Information Literacy and International Students: cultural barriers and language preferences

Abstract

Even with the prevalence of a global culture, cultural and language barriers continue to present challenges for information professionals. Furthermore, international students are increasingly turning to library instruction classes for discovering library programs and resources. With the presence of cultural and language barriers, information literacy initiatives are forced to address the disparity in cultural displacement. The inclusion of language preferences in library instruction classes and information literacy initiatives would benefit international students and information professionals. The paper demonstrates that language and cultural barriers hinder international students from fully experiencing a library and its resources. Furthermore, this paper shows that limited exposure to library resources affects international students negatively by limiting their participation in the academic discourse. With a review of relevant literature, this paper calls for the inclusion of language preferences in information literacy initiatives and instruction classes. Moreover, the paper calls for a review of training methodology for information professional to addresses the concerns of international students.