Perceptions of People in Canada: Canadian-Born vs. Internationally-Born Postsecondary Students' Perspectives

Explicit sociolinguistic instruction in language classrooms has become more widely accepted than ever, but the understanding and teaching of Canadian culture remains a controversial issue, particularly as Canadian culture becomes increasingly diverse. The degree to which Canadians are perceived to exhibit characteristics such as "politeness" and "friendliness" has stirred debate, particularly in ESL (English as a second language) and EAP (English for academic purposes) classrooms, owing to differing personal experiences and acculturation processes. This Canada-wide, mixed-methods study compared Canadian-born (CB) and internationally-born (IB) postsecondary students' and recent graduates' perceptions of people in Canada. Employing social media outreach, the study consisted of an online survey and follow-up e-interviews. Emphasis is given to quantitative rather than qualitative data analysis. Findings suggest that the overall perceptions of CB and IB groups are more similar than different. However, when unprompted, CB respondents are more likely than IB respondents to perceive people in Canada as "polite," "kind," and "caring." In addition, Likert-scale results demonstrate that CB respondents are significantly more likely to perceive people in Canada as "funny," "intelligent," "caring," and "hardworking." Implications are drawn for the degree to which IBs are acculturating to Canadian society and the extent to which a positive acculturation process can be explicitly addressed in ESL/EAP programs.