Education and Human Sciences, College of (CEHS)

 

First Advisor

Dr. Kristy Weissling

Second Advisor

Dr. Sue Kemp

Third Advisor

Dr. Matthew Lambert

Date of this Version

Summer 7-2021

Document Type

Article

Citation

Reddel, M.C. (2021). Belonging: a mixed-methods analysis of communication coaching workshops on participation and self-esteem for international students with non-native accents at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. [Master’s thesis, University of Nebraska-Lincoln]. Digital Commons at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Comments

A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science, Major: Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Under the Supervision of Professor Kristy Weissling. Lincoln, Nebraska: July, 2021

Copyright © 2021 Michaela Reddel

Abstract

The current study explored survey results of 17 participants who were international students with accents at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These participants participated in a communication workshop hosted by the researcher who is a Speech-Language Pathology graduate student. The Acculturation Model (Berry, 1997), the work by Dai and Chen (2014) in Intercultural Communication Competence, and evidence-based practices from the field of Speech-Language Pathology informed the creation of this study and the workshops. The workshops were designed for participants to learn various communication strategies with the purpose of increasing communication participation and self-esteem. The goal of increasing these two constructs was to achieve a communication level where they felt successful by providing them with tools and instruction to promote their success. A waitlist randomized control with mixed methods outcome was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop in changing communication participation and self-esteem as measured by the Communication Participation Short Form (CPIB-10) (Baylor et al., 2013) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 2015). In addition, qualitative data was collected through a set of six open-ended written narrative questions which focused on measuring communication participation or self-esteem. The qualitative results of this study indicated that voluntary participation in the Communication Workshop increased international students’ communication participation and self-esteem. Quantitatively however, various analyses revealed the effect of the Communication Workshop appeared to be statistically insignificant when the two groups differences in means were compared to each other. However, analyses of individual group differences in means revealed a moderate to large effect sizes between the pre-test and post-test for both groups were noted. Participants did not become more involved with clubs and social groups on campus, however, many attributed this to the unprecedented conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and/or condensed summer semester timeframe. The implications of these findings are discussed, along with the limitations, recommendations, and future direction of Communication Workshops in higher education.

Advisor: Kristy Weissling

Share

COinS