This design has been driven by the 2 key aspects, which are the importance of social connection and sharply increasing amount of international student. They might look irrelevant but these 2 aspects have deeply influenced international students’ daily lives and studying experiences during overseas. Human being is social animal (Haas et al,. 2016). This feature distinguishes us to other living beings. Human needs social activities, to be related to other people. Also, social connection is a subjective sense of people who closely and positively experience a relationship with others (Seppala et al,. 2013). It gives us the sense of belonging, which is telling us that we are a part of the community.
On the other hand, the tide of studying abroad is overwhelming, especially in Asian countries. Western countries have highly advanced education which makes them become the Mecca for foreign students to go abroad for further gain. China has contributed more than 1.4 billion international students in 2018 (ABC news, 2018). In Australia, more than a half of international students are from Asian countries (Australia Government, 2018).
Students from non-English speaking countries are under huge pressure because of language difficulty and cultural barriers. According to Sherry’s research, international students’ daily lives and studying experience have been negatively influenced by language issues, cultural barriers and lack of understanding (Sherry et al,. 2010). In consideration of the given 2 main aspects therein before, this situation is very serious and need to be solved as soon as possible.
