Doctoral Dissertations

Jingyun Li

Date of Award

12-1999

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Patricia Davis-Wiley

Committee Members

Dale Doak, Bethany Dumas, Glennon Rowell

Abstract

The factors that contribute to culture shock among international students who study abroad have been researched continuously since 1960. However, the findings remain controversial.

The purpose of this study was to identify, through survey research methodology, what demographic factors, including age, gender, marital status, nationality, length of stay in the U.S., previous travel experience in other countries, and number of American friends, were related to culture shock linguistically, socially, and psychologically among ESL students.

Subjects participating in this study were 66 ESL students who were native speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish at the English Language Institute at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, enrolled during the 1997-1998 academic year.

The questionnaire, developed by the researcher specifically for this study, was translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish languages. The translated questionnaires were distributed and subsequently collected by the researcher after completion. These participants were asked to answer 40 questions to describe their linguistic, sociological and psychological difficulties, which relate to culture shock. In addition, the participants were asked to respond to six open-ended questions that reflected their feelings and perspectives of American people and American life.

Statistical testing of the hypotheses was performed by using the Stat-Star program on a personal computer. The analysis of the data of the closed-ended questions was accomplished using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient method. The analysis of the data of the open-ended questions was performed using qualitative methods.

The results of the analysis of the data led to the following conclusions:

  1. An ESL student's age did not produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.
  2. An ESL student's gender did not produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.
  3. An ESL student's martial status did not produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.
  4. An ESL student's nationality did not produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.
  5. An ESL student's length of stay in the U.S. did produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.
  6. An ESL student's previous travel experience did produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.
  7. The number of an ESL student's American friend did produce a significant relationship on his/her perceptions toward the linguistic aspects of culture shock, sociological aspects of culture shock, and psychological aspects of culture shock.

The narrative data indicated that ESL students felt that American life was both exciting and stressful. Students enjoyed freedom, convenient life style, advanced technology, and equal human rights. On the other hand, students felt that the American society was money-oriented, and unsafe. However, students were very impressed by Americans' warm, and polite manner, and their way of respecting privacy. Interestingly, students also concluded that American people were selfish, exhibited a lack of self-discipline, and had a superior attitude.

Recommendations for further research include studies exploring other demographic factors and their relationships with culture shock, replication of the study with a larger population, and with populations from different geographic areas.

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