A Study Of Intercultural Adaptation Of International PhD Students In China

Although scale of international education in China has continued to expand,situation of international students in China is not optimistic.They encountered various problems in the process of psychological adjustment,interpersonal communication and learning.Under the background of increasing amount of international students coming to China,the intercultural adaptation of international students in China should be paid attention.The Ph D students who are studying in China as high-level students is of great significance to the construction of world-class universities and first-class disciplines in China.Therefore,it is necessary to investigate the intercultural adaptation of Ph D students in China.Qualitative research methods were adopted in this research,and H university was taken as the research site.15 international Ph D students from different disciplines and countries were interviewed and observed.The original data was coded in three levels,intercultural adaptation status and methods are described,besides,revised analytic induction was used in the construction of intercultural adaptation model.The current status of intercultural adaptation was described from psychological adaptation,sociocultural adaptation,and academic adaptation.In terms of psychological adaptation,in general,international Ph D students have experienced relatively large setbacks and emotional downturns within 24 hours of their arrival in China.Nearly all of them had negative psychological states,such as “lonely”,“angry”,“depressed” and “uncomfortable”.Most of them will develop their own adaptation methods after a certain period of time,and emotions will no longer fluctuate violently.In terms of sociocultural adjustments,their adaptations to living environment are not optimistic,which might be influenced by their understanding of Chinese culture.Besides,and interpersonal communication adjustment of international Ph D students is of middle level,which might be influenced by their length of stay in China.Most of international Ph D students have limited Chinese friends,but they have more third-country friends and country mates.In terms of academic adaptation,most international Ph D students from Science disciplines do not adapt well to local courses,while they show a high satisfaction with scientific research.The international Ph D students from Arts disciplines are more adopted to the curriculum than the scientific research.In addition,four major intercultural adaptation approaches are summarized: separation,defense,silence,and learning.The intercultural adaptation model T0 was obtained,which describes the process of intercultural adaptation from the condition of intercultural communication practice to intercultural adaptation approaches and then to the results of intercultural adaptation.In the end,strategies of promoting intercultural adaptation are put forward from the aspects of university supports and student community supports.