Sociocultural adaptation and intercultural sensitivity among international instructors of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) in universities and colleges in Taiwan

This study was prompted by two major objectives. The first objective was to investigate the sociocultural adaptation and intercultural sensitivity of international Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) instructors in Taiwan's colleges and universities. Sociocultural adaptation depicts how effectively sojourners fit into the host culture (Ward & Kennedy, 1999) while intercultural sensitivity (ICS) is an individual's reaction to cultural differences (Bennett, 1986). The second objective was to assess if seven predictor variables (age, gender, nationality, the length of residence in Taiwan, the length of previous living experience overseas, the length of studying Mandarin, and the frequency of interaction with Taiwanese) were related to these instructors' sociocultural adaptation and their intercultural sensitivity.; Three instruments were used in the study: (1) the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) by Ward and Kennedy (1999) was used to assess participants' levels of sociocultural adaptation and their intercultural challenges; (2) the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) by Hammer and Bennett (2001 a, b) was used to measure participants' levels of intercultural sensitivity in accordance with the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) outlined by Bennett (1986, 1993); (3) a seven-item demographic information sheet was used to gather information of participants' seven predictor variables. Of 176 international TEFL instructors in Taiwan higher education institutions, 44 completed the SCAS while 35 completed the IDI.; The SCAS results showed that these 44 international TEFL instructors in Taiwan had a "slight difficulty" in adapting to life in Taiwan as termed in the SCAS, but no statistically significant relationships were found between the seven predictor variables and the instructors' sociocultural adaptation. The IDI results indicated that the average level of ICS for these 35 instructors was Minimization. Again, these same seven variables were found to be uncorrelated with the instructors' intercultural sensitivity. However, the findings revealed that females were less ethnocentric and more effective in switching their cognitive frames of reference and behavioral codes in intercultural settings than males. Both findings from the SCAS and IDI imply the need for intercultural training or support programs for international instructors in Taiwan.