lues, customs, and behaviors as the student decides what to hold on to and what to let go of (Lieber, Chin, Nihira, & Mink, 2001; Liem, Lim, & Liem, 2000).
Within the acculturation process, achievement and academic difficulties are found. Gender and culture predict goals and career expectations, with culture being the stronger predictor (McWhirter, Hackett, & Bandalos, 1998). Research on the relationship between culture and academic performance and career development has focused on African Americans, however Hispanics are the second largest minority group in the U.S. and their status as a foreign student remains. The Hispanic academic and educational and occupational attainment remains less than that of other minorities. Hispanic high school completion rates were 46.2% in 1994, compared to 81.5% for Caucasians. Lese and Robbins (1994) studied another culture, Asian adolescent refugees in a bilingual vocational program at a high school. Although these individuals had faced psychological adjustment, family conflict, losses, and language deficits, academic success was viewed as a way of honoring the family, resulting in positive and secure goals. Findings of the study were that when students showed positive goals related to career, work, and family, foreign students with high goal commitment and goal stability tended to achieve higher grade point averages and had better study skills. It was concluded that acculturation was related to goal attitudes, and positive acculturation can result in academic achievement. In spite of cultural goals, language differences in foreign students lead to barriers which can result in academic problems (Brunn, 1999).
Language acts as an agent that can limit or contribute to a foreign student's ability for acculturation. The language experience dictates relationships, status, coping, control, exclusion, familial organization, belongingness, autonomy, and opportunities. Language regulates social ...