Intercultural Adaptation of a former Master student in TESOL during study abroad: A retrospective narrative inquiry

Dewi, Sinta Mutiara (2022) Intercultural Adaptation of a former Master student in TESOL during study abroad: A retrospective narrative inquiry. Undergraduate thesis, UIN KH Achmad Siddiq Jember.

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Abstract

Keywords: study abroad, intercultural communication, intercultural adaptation, and retrospective narrative inquiry.
While many international students admit to having difficulties when studying abroad, several studies reported that some international students could overcome the challenges they experienced. The present study aims to investigate a former international student’s experience in developing intercultural adaptation strategies who earned his Master’s degree in Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from a university in the United States.
The researcher deployed a retrospective narrative inquiry as a research design and used a biographical study for the approach. In selecting the participant, the researcher used inclusion and exclusion techniques to recruit participant who fit the criteria in this study. This helped the researcher focused on the experiences of the participant in adapting to different cultures that he encountered while living and studying abroad. Data collection was conducted through several stages such as asking for permission, drafting interview questions, interviewing, and ensuring the credibility of the data that had been taken. After that, the data was analyzed by adapting Machfudi's (2017) data analysis procedures.
The findings of this study showed that the participant experienced intercultural encounters such as culture shock, stereotypes and reverse culture shock while he was living in abroad until returning to his homeland. Which was of these challenges can trigger psychological disturbances of the participant. Additionally, it was found out that the participant was able to build intercultural adaptation skill so that he could finish his study abroad.
In conclusion, intercultural adaptation relies on international student’s self-readiness such as learning about intercultural communication and building intercultural adaptation skills before living in abroad. These skills played an important role to help an international student adapt academic and non-academic life while living and studying abroad. This study suggested that nurturing and developing intercultural communicative competence of undergraduate students becomes a critical issue in the context of English language teaching.

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