A Study On The Acculturation Of The ASEAN Students In Yunnan University

With the increase of the comprehensive national strength and the boom of studying in China worldwide, the number of overseas students studying in Yunnan, especially those from ASEAN countries, rises rapidly in recent years. Thus, the acculturation of the overseas students has become an issue of concern.This study employs a mixed method, a combination of the quantitative and qualitative research to investigate the acculturation of the ASEAN students in Yunnan. Totally,60copies of questionnaires are distributed and52valid copies are finally collected to conduct the study. The raw data is processed by the SPSS21.0. The major methods being used are the descriptive statistics and the analysis of the variance. Seven respondents of the questionnaire who were willing to have a further interview had left their contact information on the questionnaire and they were interviewed respectively. The interviews are firstly audio-taped and transcribed and then classified, discussed and summarized.The results of the study indicate that Chinese language and culture are considered to be the most important motivation for the ASEAN students to come to Yunnan. While the influence of others and the external conditions are the least important reasons for them to come to Yunnan. Integration is the most preferred acculturation strategy of the ASEAN overseas students, followed by strategies of separation and assimilation, and the strategy of marginalization is the least preferred one. Gender has a significant correlation statistically with the marginalization and integration. Male respondents prefer more to adopting the marginalization. Females prefer more to the integration. There is a significant relevance statistically between the preference of assimilation and the length of stay.The ASEAN students have slight difficulties in their acculturation. The investigation on the mental adaptation of the ASEAN students’indicates that they are slightly depressed. Nationality and academic degree have significant correlation with their psychological adaptation. Understanding the local accent and finding enjoyed food are the most difficult problems they met in their socio-cultural life. They have least problems in going shopping and getting used to the transportation system. Gender and HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) level have significant correlations statistically with the socio-cultural adaptation. The greatest difficulties in their academic adaptation are using the library, comprehending the contents of the classes and passing the exams. They have little difficulty in attending classes on time, making friends with their cohorts. Gender and academic degree show a significant correlation statistically with their academic adaptation. Besides, study motivation has a positive correlation with their socio-cultural adaptation and academic adaptation. The results of the interviews also verified these findings.Finally, the author makes a conclusion of the study, indicates the limitation of the research, gives some suggestions to the universities and the ASEAN students and puts forward some tentative recommendations for the future studies.