Cultural adaptation challenges and strategies during study abroad: New Zealand students in China

TLDR

The rising popularity of Chinese as a study subject has spurred research into international students’ cultural adaptation and language learning while abroad in China. This inquiry examined the challenges faced by New Zealand students and the strategic responses they adopted to adapt culturally in China. The study engaged 15 participants through reflective journals and group interviews to explore their experiences. The analysis revealed language, lifestyle, academic, sociocultural, and psychological challenges, and showed that students used diverse cognitive, affective, and skill‑development strategies to improve communication, indicating that educators should revise pedagogy and provide counseling to support cultural adaptation and language learning.

Abstract

The rising popularity of the Chinese language as a subject for study has motivated research on international students' cultural adaptation and language learning during periods of study abroad in China. This inquiry examined the challenges that a group of New Zealand students encountered and the strategic responses they adopted in relation to cultural adaptation in China. In the inquiry, we encouraged 15 participants to write reflective journals and conducted group interviews to explore their experiences. The analysis revealed the variety of challenges that the participants faced, including language-based, lifestyle, and academic challenges as well as sociocultural and psychological ones. In response to these challenges, the participants adopted diverse strategic efforts to achieve cognitive, affective, and skill development in facilitating their communication practices with local Chinese people. These findings suggest that language educators need to revise traditional pedagogical approaches so that new pedagogical activities can be developed to promote study abroad students' communication competence, and counselling services should be provided to support their cultural adaptation and language learning.