A Study On Cross-cultural Academic Adaptation Of International Students In Gansu

With the development of international higher education, studying abroad programs in China have been growing and the number of international students enrolled in universities in Gansu is increasing. However, international students’ dual roles as “foreigners” and “students” bring them a series of challenges in different aspects, especially in academic adaptation. Understandingly, it is of importance to help international students make better academic adaptation under the specific culture and academic environment of Gansu.During the past two decades, there are plenty of studies on academic adaptation of international students in Western countries. However, most of these studies are based on Western countries, especially the United States as the research background. The western theories cannot fully explain the academic adaptation situation of international students in China. Although there exist some studies on cross-cultural academic adaptation of international students in China, yet the quantity is very small. The present study aims to investigate the current situation of international students’ academic adaptation in Gansu and find out the factors influencing their academic adaptation. Questionnaires and interviews are used to evaluate the current situation of the international students’ academic adaptation in Gansu and to investigate factors affecting the academic adaptation of these international students. For the achievement of the purpose above, the following questions are raised:(1) What is the current situation of academic adaptation of international students inGansu?(2) What are the factors that influence the academic adaptation of international studentsin Gansu?(3) Is the academic adaptation of international students in Gansu correlated with theirstudy motivation?The author puts all the raw data into SPSS 16.0. Factor analysis and reliability analysis are processed to test the construct validity and reliability of the questionnaires. Descriptive Analysis is used to investigate the current situation of academic adaptation of international students in Gansu. One-way ANOVA and Independent-Sample T Test are performed to test the personal variables influencing international students’ academic adaptation in Gansu. Person Correlation Analysis is processed to test relationship between international students’ academic adaptation and their study motivation in Gansu.The major research findings are as follows:(1) International students in Gansu have experienced great difficulties in cross-culturalacademic adaptation. Chinese language proficiency is their main difficulty.(2) The analysis of variance indicates the nationality, age, Chinese language proficiency,educational level and specialty contribute significantly to international students’academic adaptation. In terms of nationality, Asian international students adapt better.As for the age factor, the older international students adapt better than the youngerinternational students. In terms of the Chinese language proficiency, those who havepassed HSK Level 4 adapt better, and those who have not passed HSK adapt worse.In terms of educational level, postgraduate international students adapt better andundergraduate international students adapt worse. As for specialty, those who majorin Science and Engineering adapt better than those who major in Social Sciences.(3) According to the correlation analysis, international students’ academic adaptation isslightly negatively correlated with their study motivation, suggesting that thestronger study motivations predicate fewer difficulties in their academic adaptation.Based on the major findings of this study, intervention measures and coping strategies are recommended for improving international students’ Chinese language proficiency, the teaching methods and the international students’ academic adaptation.