ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we are going to examine further our subjects of research—namely, the international PhD students, in particular Asian students, who undertook research training in the field of TESOL in Western English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Our discussion will start with the study destinations for international students and the ‘cultural circles’ they belong to. When an international student from a specific cultural circle chooses a Western English-speaking country to do PhD research in TESOL, two sets of cultural interpretation of teaching and learning meet, and a cross-cultural interaction occurs. Thus, two specific cohorts of international PhD students from Asia will be explored in depth as the subjects of this research are all from Asian countries.
