Participants' lived experiences revealed that
overall sense of belonging to their residence
hall communities was inﬂuenced by their
English language ability. Most participants felt
a limited sense of belonging, which was affected by their interpersonal relationships and
diminished feelings of afﬁliation with their
community. As a result, participants, as illustrated by Derek's experiences, revealed they
often felt lonely and isolated. Lower sense of
84

belonging in underrepresented college students is consistent with other studies on sense
of belonging (Berger, 1997; Hausmann et al.,
2007; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Johnson, 2011;
Johnson et al, 2007); however, language ability
and cultural differences indicate Chinese students have a very different lived experience
from domestic students of color. As highlighted in this phenomenological study, the
importance of language skills emerged as the
essence of participants' lived experiences as
international students. Thus, implications for
practice are presented that address the speciﬁc
needs of Chinese students, and they include
recommendations to improve language skills
and to increase social connections with domestic students.
The issue of language ability is consistent
with current literature about its inﬂuence on
international students' sense of belonging
(Briguglio & Smith, 2012; Edwards et al., 2007;
Li et al., 2010; McMahon, 2011). Several participants, including Mora and Tom, indicated
they felt excluded from conversations because
they could not follow fast-paced dialogue in
English, which was also a ﬁnding in Briguglio
and Smith's (2012) study. Chinese students' inability to engage in meaningful conversations
with primarily English-speaking students has
affected participants' sense of belonging in
their residence halls.
The ﬁndings indicate the pervasive importance of language proﬁciency for these
participants, thus requiring programmatic interventions by residence life professionals. For
example, informal measures for increasing
English language ability could include monthly
bulletin boards related to popular culture.
These boards could serve as conversation

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

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