Chapter Overview
This chapter presents at first the descriptive statistics in order to illustrate the sample population profile. The empirical results of this research, which follows, are divided into major groups according to the methods used. Therefore, factor analysis is discussed at first, followed by correlation, linear regression and one way ANOVA tests outcomes.
Respondents’ Profile
The demographic data collected in the research showed valuable information about the sample population. 51 respondents (61%) were female students; 32 respondents (39%) were male students. Four continents are represented by the sample population – Asia (44 respondents), Central America (5 respondents), Europe (23 respondents) and North America (11 respondents). The pie chart illustrates the division of number of respondents according to the region of their origin.
50
Figure 4.1.Regional division of research sample population
The age of sample population was available only with 75 samples. Ten Japanese female respondents did not fill in their age. Despite this fact, they were included in the final data analysis, and an average age of 26.4 years was assigned to those samples. The researcher presumes that the reluctance to reveal respondents‟ age is caused by cultural issue. The age distribution is illustrated by the doughnut graph below.
Figure 4.2. Age division of research sample population 28%
51
Respondents were further asked whether or not they are scholarship recipients. 59 respondents (71%) do not receive scholarship. Only 24 students do have scholarship. 23 students receive Taiwan government scholarship. Only one recipient receives different kind of scholarship.
Outcome of Factor Analysis
Due to the large number of variables, the researcher decided to divide them into factors. Therefore, the factor analysis was run at first, to see the cohesiveness of variables within one factor. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett‟s tests were run. The KMO measure of sampling adequacy tests whether the partial correlations among variables are small.
Bartlett's test of sphericity tests whether the correlation matrix is an identity matrix, which would indicate that the factor model is inappropriate. (Statistical Methods, 2008) The KMO measures the sampling adequacy and should be greater than 0.5 for a satisfactory factor analysis to proceed. The Bartlett‟s tests show that the associated probability is significant, being less than 0.05. In other words, this means that the correlation matrix is not an identity matrix.
Table 4.1.
KMO and Bartlett’s test for hygiene and situational factors
test value
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .708 Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 2766.947
Sig. .000*
*p < .05
For hygiene and situational factors, KMO test of sampling is high with the value of 0.708. Significance is also high with the value of 0.000. From the component matrix table below, a clear division between the two factors can be seen. Therefore variables x1-x16 come under hygiene factor; variables x17-x23 come under situational factor.
52
Table 4.2.
Component Matrix for hygiene and situational factors Component
The two tables below show results of KMO and Bartlett‟s tests for adaptability factor.
KMO value of 0.690 is high as well as significance with value 0.000. The component matrix table clearly illustrates that all three variables x24-x26 can be viewed as a factor.
Hygiene factor (1)
Variables x1-x16
Situational factor (2)
Variables x17-x23
KMO and Bartlett‟s test results acceptable even if items x20 and x22 are kept within situational factor
53
Table 4.3.
KMO and Bartlett’s test for adaptability factor
Test value
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .690 Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 202.243 Sig. .000*
*p < .05
Table 4.4.
Component Matrix for hygiene and adaptability factor Component
Results of Correlation & Linear Regression Tests
Hypothesis H1
Research hypothesis one studies if there is any correlation between international students‟ performance and satisfaction with life in Taiwan. The correlation statistics was run in SPSS 16 and the results show that there is no correlation between performance and satisfaction of international students. Therefore the null hypothesis cannot be rejected.
Table 4.5.
Correlation between performance and satisfaction
satisfaction performance satisfaction Pearson Correlation 1.000 -.062
Sig. (2-tailed) .294
N 85.000 85
performance Pearson Correlation -.062 1.000 Sig. (2-tailed) .294
N 85 85.000
54 Hypothesis H2 – H4
According to the model of this research, regression was run between hygiene, situational and adaptability factors and international students‟ performance. As the following tables show, there is no significance in the relation of those three factors on international students‟ performance, because all the results are higher than 0.05. Therefore, for hypothesis H2 –H4 the null hypothesis cannot be rejected.
Table 4.6.
The results of linear regression of hypotheses 5 shows that region of origin and international students‟ performance are not related. Therefore, the null hypotheses cannot be rejected.
Table 4.7.
Linear regression for region of origin
a. Predictor : (Constant), region of origin b. Dependent Variable: performance
55 Hypothesis H6
Hypotheses H6 tests if hygiene, situational and adaptability factors have significant relation with international students‟ satisfaction with life in Taiwan. As can be seen in the following tables, hygiene and situational factors show high significance. Therefore, null hypothesis can be rejected.
Table 4.8.
Linear regression for satisfaction
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .436a .190 .182 .869
a. Predictors: (Constant), adaptability factor, situational factor, hygiene factor
Table 4.9.
Continued results from linear regression for satisfaction
Model 1 Unstandardized Taiwan is explained by hygiene and situational factor. Even though these are not significant for performance and are not motivators for international students‟ studies, they still play important roles in students‟ everyday life in Taiwan.
Results of One Way ANOVA Analyses
Due to the fact that regression of factors did not show any relation to international students performance, the researcher decided to run one way ANOVA tests to compare the means of variables within hygiene, situational and adaptability factors and thus to learn if any variables will show significance once they are considered individually. Further, post-hoc tests were run in order to find if variables behave differently among different sample groups. Two one way ANOVA tests were conducted; one with length of international students in Taiwan as
56
dependent factor; the second one uses region of students‟ origin as dependent factor.
One Way ANOVA (1) Hygiene factor
For One way ANOVA test where dependent factor is length of international student‟s stay in Taiwan, one sample has to be extracted. As SPSS statistical software does not consider samples less than two, the only sample with duration of stay over 39 months has to be deleted.
Therefore, sample comprises of 82 respondents (n = 82). The results for hygiene factor are illustrated in the following table.
Table 4.10.
One way ANOVA test for hygiene factor – ANOVA analysis Sum of
One way ANOVA for hygiene factor - descriptive statistics N Mean Std.
Variable x13, which stands for provided information about medical care, is negatively
57
significant. Proportionally with longer time spent at the MTC, the dissatisfaction with information about medical care is growing.
The post-hoc test was run to see which groups exactly have significant difference.
Tukey HSD test was used as the instrument for measuring differences between groups‟ means.
From the following table we can see which groups have significant means difference at 0.05.
Table 4.12.
One way ANOVA for hygiene factor – post-hoc test Dependent
There is a significant mean difference between groups of students who have stayed in Taiwan for half-one year (6-12 months) and for 2-3 years (25-36 months).
Situational Factor
From the following ANOVA analysis for variables x17-x23, only two are significant.
The means further explain that on question x20 (feeling confused about ones career) most respondents replied neutrally; responses on x21 (difficulties with adapting to Taiwanese cuisine) were negatively significant.
58
Table 4.13.
One way ANOVA for situational factor- ANOVA analysis Sum of
One way ANOVA for situational factor – descriptive statistics
N Mean Std. rising tendency. This can be explained by the fact that individual career planning is probably affected by other variables and is not only related to international students‟ stay in a foreign country. Variable x21 (troubles with getting used to Taiwanese cuisine) has a declining tendency over the time of stay in Taiwan. Using the U curve of adjustment, we can explain this tendency. At the beginning, international students are excited about new food and flavors, however after some time they start to miss their homeland cuisine.
The post-hoc test shows that there are significant differences between means of groups of students staying in Taiwan for half-one year (6-12 months) and two-three years
59
(25-36 months) for variable x20; variable x21 demonstrates significance between groups of half-one year (6-12 months) and one-two years (13-24months).
Table 4.15.
One way ANOVA for situational factor – post-hoc test Dependent
For adaptability factor, all three variables x24-x26 appeared significant. Variable x24 stands for openness; variable x25 describes adaptability to new life situations, new culture and environment; variable x26 explains ability of self-motivation.
60
Table 4.16.
One way ANOVA for adaptability factor – ANOVA analysis Sum of
After the researcher ran the descriptive statistics, the means of answers did not show any declining or raising tendency and values were 3.91; 3.96; 3.68. Openness, self-motivation and ability to adapt do not change dependently on length of stay in Taiwan. The following table shows which mean differences between groups are significant.
Table 4.17.
One way ANOVA for adaptability factor –post-hoc test Dependent
61 significance based on division into groups according to region of origin. The researcher wants to know if any variables are significant for students from different regions around the world.
The SPSS software does not consider samples less than two, therefore two samples had to be extracted with the total number of 83 respondents ( n = 83).
Table 4.17. (Continued)
62 Hygiene factor
Table 4.18 shows only the significant variables from hygiene factors followed by the table with post-hoc test. Variable x7 stands for satisfaction with MTC teachers‟ attitude;
variable x10 represents satisfaction with MTC staff language skills.
Table 4.18.
The post-hoc test only shows significance in mean differences for variable x7 between groups 4 and 5, in other words between students from Central America and Europe.
Dependent
63 Situational factor
Within situational factor, four out of six variables appears highly significant. Variable x18 stands for hardships with life style changes in new country; variable x19 represents difficulties with living in a new culture and environment; x20 shows confusion about future career plans and x22 stands for difficulties with shopping.
Table 4.20.
Post-hoc test for situational factor Dependent
64
The mean differences show significance among all the groups. Then, these variables are significant for members of all regions.
Table 4.21. (Continued)
65 Adaptability factor
The last factor comprises of three variables. Only x25, which stands for the ability to adapt easily to new culture and environment, is highly significant. Other two variables did not show any significance, therefore are not included in the following table.
Table 4.22.
The means differences are significant between groups of respondents from Asia, Europe and North America.
66
Review of Respondents’ Comments
The questionnaire design allowed respondents to write down notes and comments on their stay in Taiwan and studies at the MTC. 33 respondents from Asia, Europe and North America took the opportunity and shared with the author their major concerns and facts that displease them. The table below summarizes all the comments. The highlighted numbers shows the highest occurrence of comments on one particular issue. Five commenting respondents think that the MTC does not provide clean environment. MTC administrative personnel were strongly criticized by five respondents. The same number of comments conveys dissatisfaction with information on school canteen, free on-campus medical care, insurance etc., provided by MTC. Four questionnaire respondents were displeased with the MTC library situation. Finally, five respondents complained about size and equipment of MTC classrooms.
Table 4.24.
Respondents’ comments No.
RESPONDENTS’ COMMENTS
(data collected from questionnaires – respondents’ notes section)
Occurrence of comment
1 MTC is not clean (classrooms, restrooms). 5
2 Teachers are very good. 1
3 MTC administrative personnel are not helpful. 5
4 Some teachers are weak in pinyin phonetic transcription. 1 5 Audio-visual test books are not good, do not support independent
study and are too pro-American.
2 6 MTC only has announcements in English and Japanese, which is not
fair to other south-east Asians.
1 7 Applying for ARC is stressful – it is too complicated. 1 8 Some MTC teachers are too conservative
→ this discourage students
→any discussion or attempt to talk to the teacher about this is waste of time
→training should be provided to MTC teachers to better understand international students
3
(Continued)
67 No.
RESPONDENTS’ COMMENTS
(data collected from questionnaires – respondents’ notes section)
Occurrence of comment
9 Only teachers as native speakers are not enough for the best learning environment.
1 10 Troubles with finding clothes/shoes in bigger sizes – annoying. 2
11 MTC did not provide information about school canteen, NTNU counseling center, insurance and on campus free medical care.
5 12 Scholarship is deferred in September and January – causes financial
problems, especially because the school tuition has to be paid by that time.
3
13 The factors affecting my performance and motivation the most are teachers and classmates.
1 14 The MTC library is too crowded, especially after increase of the
study hours for the visa purpose).
4 15 Summer heat and humidity are biggest adaptation issues. 2 16 Class changing procedure is confusing and stressful. 1
17 Inconvenient schedule of cultural classes. 2
18 Because of the bad service at MTC, respondent is changing to another university‟s language center next semester.
1 19 Classrooms are too small, furniture too bulky and inconvenient. 5 20 Schedules of summer trips disregard students who leave earlier in the
summer.
1 21 MTC does not meet the needs of students in the higher level classes
(beginners oriented).
2 22 Teachers are not willing to explain the subject matter in English even
when students do not understand (especially for beginners).
1
23 The extra five hours at school are ridiculous. 1
24 MTC students cannot enter NTNU library – annoying. 2 25 No or little chance for international students and NTNU students for
exchange and communication.
1 26 MTC students have only few holidays – de-motivating after few
months; no time to even get know other parts of the country and culture.
1
Table 4.24. (Continued)
68
Summary of Research Results
From the statistical results we can see that the null hypothesis H1-H5 have to be retained because the results of linear regressions and correlation showed no significant relation between satisfaction and hygiene, situational, adaptability factors to international students‟ performance. For hypothesis H6 the null hypothesis can be rejected, as hygiene and situational factors both shows high significance and therefore they are related to international students‟ satisfaction with life in Taiwan.
The one way ANOVA tests were run twice. Firstly, length of students‟ stay in Taiwan was the dependent variable. In the second test, region of origin of international students was considered as the dependent variable. As is illustrated by the abovementioned tables, when individually tested, some variables showed significance.
The empirical results and the data collected from questionnaire respondents‟
comments enable the researcher to provide conclusion and suggestions to MTC staff as well as international students in the following chapter V.
Discussion
From the research results, some variables appeared to be significant when sample was divided according to length of stay in Taiwan. Moreover, some of them show declining tendency in respondents answers‟ means concurrently with the longer duration of stay in Taiwan. Accordingly it can be concluded that these results support Lysgaard‟s (1955) adaptation theory of sojourners adaptation process – the cultural shock; the U-curve of adjustment can be supported with this research results as well. Answers on lack of information about medical care provided by MTC, has declining tendency over length of students‟ stay in Taiwan. The same tendency is visible with difficulties with adaptation to
69
Taiwanese cuisine. It can be deducted, that at the beginning of stay in Taiwan, students feel excited about new cuisine and want to try all local delicacies. Nevertheless, after some time they feel fed up with unaccustomed flavors and start yearn for food of their homeland. As for the awareness about medical care, the researcher assumes that the U- curve is also applicable.
This is probably caused by the fact that students start to seek medical care (either for preventive health check or for actual treatment) after they spend some time in new country.
By that time they may feel the pressing urge for more information about hospitals, medicaments etc. It may be concluded that the Lysgaard‟s (1955) theory of cultural shock and the U-curve of adjustment proved its applicability on international students in Taiwan and should be considered by organizations which receive international students.
Respondents‟ comments and student interviewees are evidence to the Maslow‟s Theory of human needs (1943). Participants of this research validate the idea that when they move backwards from self-actualization or esteem levels of their needs and suddenly have to deal with needs coming under physiological or safety level, they feel annoyance or stress.
The researcher assumed that Herzberg‟s Motivator-hygiene Theory (1966) can be applied in school environment as well. However, according to the test results, it can be said that even though hygiene factor is important for international student‟s satisfaction, it does not act as motivator or de-motivator for their studies. Nevertheless, the fact that satisfaction is closely related to hygiene factor shows that researcher‟s assumption about necessity of well being was correct. Mandarin Training Center may uplift the learning environment in order to sustain students‟ well being and mental health and thus to make them more satisfied.
This study also shows that international students at MTC call for more information about school and out-of-campus life and activities. Also, more chances to meet and spend time with NTNU students were mentioned. Therefore, the author supports Do‟s (2007) research results about the importance of orientation sessions and interaction between international and local students. In agreement with Mori (200), the author believes that MTC
70
should also provide more information prior students‟ arrival in order to anticipate stressful situation at the beginning or their stay in Taiwan.
71