Associate Professor, Department of Applied English National Taichung University of Science and Technology
Abstract
Individuals who have experienced an extended period of time in a foreign land normally have undergone a tremendously psychological intensity. This study particularly explores the phenomena of five nonnative English professionals’ foreign journey via the intercultural educator Paige’s proposal of intensity factor framework. New propositions are found and further discussed in the study. After understanding all these ups and downs of these intercultural experiences, it is hoped to assist future sojourners in becoming more psychologically well-prepared, developing intercultural sensitivity and awareness, and enjoying all the learning possibilities of intercultural differences and challenges.
Key words: intercultural experience, nonnative English professional, intensity factor
高應科大人文社會科學學報 ISSN 1815-0373
Introduction
Traveling in a foreign country is one thing; living and learning for an extended period of time is another. “Individuals who have undergone long-term cultural immersion understand how emotionally powerful intercultural experiences can be” (Paige, 1993, p.2).
However, why do intercultural1 experiences cause individuals such an intense challenge?
The critical point is derived from cultural differences as well as sameness. “Cultures possess their own internal logic and coherence for their members and, hence, their own validity.
Making judgments about them is hazardous when the criteria for evaluation come solely from another culture” (Paige, 1993, p.3). Hence, using criteria from one cultural to judge any values, beliefs, and behaviors on another culture is certainly a challenging move.
Criteria for making judgments are normally derived from cultural references. According to the philosopher and sociologist Schutz (1964), people normally possess a frame of cultural reference provided by their ancestors and authorities that acts as an unquestioned guide for social interactions and cultural interpretation. Hence, in any cross-cultural encounters, when normally a taken-for-granted life act happens in one culture while it is judged and interpreted by another cultural reference, people start to become psychologically intense and therefore, experience the powerful influence during cross-cultural experiences.
Intercultural educator Dr. Michael Paige in his early work “Education for the Intercultural Experience” (1993) sorts out ten intensity factors from theory, research, and a huge amount of anecdotal evidences collected over the past 50 years with the hypotheses that propose the situations most sojourners would experience highs and lows in their foreign life journey. Professor Paige has thirty-five years of professional experience in international and intercultural education. In 1999, he has further been certified by Intercultural Communication Institute to administer and interpret the Intercultural Development Inventory. His book “Education for the Intercultural Experience” has reopened an enthusiastic discussion due to his early profound observation and comment on Mr. Barack Obama (now as the president of the United States) as an exemplary model for being a multicultural person. Furthermore, in the most updated version of intercultural competence handbook (Deardoff, 2009), the intensity factor is recognized as an important theoretical framework regarding intercultural experience. With his sophisticated expertise and professional insights in intercultural education, this study mainly employs his proposed hypotheses of psychological intensity factors as the major framework to examine five sojourners’ intercultural learning experiences, and provide alternative perspectives of a
1 In this study, “intercultural” is an exchangeable term for “cross-cultural.”
Nonnative English Professionals’ Intercultural Journey:
The Intensity Factor Further Analysis
first-hand story on how these sojourners have encountered, negotiated, and reconciled all the emotional challenges. Table 1 provides an overview of ten intensity factors with the proposed hypotheses.
Even though the term “hypothesis” was used throughout the paper, the main purpose for this study tends to explore more of different propositions from Paige’s framework rather than to verify the hypotheses. Some hypotheses substantially exist in the study sojourners’
perspectives and stories while some propositions are newly found and further discussed in this article. Some intensity factors are discussed separately while some are merged due to the similar characteristics. Overall, the importance of this study is to assist future sojourners in becoming more psychologically comfortable, developing intercultural sensitivity and awareness, and enjoying and learning more possibilities of intercultural differences and challenges.
Table 1. Intensity factors with the proposed hypotheses tabled by the researcher
Intensity Factor Proposed Hypotheses
Cultural Differences
Hypothesis 1: The greater the degree of cultural differences between the sojourner’s own and the target culture, the greater the degree of psychological intensity.
Hypothesis 2: The more negatively the sojourner evaluates the cultural differences, the more psychologically intense the experience will be.
Ethnocentrism
Hypothesis 3: The more ethnocentric the sojourner, the more psychologically intense the experience will be.
Hypothesis 4: The more ethnocentric behavior the host culture exhibits, the more psychologically intense the experience will be.
Hypothesis 5: The more racist, sexist, and in other ways prejudiced the host culture, the more psychologically intense the experience will be.
Language
Hypothesis 6: The less language ability the sojourner possesses, the greater will be the psychological intensity of the experience.
Hypothesis 7: The more essential language ability is to functioning in the target culture, the greater will be the psychological intensity of the experience.
Cultural Immersion Hypothesis 8: The more the sojourner is immersed in the target culture, the higher the degree of psychological intensity.
Cultural Isolation Hypothesis 9: The less access sojourners have to their own culture group, the greater will be the psychological intensity of the experience.
Prior Intercultural
Experience Hypothesis 10: The less the amount of prior, in-depth intercultural experience, the greater will be the psychological intensity of the experience.
Expectation Hypothesis 11: The more unrealistic the sojourner’s expectations of the host culture, the greater will be the psychological intensity of the experience.
Visibility and Invisibility
Hypothesis 12: Being physically different from members of the host culture and feeling highly visible to them can increase the psychological intensity of the experience.
Hypothesis 13: Feeling invisible to members of the host culture because they do not know or cannot accept important aspects of the sojourner’s identity can increase the psychological intensity of the experience.
高應科大人文社會科學學報 ISSN 1815-0373
Intensity Factor Proposed Hypotheses
Status Hypothesis 14: Sojourners who do not feel they are getting the respect they deserve or, conversely, who feel they are receiving underserved recognition will find the experience more psychologically intense.
Power and Control Hypothesis 15: The less power and control one possesses in the intercultural situation, the greater the psychological intensity of the experience.
Intercultural experience studies
Intercultural experiences in this study indicate that people leave their home country, and study in a foreign country for an extended period of time (a minimum of 2 years). This group of people is also named as sojourners which stay as temporary residents (Merriam-Webster, 2013) in the United States. Intercultural experiences are composed of three aspects: how sojourners see cultural differences (knowledge), how they think and evaluate the information (beliefs), and how they feel about the situation (emotion) (Brislin, et al., 1986). Research on cross-cultural adjustment is not the latest trend in literatures and can be even traced back to 1930s (Yan, 2002). However, in the Taiwan research academia, there is an obviously growing trend since 1990s. For instance, the following (see Figure 1) which collects information from National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan presents a clear view of the increasing number on cross-cultural studies since 1990s2. Most research is located in the following academic disciplines: business and management, literature and arts, education, and psychology. After a further analysis, the frequent explored issues include the following nine main categories: 1) cross-cultural adjustment of foreign managers/staffs (i.e. Chao, 1993)3, labor workers (i.e. Yu, 1995), teachers (i.e. Tsai, 2008), and spouses (i.e. Liu, 2003) in Taiwan, or vice versa, the cross-cultural adjustment of Taiwan professionals in a foreign country, such as expatriate managers/staff (i.e. Lan, 2002); 2) cross-cultural communication skills, including negotiating and management (i.e. Ho, 1993); 3) cross-cultural comparison such as values, beliefs, and behaviors (i.e. Hsueh, 2000); 4) cross-cultural training and education (i.e. Lan, 2002); 5) cross-cultural family and education(i.e. Liu, 2003); 6) culture and foreign language education (i.e. Lin, 1999); 7) cross-cultural analysis of literatures (i.e. Fong, 2007);
8) translation (i.e. Yen, 2002); 9) the others. Surprisingly, there is one particular group of professionals who have also experienced a significant period of time in their foreign journey and further possessed an influential position in Taiwan education, and so far is neglected in
2 The keywords used to search in the database are “intercultural” and “cross-cultural” both in English and Chinese.
3 Many selected papers were the most quoted in the National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan.
Nonnative English Professionals’ Intercultural Journey:
The Intensity Factor Further Analysis
the research database. They are foreign language professionals.
58 55
Figure 1. Cross-cultural studies at National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan from 1993 to 2012
Normally, foreign language teachers tend to study abroad for their advanced education not only for receiving their professional training but also for experiencing a local life in the target language country. However, even though with a certain degree of language proficiency which helps them reduce anxiety during cross-cultural encounters, they inevitably encounter many other challenges, such as being nonnative foreign language professionals in the target language country (Braine, 2004; Liu, 1999; Samimy & Brutt- Griffler, 1999). Intercultural educator Braine (1999) in his edited essay collection,
“Non-Native Educators in English Language Teaching,” particularly voices out the critical challenges nonnative language professionals face in the target language country and further points out the important roles and influence nonnative language professionals play in the global language education. Hence, cross-cultural learning experiences certainly have influential impacts on nonnative English professionals personally and professionally. This study will specifically explore the cross-cultural phenomena of nonnative English teaching professionals’ journey. Through a further exploration of the first-hand intercultural stories, it’s hoped to grasp more insightful and meaningful views of their reconciliation of all the emotional intensity.
高應科大人文社會科學學報 ISSN 1815-0373