외국인 유학생의 학업 능력과 대학생활 적응 관계 －천안⋅아산 지역 국제 학생을 대상으로

Abstract

Our empirical study, in a quantitative manner, aims to seek the relationship between the ability to study and academic adjustment to university of the international students (IS) in the twin cities of Cheonan-Asan, whose Korean higher education research on local IS is scarce. To this end, we conducted a multilingual questionnaire survey on 333 undergraduate IS from over ten countries attending four private universities in these twin cities. Referring to the literature on the adaptation of IS to university, we carried out a twofold correlation test, including partial and bivariate correlations, broken up into three variables in academic achievement, as well as into six sub-variables in academic competence within the ability to study domain, as well as into four variables within the domain of academic adjustment to university. As a result, in academic achievement, the university credit scale (in the last semester) showed no significant linear relationship with the language competency scale (by TOPIK), while there was a positive correlation between the high-school grading scale (by self-evaluation) and the university credit scale. Korean language competency in academic achievement correlated with university life satisfaction within the academic adjustment to university domain, and the university credit scale in academic achievement and participation in class within the same domain also stayed in a linear relationship. The correlation coefficient was low, however. Meanwhile, self-directed learning in the liberal arts, as well as major papers corresponding to academic efficacy, which are fall into academic competence, were also significantly correlated with university life satisfaction and participation in class within the academic adjustment to university domain. In contrast, self-efficacy in academic competence showed a relatively stronger correlation with interpersonal relationships within the domain of academic adjustment to university. Several findings, however, differ from those of the literature in that, for instance, no meaningful correlation between Korean language competency and university credits appeared. With a lesson from the multilingual questionnaire survey, and the limitations of this study, our research will involve future work by using a relevant theoretical model in higher education for local IS; one that will explain the causal relationship between the significant variables that this work identified.