How to make your new students feel at home

Martyna Elerian R&D in International & Intercultural Education | PhD |

Martyna Elerian discusses findings from her own research showing the difficulties students face when adapting to a new international school, and offers tips on how teachers can make it easier for them

New students enter international schools all the time, and as teachers, we get accustomed to the annual student and staff turnover. However, for some students, joining an international school can be challenging. In this article, I want to share some thoughts from my teaching and research experience about students’ adaptation process in international schools.

For many students, joining an international school is usually connected to several other major life changes: a new country, new house, new language, different culture, parents changing jobs… and, let’s not forget, leaving behind much of what is known. One’s world is turned upside-down in the duration of a flight. So as exciting as it all can seem, it can also be scary.

Although generally speaking, many students can easily adapt to new environments and acculturate into their new school relatively fast, some may need as much time as the entire first school year. Lack of adjustment can affect students’ emotional wellbeing, and result in low academic performance. This is why it is worth considering what particular difficulties students face when joining the school, and what we can do to make it easier for them.

Teachers can misjudge adaptation challenges

In a recent study I conducted, I asked over 200 students about their primary difficulties when joining the school. The main issues they pointed to were:

Coping with new material to study;
Making friends;
Adjusting to different school rules;
Getting used to new teachers;
Language.

More than 50% of students ticked each of the first three categories: coping with new material to study, making friends, and adjusting to different school rules. I then asked a similar question to teachers.

The vast majority of teachers focused on students having to adapt to a different curriculum and familiarise themselves with the new study material - less so on forming new friendships.

While students saw coping with new material to study and making friends as equally challenging, teachers emphasized the academic aspect over the social one.

We mustn’t forget that students’ adaptation is a holistic process

As teachers, we can misjudge the significance students ascribe to certain adaptation challenges. We mustn’t forget that students’ adaptation is a holistic process: while they try to adapt academically, they also need to put time and effort to adapt socially.

To stimulate a much more organic social adaptation, on day one, rather than asking the incoming student about themselves in front of the whole class, we can instead ask the other students to take the week to learn something about the newcomer.

We can ask students to find something they have in common with their new classmate. When checking upon it by the end of the week, we will be able to better evaluate the level of social integration and the initial adaptation of the new student.

A new school culture

Beyond making friends, social adaptation also refers to students finding their way within the broader school culture.

At the end of the day, all aspects of school life are determined within the frame of school culture, thus, the process of understanding and adjusting to the different school rules is a significant part of students’ acculturation.

International schools’ environment is very specific and very different to the one of the state schools. It is a good idea to assign a classmate to be a ‘guide’ to the newcomer during the first week(s).

Also, assigning a different student every day will get more people involved, and allow the new student to develop more social connections in a shorter time.

New teaching and learning styles

Cultural differences can affect students’ behaviour within the class and the school

Getting used to new teachers was found to be a major challenge by a third of the students who took part in my study. As teachers, we know that our attitude and behaviour play a part in the adaptation process, but so does our teaching style.

Cultural differences can affect students’ behaviour within the class and the school, and it’s worth considering what is behind these behaviours.

However, cross-cultural encounters between students and teachers are not necessarily as encompassed in culture itself as they are in teaching and learning styles. These can be culturally-rooted and depend on the student's previous schooling experiece.

Some students will thrive during discussions and problem-solving activities, others instead will be reluctant to actively participate and share their opinions in lessons. Some some will expect lecture-style teaching and pre-prepared revision notes. For example, Asian students are generally used to traditional, passive teaching and learning. Having a better understanding of diverse teaching and learning styles and strategies, and their impact on multinational groups of students, can be beneficial while helping students to acclimate academically.

English proficiency does not magically solve every problem

Finally, not all students will be proficient in English when joining the school. Some international schools accept students with very little English language skills. These students are particularly vulnerable. Lack of language skills is not only an academic problem, it relates to other difficulties such as making friends and feeling isolated or even inadequate.

I think the common belief in such cases is that once the English language is acquired, the social aspect sorts itself out by default. However, such an approach can make the adaptation experience daunting and frustrating. Taking significant care of these students’ social adaptation instead can increase their academic performance and lead them to acquire the language faster. One way to do this is to involve these students in afternoon activities that don’t necessarily require English language skills (for example, sports, arts or chess).

Such involvement will make them feel part of the school community, and it will take off some pressure from the academic burden they certainly experience.

These are only a few aspects of students’ adaptation process. So, I would like to ask the community: what positive educational tools have you developed to help students adapt successfully in your school?

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