Why are you giggling? An exploratory investigation of communication educators’ interactions with international students

International students represent a significant proportion of the student population on the campuses of colleges and universities in the United States of America. They are perceived to be different from domestic American students, and expected to face many difficulties in the processes of language learning and culture adaptation. This study investigated how educators interact with international students. Journalism and Mass Communication was selected as the focus area due to its high demand for language proficiency. Nine Journalism and Mass Communication educators were interviewed in depth, and they commented on their interaction experiences with international students. The interview data, when analysed for recurring themes, showed that international students were considered to be highly motivated and hard-working.However, they were perceived to be relatively slow and inefficient in communication with their educators. The two major challenges for educators were language difference and culture difference. To help international students overcome their difficulties, mutual understanding and trust-building were very important for educators. This article summarises the key findings from the interview data and produces some recommendations that may be useful to other communication academics teaching international students.