This chapter illustrates the background of the study, statement of problems, the purposes of the study, questions of the study, significance of the study, delimitations and lastly, the definition of key terms.
Background of Study
As it comes to the period of what so called globalization, it has driven our world through effective tools like the Internet that connects people together and with the power of technology and transportation, it is not hard anymore for one to travel across the globe to the other side of the Earth. With the impact of globalization, it has forced people to move and travel all across the world, thereby making the world even more boundless and this can cause many problems regarding the cross-cultural issues between humans more than ever. In other words, as people move to the unfamiliar cultural settings, they have to face different practices or cultures (Chen, Wu, & Bian, 2014). Furthermore, as the world becomes more boundless, it is easier for people and students to seek a better job or a higher degree in other countries and unarguably, both of them are most likely to face the problem of cross-cultural adjustment as they have to live in peculiar place that is not their home country. Hence, cultural adjustment relates to the degree of which ones felt more comfortable living in a new cultural places (Black & Stephens, 1989; Haslberger, 2005). As study abroad becomes one of the trends in the present day, there are students from around the world try to seek a higher education in foreign country. In the study of McKeown (2009), he defined studying abroad as students who “physically leave their home countries to engage in college study, cultural interaction, and more in the host country.” Moreover, there are many studies show that study abroad experience may help to enhance participants’ cultural intelligence (CQ) such international awareness, cross-cultural understanding and communication skills, intercultural competency and foreign language skills (Fennell, 2009; Kruger et al., 2017; Rask, Arvola, & Salonen, 1993;
Salisbury, Paulsen, & Pascarella, 2011). The concept of CQ represents the capability of a person who are able to adapt and function successfully to a diverse and unfamiliar settings (Ang et al., 2007). However, cultural intelligence can be considered as a different form of academic intelligence, in other words, non-academic intelligence. Since CQ involves with social intelligence and emotional intelligence, therefore, it can be assumed that if ones can switch from one cultural
environment to another, this is the ability that is very essential for CQ (Ramalu, Rose, Uli, &
Kumar, 2012; Thomas, 2006).
Moreover, CQ can also be assumed that CQ can also be enriched through the learning of the host language as Sapir (1921) argued in the study that culture, thought and language cannot be really be separated from each other because with the knowledge of those aspect together, it can convey the implicit meaning and one’s pattern of life through the what one thinks, feels and behaves in particular cultural context. In addition, the culture can be determined by the situation or objective of people through their interactions and perceptions. Thus, to be able to convey messages out of those interactions and perceptions, language is the crucial tool as the means of communication in the society (Ali, Kazemian, & Mahar, 2015). This obviously illustrates that culture and language has some relationship together and in previous research, it has been found that language ability is an important skill for sojourners adaptation as it helps to develop the understanding of the new culture (Selmer & Lauring, 2015).
There are also many researches support the relationship between language and culture indicating that it is important for expatriate to understand local language to be adapt better in certain location (Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1993, 1994a; Yang, Noels, & Saumure, 2006). Selmer (2006) found that mandarin language ability has a positive effect on the adjustment of sojourners in China and the result of another study showed that the important factor that affected the successful adaptation of the Chinese elder in New Zealand is the language itself (Selvarajah, 2004). In other words, being unable to speak the host language may have a serious influence for international students as well. Hence, the development of expatriates’ understanding of new culture can be improved by the language (Selmer & Lauring, 2015). Furthermore, many researches have proved that there is a positive relationship between CQ and adjustment or adaptation of the expatriates. For example, according to the article published by Johnson and Buko (2013), expatriates who live in Malaysia have a greater adjustment, have higher CQ and also higher proficiency comparing to the ones who have not. This is why CQ is so important when it comes to the concern of adjustment for people who live abroad including international students. For the adaptation of sojourners, it can be divided into two major types, which are psychological adaptation and also sociocultural adaptation. Psychological adaptation focuses more on the well-being or satisfaction of certain person, which can be affected by individual’s personality. On the contrary, sociocultural adaptation or what known as SA, it focuses on behavioral skill such as
ability to fit in or how one interacts with the members of the host country (Ward & Kennedy, 1999). It is also mentioned that language ability is also the key of sociocultural adaptation since sociocultural adaptation is directly link to communication competency (Masgoret & Ward, 2006) because in order to have a successful adaptation, one needs to have social interaction with local people, hence, host-country language is positively related to the adaptation (Searle & Ward, 1990;
Ward & Kennedy, 1993, 1994a; Yang, Noels, & Saumure, 2006). Lastly, from the previous studies, it can indicate that all of the 3 variables are related with each other.
Statement of the Problems
Though the topic deals with CQ, language ability and cross-cultural adjustment has been studied a lot by many researchers, however, there is some parts that can be discuss deeper. Firstly, in many previous researches, the language mentioned in those articles is English as it is one of the most used language in the world as the mean of the communication. However, Chinese has not been used as one of the variables much. Mandarin is one of the languages that has been influenced by its culture in many perspectives and those influences can be identified into 5 major aspects, which are implicit communication, listening-centeredness, politeness, a focus on insiders and face-directed communication strategies. Furthermore, for foreigners, with the culture of saving face or shyness, these indirect actions can lead to miscommunication (Gao, 1998; Selmer, 2006). As an outsider, my perception of Chinese language and its culture are related since Chinese characters are logogram; according to Oxford Dictionary, logogram means a sign or character representing a word or phrase. Chinese character has involved overtime and the historian believes that the first recorded Chinese had written 957 BBE (Before Buddhist Era). For a word, there are many meanings for that and it depends on the situation or context and this is surely related back to culture itself. Therefore, mandarin language ability can have a huge impact on the international students in Taiwan. Secondly, most of the adjustment will focus on the employees or workers, but there is not much of the research focusing on international students living abroad. As the world becomes more progressive with the globalization, there is also the increasing number of international students who determine to seek a higher education abroad. Surprisingly, there is the growing number of people coming to Taiwan to study. In 2017, according to the Ministry of Education of R.O.C. (Taiwan) (2018), there were more than 110,000 enrollments of the oversea students in Taiwan and regarding to the statistic, it indicated that the number of international students who
wanted to pursue a degree has increased from approximately 30,000 to 110,000 from 2007 to 2017.
Furthermore, the ministry expects to recruit 150,000 foreign students a year by 2021. This links back to the New South Bound Policy and the encouragement of the government to work with local universities to further develop curricula and new program offerings to better match the needs and preferences of foreign students. Lastly, it is about the relationship between language and culture.
Normally, it will be mentioned that language can help with the adjustment. Then, one question has been raised and has not been answered if language has positive relationship with cross-cultural adjustment, then language can also have positive relationship with CQ too. If you are good at language, then it is easier for you to understand other cultures, in other words, you have the better CQ. This also suggests the need to investigate whether cultural intelligence is a mediator between language ability and cross-cultural adjustment. Therefore, it is crucial to study how language can have the impact on the understanding of Taiwanese Culture, which could have the influence on their cross-cultural adjustment.
Purposes of the Study
According to statement mentioned above, relating to the research background and the statement of problems, these sections aim to find out about the adjustments, which might have been affected by Mandarin language ability and cultural intelligence of international students who have studied in Taiwan. This research gives the insight knowledge about these three aspects in further details.
This study wants to point out about the mandarin ability situation on how it impacts cultural intelligence and sociocultural adaptation of the international students in Taiwan since it is believed that mandarin can be the important factor to understand more about Taiwanese culture as it is portrayed in many studies that culture and language are inseparable and with certain understanding, it can lead to a better adaptation while they are studying in Taiwan.
Questions of the Study
Based on the purpose of the study, the main purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between three variables, which are mandarin language ability, cultural intelligence and sociocultural adaptation as research questions are listed below.
1. Can Mandarin language ability help international students to adjust their life in Taiwan?
2. Can cultural intelligence help international students to adjust their adaptation in Taiwan?
3. Can Mandarin language ability help international students to have more cultural intelligence, which in turn have a better sociocultural adaptation?
Significances of the Study
The findings of this study will help with to the benefit of international students especially the ones who are willing to seek a better education in Taiwan since this study concerns with mandarin language ability, cultural intelligence and sociocultural adjustment. Nowadays, there is the greater demand for foreigners to come to study in Taiwan and this can help them to understand their grounds and have an effective adjustment, maintaining their grades, effective communication and better interaction with local people. Additionally, it can also help to improve their assignments and projects as well since the cross-cultural adjustment usually involves with the performances.
Also, findings of this study could provide useful implications for Taiwan Ministry of Education and other education institutions as well regarding the importance of Chinese language ability for foreign students studying in Taiwan. Customized classes and training programs aiming to help foreign students improve their Chinese ability, cultural intelligence can thus be developed.
Delimitations
This study will not be generalizable to everyone since the study only focuses on international students, which includes high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students, language study students and exchange students who have studied in Taiwan.
Furthermore, the setting is located in Taiwan only, which might not be able to apply in other locations or countries. In Taiwan, Taiwanese are using the traditional Chinese, which contrasts to most of the people in the world because they are using the simplified Chinese. At last, the survey approach in cross sectional design, it only collects data in some specific point of time and that is why it cannot tell the cause of relationship of the variables.
Definition of Key Terms Mandarin Language Ability
With the tonal language like mandarin, it could be tricky to differentiate the meaning of words that host-country speakers speak. Thence, it is important to have a proper knowledge of mandarin language for the better understanding of language and also for better adjustment. Swift (2002) also mentioned that language plays an important role in culture as well as culture plays a crucial role in language because both language and culture influence each other in many ways, therefore, it can be assumed that language is one of the dominant variables to the understanding of the culture. As many scholars have stated, the construct of language ability contains with many dimensions of linguistic ability, which are speaking, writing and the comprehension skill because in different places, there are the use of the different dialects and also the use of non-verbal communication. This can cause miscommunication for the sojourners. This problem raises a question of how can language can be measured. Selmer (2006) and Selmer and Lauring (2015) presented that language proficiency can be used to measure the quality of language itself but also it can be seen as a crucial instrument for the sojourners to develop their understanding to new cultural setting. Thence, language proficiency is an important quality of the adaptation of international student and lastly, in this study, Mandarin language ability can be defined as an important tool, which helps international students to understand new culture better (Selmer and Lauring, 2015).
Cultural Intelligence
It can be referred to a capability of the individuals to function and effectively manage in culturally diverse settings (Ang et al., 2007; Heppner, Chuang, Wang, & Wang, 2017), which can be categorized into 4 dimensions. This multidimensional construct includes four aspects of cultural intelligence: (a) cognitive – an individual’s cultural knowledge of norms, practices, and conventions in different cultural settings (b) metacognitive – the consciousness and awareness of individuals during interactions with people from different background, (c) motivational – an individual’s capability to direct attention and energy toward cultural differences, and (d) behavioral – an individual’s capability to exhibit appropriate verbal and nonverbal actions when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds (Ang et al., 2007; Johnson & Buko, 2013). All of the aspects of CQ are all important and it can be linked to sociocultural adaptation.
Thence, in this research, CQ represents an individuals’ capability to function and manage efficiently in the new cultural setting and all of the dimensions will be represented in the questionnaire of this study (Ang et al., 2007; Heppner et al., 2017).
Sociocultural Adaptation
In the cross-cultural situation, it is certain for international students to adapt or adjust themselves in the different context since international students from different countries may have different beliefs, religion or even political system (Misra & Castillo, 2004). Sociocultural Adaptation (SA) refers to the ability to negotiate and interact with local people of the new culture effectively, in other words, being able to “fit in” (Ward & Kennedy, 1999). SA involves with 2 major skills, which are communication skill and also social interaction skill and it can be developed through the adequate social and cultural skills for which will be used to handle daily life in the mainstream cultural context of the unusual culture setting. SA usually be measured by the examination of level of difficulty as ones perform their daily life, which will be categorized into three main factors: academic adaptation, survival adaptation and also interpersonal adaptation (Ward & Rana-Deuba, 1999). Additionally, Masgoret and Ward (2006) noted that sociocultural adaptation does not require international students to switch themselves with the new culture but to aware and prepare of the differences occurring in the new setting. Lastly, within this study, SA is defined as an understanding of norms and values of the new culture, which affects the individual adjustment in different cultural context (non-host residence) (Masgoret and Ward, 2006).