| Summary: | This paper explores how French-speaking students (FSS) academically acculturate to a private provider of higher education (PPHE). It is a qualitative study that utilises semistructured interviews, focus group interviews and narrative inquiry as methods of data collection. Communities of practice (COP) theory and social identity theory (SIT) are engaged as theories of action to understand how the FSS began to acculturate to the PPHE. The South African Students (SAS) are in-group participants while the FSS are out-group participants in the COP. The SAS displayed positive characteristics towards the FSS because they saw the FSS as bona fide participants of the COP and did not discriminate against them. Four major findings emerged from the study. Firstly, FSS commenced their acculturation to the academic institution by translating curriculum content from English to French and back to English. Secondly, they began to adjust to unfamiliar accents, used by lecturers to facilitate learning. Thirdly, they became proactive by learning curriculum content ahead of lecture periods and gradually developed the boldness to ask questions in spite of their linguistic challenges in the language of instruction. Fourthly, they progressively developed a sense of belonging, utilised the small class size initiative of the higher education institution (HEI) and the positive student-lecturer relationships which existed at the HEI to their advantage. The paper concludes by making recommendations.
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