Trao đổi ngắn hạn và hòa nhập văn hóa nghiên cứu cá thể sinh viên việt nam ở nhật bản hoa kỳ và phi lip pin

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES GRADUATION PAPER SHORT-TERM OVERSEAS STUDY AND CULTURAL ADAPTATION A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN JAPAN, THE USA AND THE PHILIPPINES Supervisor: Nguyễn Thùy Trang, MA Student: Phạm Thị Minh Trang Course: QH2013.F1.E1 HÀ NỘI – 2017 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HÓA CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP TRAO ĐỔI NGẮN HẠN VÀ HÒA NHẬP VĂN HÓA NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ THỂ SINH VIÊN VIỆT NAM Ở NHẬT BẢN, HOA KỲ VÀ PHI-LIP-PIN Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Nguyễn Thùy Trang Sinh viên: Khóa: Phạm Thị Minh Trang QH2013.F1.E1 HÀ NỘI – 2017 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Phạm Thị Minh Trang, class QH2013.F1.E1 being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Phạm Thị Minh Trang Hanoi, May 4th, 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to Ms Nguyen Thuy Trang, the devoted supervisor of my research Without her considerate support and valuable guidance, I could never pursuit my favorite thesis topic and carry it out to the end She has been my special friend who continuously assists me throughout the thesis as well as research journey despite her physical limitations Her enthusiastic encouragement and tremendous feedbacks lead me through difficult moments and contribute to complete my academic goals In addition, I would like to send my profound thanks to three research participants who are also my beloved friends They have been always willing to spend time completing weekly diaries and truly sharing with me their perspectives through interview even though they struggled with a new life in foreign countries This study could have never been accomplished but for their great commitment I also want to thank my close friends, Phuong Hoa and Dieu Linh, for their positive encouragement and heartfelt sympathy They have been incredibly emotionally helpful whenever I lose hope in my thesis paper Besides, I deeply appreciate the support of 13E1 classmates who unconditionally help me to strive for better academic goals during five months i ABSTRACT Cross-cultural adaptation has received considerable concern from researchers and educators all over the world With an investigation into the adaptation process of undergraduate Vietnamese students in different foreign countries, the research aims to examine obstacles as well as strategies experienced by participants and to highlight the affecting factors on their adaptation process Based on the work of Berry (1996) and Gullahorn & Gullahorn (1963), to achieve that target, the researcher applies qualitative methods with two instruments namely weekly diary and semi-structured interview to collect data from three undergraduate Vietnamese students studying their short term exchange programmes at universities in Japan, the Philippines, and the US Findings indicates that there is a sign of U-curve model stated by Oberg (1960) in three participants’ adaptation process while overseas; however, the last stage “Adaptation” is not fully reached due to their limited cultural exposure time Environment, traffic, food, and prices, language, interaction with locals and schooling are the main problems students confronted with Noticeable strategies employed include behavioural shift, cultural conflict (new culture ignorance), support-seeking from local people; and host nation interaction, among which a shift in their behaviour appears to be the most commonly utilised and effective strategy Findings also show that moderating factors prior to and during acculturation as well as students’ society of origin considerably influence their adaptation process ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of contents iii List of abbreviations vi List of tables vii List of figures viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 Rationales for the study Statement of research problem & research questions 3 Significance of the study Scope of the study Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Cross-cultural adaptation process 5 1.1 Definition of cross-cultural adaptation process 1.2 Outcomes of cross-cultural adaptation 1.3 Stages of cross-cultural adaptation process 1.4 Factors affecting cross-cultural adaptation process Previous studies related to cross-cultural adaptation process CHAPTER METHODOLODY Research participants 13 17 17 iii 1.1 The selection of participants 17 1.2 Description of participants 17 Research design 18 Data collection method 20 3.1 Data collected procedure 20 3.2 Data collected instruments 21 3.3 CHAPTER 3.2.1 Weekly diary 21 3.2.2 Semi-structured interview 22 Data analysis method 23 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 24 Excitement stage (Honeymoon stage) 24 Crisis stage 27 2.1 Complaint about physical environment & traffic 27 2.2 Dissatisfaction with food and prices 28 2.3 Confusion with language 30 2.4 Dissatisfaction with local people 31 2.5 Problem with schooling 33 Reconvert stage 35 3.1 Physical environment and traffic 35 3.2 Food and prices 36 3.3 Language 37 3.4 People and schooling 38 iv Adaptation stage CHAPTER 40 CONCLUSION 42 Summanry of major findings of the study 42 Pedagogical implications from the research 43 Limitations of the research and suggestions for further study 44 REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES 51 Appendix 51 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization The U.S.: The United States IAM: Intercultural Adaptation Model vi LIST OF TABLES Table Table 2.1 Name of table Page Specific factors affecting the process of acculturation and 11-12 adaptation Table 2.2 Specific features of psychological acculturation and adaptation 12-13 Table 3.1 Descriptions of participants 18 vii Berry (1996) when this participant only want to acquire information related many fields except for politic regarding her personal interest Host culture interaction, on the other hand, was examined in Hoa’s case when she experienced political crisis in the U.S during her stay She communicated with her American roommate as well as native friends, took part in many discussions related to political situation and raised her own voices: “I said I voted for Donald Trump” Furthermore, she no longer cared about her safety since she acknowledged CCTV and polices were available in every corner of the neighbourhood Interaction, therefore, became a powerful strategy to assimilate to host culture In terms of power distance conflict, Hang continued to become separation when some traits of large power distance were found in Hang’s attitudes She kept calling professors by their first name with Mr and Ms., employing formal language, gesture and posture with them and never complaining something aggressively in front of teachers She still felt uncomfortable with classmates’ attitudes in school context, and she referred their actions were “rude, inappropriate” These feelings reflected her value toward power distance in Vietnam where the older; the more powerful should be respected Separation outcome was also Huy’s choice to cope with cultural conflict between Vietnam and Japan After recognizing the benefits and drawbacks of Japanese lifestyle, Huy still thought that accepting is not an easy mission: “Inflexibility drove me crazy sometimes, but now I got used to that I respect that culture but I don’t like it.” “Whenever they talked too much, I still stood there, annoyingly.” In his study and work, he maintained his creativity by adapting the fastest procedure or method to complete tasks He kept complaining about their lifestyle, which made him fail to have many friends during his stay 39 Interestingly, the three participants chose different strategies to tackle the problem On the one hand, behavioural shift by understanding political situation and host culture interaction are the two methods Hoa selected to successfully fit in the U.S culture On the other hand, Hang, as usual, ignored instead of apply behavioural shift, whereas Huy understood and respected new culture, and then refused to accept it Notably, they failed to get rid of negative feelings during their stay Adaptation stage In this stage, negative attitudes and feelings are omitted in expatriates’ life, and “new” environment is no longer new for them Sense of belonging to the host culture is recognized, and complete acceptance and preference to the host nation are noticed in this stage Through the final stage, researcher could not find any traits of gender-based differences in adaptation process, which is the same as the findings of Do (2007) Regarding the reactions of this study’s participants, except for Hoa, none of the participants did reach this stage For Hoa, she mostly felt satisfied with her life and “didn’t want to back home” When being asked about her returns, she confirmed that she definitely came back to this country to pursue her higher degree in the near future On the contrary, culture acceptance was denied when both Hang and Huy refused to come back to the host nations with their particular reasons Huy reported that he could not get over Japanese “inflexibility” style and language; hence, he did not plan to come back He thought that he experienced Japanese enough and he wanted to discover other countries Hang, shared the same feelings, admitted that she never regard the Philippines as “home”, and the Philippines did not interest her in the near future Nevertheless, Hang was still in between as she terribly loved her Philippines acquaintances; thus, her decision was not clear These results of the final stage of adaptation process were the same as the 40 evidence given by Perkins and Shortland (2006) when they highlight that all the stages of culture shock, including complete adaptation, take place within six to eight months That Hang and Huy did not experience the fourth stage, in this case, is totally normal as they merely exchanged for about five months 41 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION Summary of major findings of the research This research’s primary purposes are to investigate the difficulties and adaptation strategies of the participants from which the most influential factors towards such process will be highlighted Weekly diary and semi-structured interview were utilised to help the researcher gain remarkable insight into the phenomenon There was a sign of U-curve model developed by Oberg (1960) in three participants’ adaptation process during four to five months in three different host countries Through this model, the researcher successfully recorded difficulties they faced up with and adaptation strategies they employed To be specific, all of the interviewed students suffered from environment, traffic and food, prices problems Except for one student, the other two endured obstacles in language, local people interaction and schooling Since three students experienced various difficulties, they applied different strategies to fit into the new environment Behavioural shift was popularly employed, and it was the most effective method to help all participants to boost their adaptation process Two participants applying the cultural conflict strategy could end up with either adjustment such as feeling of safety and satisfaction or stress phenomena such as feelings of uncomfortable and annoyed Other strategies such as social support from local residents and host country interaction were recorded Many influencing factors on adaptation process are highlighted in this study Moderating factors prior acculturation such as language, personal prior knowledge, migration motivation and expectation, and moderating factors arising during acculturation including contact with local people and social support are the most affecting elements These factors were also found in the research of Hommadova & Mita (2016) and Do (2007) Besides, society of origin and 42 settlement also play a considerable role in adjustment process of these students, yet gender has no significant effect on this process Referring back to U-curve model developed by Oberg (1960), findings highlight that three students experienced three first stages However, merely one student started to reach the final stage: Adaptation This result might be explained by a previous study of Perkins and Shortland (2006) who acknowledge that to completely adjust to new environment and regarding it as a new home, expatriates could spend up to eight months Thus, with different affecting factors above, participants undoubtedly not share the same adaptation process Pedagogical implication from the research The major findings in this research could inspire several proposals for students who plan to live and study in foreign countries in a short time Recommendations are also brought up for students, organization/ university which hold exchange program and local residents Regarding expatriates who are going to travel for working and studying, it is highly recommended that thorough preparation is required to limit cultural shock in their first encounter with new culture Acknowledging new culture’s social features and preparing solutions for anticipated issues by asking their countrymen in host nation are suggested When culture shock occurs, exploring and understanding the situation should be done first to avoid negative reactions such as misunderstanding and stress Different strategies could be considered to apply such as integration, separation and seeking help from local friends/ colleagues Through this study, researcher hopes that some sufficient strategies in certain situations are anticipated to serve as a reliable reference for some Vietnamese students to diagnose and overcome potential obstacles For organization or school which hosts the exchange program, careful orientation should be prepared for exchange students to help them to quickly adapt 43 to new study environment As stated above, local residents also play an important role in adaptation process of students, especially when the crisis stage occurs Limitation of the research and suggestions for further studies The research was conducted on short-term overseas study and cultural adaptation of three undergraduate Vietnamese students After five months of processing, the researcher has gained many considerable findings However, some shortcomings still need addressing in future studies One obvious limitation is the researcher’s lack of expertise on this field Despite ambitious plan to fully discover this phenomenon, researcher somehow failed to fully develop a study on short-term adaptation process and its pattern concerning different cultures due to her limited expert knowledge Additionally, researcher could not observe more than three Vietnamese exchange students to collect more valuable data and provide more sufficient comparison of adaptation pattern in different host countries This leads to the fact that generalization for all Vietnamese students’ adaptation process is failed to reach Another disadvantage was the researchers' limited resources, both in terms of scholarly literature and working time Though the researcher tries to make the most out of the accessible sources, studies relating to the concept cross-cultural adjustment adaptation process, especially for short-term overseas students, were difficult to access, with valuable ones largely beyond researcher's financial capability Besides, due to limited time, researcher could not fully observe participants’ first stage of adaptation: Honeymoon stage, preparation period to be exact Time allotment is also a considerable problem during researching time Interview days were replaced many times due to disagreement in participants’ exchange periods For example, some finished in the late December of 2016 while some returned Vietnam in the late January The study process was paused for almost one month for this reason 44 With the aforementioned shortcomings, further improvement and suggestions for researchers who are intended to investigate this phenomenon are needed More studies for different kinds of people including high school, postgraduate students or even working people in a larger scale should be conducted to inspect short-term adaptation process Daily diary instead of weekly diary may bring more detailed evidence for scholar to verify cross-culture adaptation patterns in the future Since short-term adaptation process has not gained much attention from many experts of this field, more studies needed to be done to figure out the advantages and disadvantages of certain adaptation strategies and recommend 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(If yes, how long did you stay in that trip? What did you do?) Do you have any experience regarding living and studying in foreign countries/ in Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? (If yes, where you gain that experience: yourself, other people, internet, books…) Why did you choose to study in Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? II Preparation time How did you feel before the exchange term started? Why? How did you imagine your life in Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? Could you please specify your expectation before this exchange term? Did you research for any cultural features of Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? (If yes, could you give my any examples? Do you think that information is helpful during your stay?) Did you receive any training course/ orientation/ guidebooks before coming to Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? (If yes, could you describe about the procedure of these supplementary sources of information? Who provided these sources? Did you find it them necessary for your preparation period?) III Culture shock 51 What was your first impression when you arrived? Could you describe your stay in the first two weeks in Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? (Topic: physical environment, language, political situation, population…) Was your experience in this period the same as your expectation? Were there any particular events/ cultural features that you found excited/ enjoyable? Did you encounter any obstacles when living and studying in exchange term? (Referred to monthly diaries to ask for more detailed information) - Did you suffer from language difference? Did you have any problems in communicating with native people? - What you think about the food? - Did you experience any kinds of racism or unfavourable attitudes? - Did you realize any special treatment toward you comparing to other students in class? - Did you find any differences regarding cultural aspects in Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines that did not match your expectation? What difficulties did you find particularly hard to overcome during your stay? IV Adaptation What have you done in order to deal with these obstacles? Did you apply any strategies to overcome difficulties? Did you maintain to keep Vietnamese culture in these situations? Why? What you think are the cause of these obstacles? 52 (Cultural differences, types of personality, lack of cultural knowledge and experiences….) Did your friends/ any native people provide support when you got into problems? (If no, what sources did you exploit to overcome these obstacles?) How have you changed (your personalities, your perspectives) after this term? Do you have any plans coming back to this country? Why? For those who will study and work in Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines, what are your suggestions/ advice to help them overcome obstacles? (For those who answer yes in question – Part 1) Do you think your experience is the same comparing to the previous visit to Japan/ the U.S/ the Philippines? Do you think your experience from the previous trip helps you deal with problems in this exchange term? (Additional questions will be included during the interview) 53 ... NGỮ KHOA NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HĨA CÁC NƯỚC NĨI TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP TRAO ĐỔI NGẮN HẠN VÀ HỊA NHẬP VĂN HĨA NGHIÊN CỨU CÁ THỂ SINH VIÊN VIỆT NAM Ở NHẬT BẢN, HOA KỲ VÀ PHI- LIP- PIN Giáo viên. .. she never regard the Philippines as “home”, and the Philippines did not interest her in the near future Nevertheless, Hang was still in between as she terribly loved her Philippines acquaintances;... friendliness of Filipino people However, shared the same feelings as Hoa, since she went to the Philippines when politic crisis started, she was shocked by the reactions of Filipino people: “Unfortunately