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A Research On The Cross-cultural Adaptation Of American International Students

Posted on:2013-08-13Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:D M LuoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2247330371475618Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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Since the21st century, there has been a tremendous surge in science and technology. International education under globalization background develops quickly. It provides a lot of opportunities for people who want to study abroad. The fast development of China attracts more and more international students. China’s international education has been enjoying noticeable development. The increasing number of international students has attracted many scholars’attention.The subject of the study is American international students in China. Ward and her colleagues’cross-cultural adaptation theory and Goldberg’s five-factor personality theory are adopted. Instruments for the present study include Ward and Kennedy’s socio-cultural adaptation questionnaire, Gao and Gudykunst’s psychological adaptation questionnaire, and Goldberg’s five-factor personality questionnaire. The present study aims to find answers to the following research questions,"What is the adaptation status of American international students","In what way demographic and personality factors are related to American international students’cross-cultural adaptation", and "What can be done to help American international students adapt better".In order to seek answers to these research questions, both quantitative questionnaire and qualitative interviews are used. Quantitative data are elicited from62American international students. There are5American international students in the qualitative study. Quantitative data are processed in SPSS using reliability and correlation analyses. Qualitative analyses are made for the interview data.Results show that American international students are adapting well to China. Their prior abroad experience, gender, age, openness to experience, and agreeableness are related to their cross-cultural adaptation. According to the findings of the present study, the author gives some suggestions on helping American international students adapt better to China, for instance, language training, test study, international student counseling service, cross-cultural communication activities.
Keywords/Search Tags:American international students in China, cross-cultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, socio-cultural adaptation, personality
PDF Full Text Request
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