An Empirical Study On Acculturation Strategies Of South-east Asian Students In China

Recent years, with the globalization of economy and culture, it is common to see more and more immigrants, international students, businessmen in every country. Therefore, the study of acculturation is attracting more and more concerns from experts in many countries.The present study aims to find out the preference of acculturation strategies adopted by the South-east Asian students in China, and to find the factors influencing their choosing of these strategies, in hope that it can provide some useful suggestions to the teaching of the international students in China. The survey sample consists of 60 South-east Asian students (mean age=21.3 and mean duration of their sojourn is 32 months), who are currently studying in Huaqiao University for their bachelor's degree. Berry's Acculturation Attitude Scale is used as the major instrument to identify their predominant acculturation strategy. Ten students are randomly chosen to be interviewed through QQ about some detailed information. Data collected from the questionnaires are processed in SPSS13.0, using Validity Analysis, Reliability Analysis and Correlation Analysis.Results show that separation is the most preferred acculturation strategy of these South-east Asian students (about 69% of the total), followed by integration, with 20% of the students choose the strategy. The strategies of assimilation and marginalization are the least welcomed. Gender, age and duration of sojourn are not significant indicators. Students who adopt assimilation have high language proficiency and Chinese identity. Those who choose separation have lower psychological stress. Those who adopt integration present excellent language proficiency and also have integrative motivation. Students who adopt marginalization experience obvious culture shock symptoms and have some national identity. To sum up, language proficiency, culture shock symptoms and culture identity play a very important role in the course of acculturation of the South-east Asian students. The findings of the survey show that the acculturation patterns of the South-east Asian students are characterized by specific traits due to the special cultural relationship between China and the South-east Asian countries.