The Study Of Intercultural Adaptation Of University Volunteers In Ethnic Environment

It is reported that about1,000students from different major colleges anduniversities in China take part in voluntary teaching programme every year. A largenumber of volunteers come from Han culture and urban region, and the difference inlife style and beliefs between ethnic minorities and between rural and urban regionsmay constantly raise adaptation problems. The rising population of volunteers makesit possible to study their intercultural adaptation in ethnic rural environment. Theresearch targets at50university volunteers who have participated in the voluntaryteaching programme in ethnic rural regions like Guizhou, Qinghai and Gansu. Besides,20overseas interns who have completed AIESEC Global Internship Programme inPoland are also communicated for a comparison of interethnic adaptation andinternational adaptation. Both of the two groups of research objects have participatedin their programmes for at least one month and have experienced a completeintercultural adaptation process.Based on Colleen Ward’s two types of acculturation theory, Stella Ting-Toomey’stheory about antecedent factors that influence the newcomers’ adaptation process, andBringle’s research scales of assessing student service experiences, the study adopts themethodology of qualitative approach with the purpose of investigating individual’schange in interethnic adaptation process, the influences to interethnic adaptation andsojourners’ adjustment model.The result of the research further assesses three types of influencing factors forsojourners’ intercultural adaptation process and the W-curve developmental model ofsojourners’ adjustment process, which is of great help to the interethnic adaptation ofuniversity volunteers and provides the volunteer organizations with some instructiveadvice to the intercultural training. More importantly, the research field of interethniccommunication will get more concern.