Avoiding the Gap of College Students’ Internship Expectations and Perceptions—A Case Study in Taiwan

Internship is believed to be vital in bridging the gap of theory and practice because of its providing students many realities they couldn’t find on campus. In fact, successful internships can play the role of “win-win-win” triangular partnership among schools, students, and industries, especially to benefit students to well equip themselves for good opportunities in the future career development. However, internship experiences that fail to meet students’ expectation may also discourage them or turn them away from entering the industry. Hence, to be aware of and to avoid the potential gap of students’ expectation cannot be underestimated. The study aimed to explore students’ expectation of internships from an aspect of gender and multiple intelligences expecting to avoid the potential gap beforehand. Subjects were eighty college Hospitality students who were ready to conduct their internships out of campus. They helped to fill out the questionnaires dealing with their personal demographic information, multiple intelligences, and expectations of internship. Findings revealed that genders and multiple intelligences did make a difference in students’ expectations of internship which may bring about frustration or disappointment in their real internship world. Suggestions and implications for the triangular partnership of schools, students, and industries were provided with a better understanding of factors relevant to students’ expectations for a more appropriate internship program to avoid the potential gap in advance.

An Investigation of Taiwan Residents Nursing Students’ English Learning Behaviors and Environmental Factors Related to English Learning before and after Their Internship Experiences—A Case Study

The study aimed to investigate Taiwan Residents nursing students’ English learning behaviors and environmental factors relevant to English learning before and after their internships. More than five hundred nursing students from five junior colleges in southern Taiwan served as subjects of the study. The research instrument included a 134-item questionnaire dealing with students’ personal demographic information and English learning behaviors of motivation, strategy, and anxiety. In addition, environmental factors relevant to English learning of English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) and Internationalization at Home (IaH), as well as nursing English for practicum use were discussed. Findings revealed that some correlations among students’ English learning behaviors, environmental factors, and English levels did exist before and after their internships. Moreover, students’ internship experiences of English use also brought about some changes in their learning behaviors led to English levels. Some implications and suggestions were provided for schools and students hoping to equip students with good English skills before getting into the job market.