This following chapter points out the review of the previous studies from various researchers consisting with the emphasis of mandarin language ability, cultural intelligence and lastly, sociocultural adaptation and also the relationship between those variables.
Mandarin Language Ability
In a tonal language such as Mandarin, it is harder to distinguish all the words from each other since the change of the tones can completely change the meaning of specific word, which can create confusion to non-native speaker (Zhu, Wong, Wang, & Chen, 2017). It was difficult for Mandarin speakers to naturally produce sentences with deliberately modified tone contours even though the mispronunciation can be substituted by other external cues but lexical tones still carry the important information of the meaning of each word (Chen, Wong, & Hu, 2014). There are many researches indicated that Mandarin sometimes can be very complicated due to the differences of the tones and complicity of the writing system, which mostly affects the perception of hearing. Moreover, there is further research indicating about the connection between reading, writing, speaking and listening ability in term of learning the language successfully (Wong, 2018).
That is why language is so important to every expatriate since it is the tool for people to express ideas, thoughts or any verbal expressions. Human beings are able pass on their culture from generation to generation through the medium of language (Raja, 2013) and according to Byram, culture is defined as “shared beliefs, values and behaviors of a social group” (Byram, 2008), which someone has explained later on that the relationship of language and culture are connected to each other. It is also mentioned further by Kramsch, he indicates that language is not just used as the means for the exchange of information, but also as a symbolic system empowering identities, perceptions, and values through communication (Kramsch, 2002). This surely indicates that language is very important especially for expatriates to understand culture in certain country they live in. For instance, the use of the word ‘yes’ between Chinese speaking country and western country. For many of English speaking country, yes means you are agreeing on something and you really mean it but for Chinese people, since they have the culture of being polite or what known as ‘客氣’ (kèqi), yes sometimes does not mean that you agree with it but more like ‘I am listening or That is possible’ (Gao, 1998). This simply shows cultural differences between Chinese speaking
country and westerners. Another example involves with the concept of ‘individualism or 個人主 義.’ For Chinese, it implies to selfishness indicating the negative sense since there is the belief of collectiveness, which represents the idea of harmony and togetherness (Asselin, 2014). This belief is entirely different from individualism in westerners’ context. Most of the western country, what they believe in is individual rights, which can be rooted back to United States of America when they first announced the Declaration of Independence and as they set themselves free from Great Britain. The declaration represents what later becomes American’s value such as ‘unalienable rights’ or ‘the pursuit of happiness.’ Unalienable Rights basically means the rights that cannot be taken away and this illustrates a clear idea of oneself that is detached from the groups as a whole or even the pursuit of happiness, this emphasizes on individualism presenting that as individually, everyone has their own happiness as long as it does not harm other people: the idea suggests that you cannot be forced by others to be happy but only yourself that can make you happy. This shows a clear example of how language can greatly reflect the idea of belief or culture of different nations.
Nowadays, the number of students who choose to seek for higher education abroad has grown dramatically. According to Oxford University, they reported about the international trends in between 2016 to 2017 that in recent decades, the number of students has increased dramatically from 1.3 million in 1990 to 5 million in 2014. Moreover, BBC also addressed the statistic from International Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development showing the risen number of international students from the year 1975 to 2009 as it has grown from 0.8 million to 3.7 million within these years. Another evidence from the UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics has found that in around 12% each year, more and more students seek a higher degree abroad (Sood, 2012). This phenomenon also happens to Taiwan and Ministry of Education of Republic of China (Taiwan) expects the growing number to reach 150,000 oversea students by the year 2021 (Chen
& Wu 2016). A study also highlights that study abroad can be not just an educational experience but many people still see it as an opportunities to seek new career path, to participate in a diverse workplace, to establish some kind of relationship with people from different culture, to find their goal of life by travelling and also to improve the language that are not their mother tongue (Norris
& Steinberg, 2008). And for students who study abroad, language can be one of the essential things for them. Language proficiency is something that will often be required as a mandatory requirement for many study-abroad programs since it emphasizes the language skill, which can used to support the future development of the particular language of the students. There is also a
study stating that with a better understanding of the language, it can help to increase sojourners’
interest toward the host culture using host language as the tool (Edelstein, 2009). In other words, if the sojourners can think or be able to speak similar to the host language, it will give them a special access to conceptualize like local people, in other words, to be able to understand better (Hill & Mannheim, 1992). However, some people debate that it is also important for people to have not just the fluency of speaking the foreign language but also some intercultural competence (Savicki, Arrue, & Binder, 2013). Additionally, there is evidence supporting the relationship of the language affecting the culture by mentioning that the foreign students who readily prepares for their language ability will be more linguistically and culturally advance to interact with native speakers (Allen & Herron, 2003). That is why in many of Chinese teaching textbooks such as, Hanyu Jiaocheng Mandarin Chinese Course (漢語教程), Graded Chinese Reader 2000 Words:
Selected Abridged Chinse Contemporary Short Stories (漢語分閱讀 2000 詞) and A Course in Contemporary Chinese by Mandarin Teaching Center of National Taiwan Normal University (當 代中文課程系列 – 國語教學中心 國立臺灣師範大學) all involves with culture in their content.
In addition, within the preface chapter of Graded Chinese Reader 2000 Words: Selected Abridged Chinse Contemporary Short Stories (漢語分閱讀 2000 詞), the author has mentioned that “By reading these literacy works, students of Chinese as a foreign language can gain a better knowledge of the everyday lives of the Chinese people.” These words also project the linkage between language and culture together as something that cannot be untied.
Culture and language are two things that are tied together in every country, to understand culture better, sometimes, it is important to learn the language and vice versa (Kramsch, 2002). In the case of Taiwan, presumably it would be the same. In one of the BBC articles, the author called Taiwan as ‘the island that never stops apologizing’ (Nguyen-Okwu, 2018). In this little island, the word 不好意思 (bùhăoyìsi or ㄅㄨˋ ㄏㄠˇ ㄧˋㄙ) has already rooted down to its society and it will be used when one feels mortified or to be sorry. It shows profuse politeness occurring in every corner of the street. Taiwanese will use this word to express everything from interrupting people, asking for favor or even just to start a conversation. Nguyen-Okwu (2018) also stated that the Western way of sorry is way too limited to express all the social graces and good form; it can express feeling, sensation, a code of conduct and a whole system of thought that imbues in Taiwanese culture. In certain situation, 不好意思 will be used in a different way, for instance, in
a classroom, 不好意思 will be used to start or end the question showing the sense of indebtedness and gratefulness even as the discussion continues or even if it is the smallest favor, the correct response is not thank you but rather, 不好意思 representing the inconvenience that might have caused others. Furthermore, this word is uniquely use in Taiwan as a form emphasizing politeness or the culture of saving face in this island. This serves as the evidence showing how language and culture links to each other and with this understanding, it could have led to a better adjustment of international students who have lived in Taiwan since this becomes one of the foundations or the unspoken rule of this island. Cultural differences can be a problematic thing for all of the oversea students since they have to encounter new environment. In a study, mentioning by Kramsch (2002), cultural differences can cause conflict and misunderstanding and with the proper intercultural communication, this can help to reduce the problem in communication. In general, cultural difference is seen as something that can be overcome by the use of the right communication and as in this case, the language ability (Kramsch, 2002) and therefore, it could be solved by communication and the understanding of culture. In addition, there are several of researches support on the cultural perspective focusing on language as a learning tool to understand cultural competency (Savicki et al., 2013). For example, according to Thitthongkam, Walsh and Bunchapattanasakda (2011), it has mentioned that with a better understanding of the other culture, which is caused by language learning, it can help to create a successful business administration.
Another example is stated by (Lockley & Yoshida, 2014), the result showed that Language and Culture Exchange may be the instrument to connect cultures together since it helps to create some kind of understanding between different setting. Language does not only help to understand the culture better but also help international students to have a better adaptation studying abroad (Norris & Steinberg 2008). Hence, language can be viewed as an essential tool by which sojourners develop their understanding of the new culture (Selmer & Lauring, 2015)
Cultural Intelligence
The concept of the better understanding of culture can relate back directly to what so called
‘Cultural Intelligence or CQ.’ Cultural Intelligence involves with the interpretation caused by many things such as action, speech and gesture of humans and as we live in the boundless world, CQ becomes more important to the way to help people understand other different culture (Earley
& Mosakowski, 2011). According to Ang and other researchers (Ang et al., 2007; Ang, Van Dyne,
& Koh, 2006), there are 4 dimensions of CQ or what they call ‘multidimensional construct,’ which can be categorized into meta-cognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ and behavioral CQ.
Firstly, for metacognitive CQ, it is about person’s cultural consciousness and awareness of the differences occurring during the interactions (Bucker, Furrer, & Lin, 2015). Regarding to Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh (2006) study, it describes metacognitive CQ as the processes that need some kind of the understanding of cultural knowledge and also the control over ones’ thought (Flavell, 1979). Basically, it can be interpreted that people with metacognitive CQ will question their assumption about their cultural knowledge as they are aware of the differences and try to cope with the differences in certain cultural situation (Bucker et al., 2015). Secondly, cognitive CQ can be referred to competence, which is created through experiences and education, that will be used in the daily interaction and because in different cultures, there are different social systems used in the particular system, the knowledge such as economic or legal systems are also required to be understood (Ang et al., 2007). Thirdly, motivational CQ represents a capability to have an innate interest toward cultural differences and with more motivational CQ, people tend to be more confident with the adaptation (Ang et al., 2007). Lastly, behavioral CQ refers to the capability to how individuals react and interact with the different culture both verbally and nonverbally Ang et al. (2006) and Gudykunst et al. (1988) also emphasized that both verbal and nonverbal it involves with a lot of things, for instance, tone gestures, word and the face expression. Therefore, the people who have a high behavioral skill, usually have a good communication skill as they behave appropriately in the cultural situation. It can be clarified that metacognition, cognition and motivation are mental capabilities are something that comes from the head unlike, behavioral, which comes from the actions or speeches (Ang et al., 2007). Earley and Ang (2003) also mentioned further that the study of CQ adds value to the field of intercultural competence a lot by offering deductively derived framework that considers the multifaceted nature of intercultural competence in a cohesive and comprehensive way.
To further clarify the nature of CQ, it is important to discuss the differences and similarities between CQ and personality, and other intelligences (Ang et al., 2007). Personality is something that shows the differences of the individual, on the other hand, CQ refers to how capable a person is in unfamiliar cultural settings. As some of the study showed that personality is also related to the CQ (Ang et al., 2006) as it illustrated that the big five personality traits can also help the individual to deal with different cultural environments (Caligiuri, 2000). Apart from the personality mentioned above, it is also essential to understand the distinction between CQ and other intelligence (Sternberg & Detterman, 2016). There are 2 types of intelligences that should be taken into consideration: Mental Ability (MA) (Schmidt & Hunter, 2000) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) (Law, Wong, & Song, 2004; Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1999). There are similarities among other intelligences and CQ because all of them is a set of capabilities but not the way people behave (Mayer et al., 1999), yet, they are not the same. For MA, it may focus on the cognitive ability but it does not specify down in any particular context and also does not include other aspects such as motivational and behavioral (Schmidt & Hunter, 2000). For EI, it focuses on personal emotions, how ones can encode and decode emotions and it mostly deals with home culture but not in the cultural context (Earley & Ang, 2003). Thus, it could be interpreted that the individual with high EI may be able to deal well in one context but not in another. In contrast, CQ involves with diversity of the cultures and in sum, it is arguably that CQ is conceptually different from personality, mental ability and also emotional intelligence (Earley & Peterson, 2004).
For international students, CQ can affect their decision making in foreign country since they have to engage in unfamiliar behaviors, such as speaking up in class or even to earn good grades. Therefore, it is important for oversea students to understand their capability in cross-cultural adjustment. There are evidences support the relationship with CQ and sociocross-cultural adaptation for instance, Mao, Liu and Author (2016) reported that CQ and adaptation has a positive interrelationship with each other, suggesting that people who have a higher CQ tends to have a better adaptation of international students in China. Another result from Nunes, Felix, and Prates (2016)’s showed the correlation between CQ and expatriate performance mediated by cultural adaptation. These studies reinforce the strong relationship between CQ and adaptation of the sojourners in foreign soil, thus, CQ represents the capability to effectively adjust and manage themselves in a different cultural context (Ang et al., 2007; Heppner et al., 2017), which could have a great impact on ‘Sociocultural Adaptation.’
Sociocultural Adaptation
It is normal for sojourners to face the situation like culture shock as they have entered in a different cultural environment. Winkelman (1994) divided culture shocks into four phases as the following: (1) the honeymoon or tourist phase, (2) the crisis or cultural shock phase, (3) the adjustment, reorientation and gradual recovery phase and (4) the adaptation, resolution or acculturation phase. As stated, the adjustment has showed in 2 of the phases, which can indicate the importance of the adaptation of the sojourners itself.
Behavior or social skills are the foundation of the cultural learning process (Masgoret & Ward, 2006) and the process has been developed into 2 trends, which are the framework of communication competence (Bochner, 1982) and the framework of a norms and values of the different communication style (Masgoret & Ward, 2006). Therefore, sociocultural adaptation can be referred to the ability to find the way around and adjust in the new cultural setting (Masgoret & Ward, 2006) and also showed that there are the connections between language ability, the understanding of culture and lastly, the sociocultural adaptation. One of the studies mentioned in the practical implementation of Taiwanese students in United States that openness to experience, diligentness and English language ability (even to understand the language discrimination) are important factors for the adaptation of Taiwanese international students (Wang & Wang, 2017). In other words, it is better for ones to have better understanding of the cultural knowledge since it can become useful when it comes to cultural interaction with the host culture. In addition, they also mentioned that it would be helpful to help international students understand language discrimination in order to cope well when it occurs. In short, it basically means that with the support of language and CQ, it could help international student adjusts better in foreign country. Adaptation refers to the level ability to adjust to a new environment that complies with conditions of the host country and a development of cultural skill, social and communication skills to adjust effectively with the beliefs, values and norms of the host-culture (Castro, 2003). Lafromboise, Coleman and Gerton (1993) also suggested that with a good adaptation skill, individuals tend to perform better and also have a successful relation with people in certain host country. For international students, there are many challenges of the adjustment that international students have to face, for example, living away apart from their family, having a limited resources and struggling with the unfamiliar language (Pedersen, 1991; Sandhu, 1995). In the 1960s and 70s, researchers usually only focused on international students’ academic performance (Halamasdaris & Power, 1999). During this period, it was important to find what
factors had the effect on students’ academic success. They mentioned that with a proper adjustment skill, it could relate directly to the success of the academic performance. In later years, for international students, it cannot only be measured by the academic success but it is essential to look further in other aspects of the adaptation including psychological adaption, which contains the new perspective of satisfaction with social and academic life, lack of loneliness and international students’ well-being (Halamasdaris & Power, 1999). In lots of studies, generally, the adaptation will be divided into 2 main categories, which are psychological and sociocultural adaptation (Ward & Kennedy, 1993). Psychological adaptation deals with the influence of social support, personality and strategies of the individuals to cope with the differences, whereas Sociocultural Adaptation (SA) is influenced by physical aspects such as the length of stay, cultural knowledge and language ability (Ward, 1996). In short, SA can be defined as the ability showing how well ones can “fit in” and “interact” in the new society effectively and in order to fit in, it requires mainly on the communication and social interaction skill, which can be developed as sojourners have lived their social life in the new environment. The common measurement of SA usually helps to define the level of difficulty as ones perform their routine such as making friends,
factors had the effect on students’ academic success. They mentioned that with a proper adjustment skill, it could relate directly to the success of the academic performance. In later years, for international students, it cannot only be measured by the academic success but it is essential to look further in other aspects of the adaptation including psychological adaption, which contains the new perspective of satisfaction with social and academic life, lack of loneliness and international students’ well-being (Halamasdaris & Power, 1999). In lots of studies, generally, the adaptation will be divided into 2 main categories, which are psychological and sociocultural adaptation (Ward & Kennedy, 1993). Psychological adaptation deals with the influence of social support, personality and strategies of the individuals to cope with the differences, whereas Sociocultural Adaptation (SA) is influenced by physical aspects such as the length of stay, cultural knowledge and language ability (Ward, 1996). In short, SA can be defined as the ability showing how well ones can “fit in” and “interact” in the new society effectively and in order to fit in, it requires mainly on the communication and social interaction skill, which can be developed as sojourners have lived their social life in the new environment. The common measurement of SA usually helps to define the level of difficulty as ones perform their routine such as making friends,