Date of Award
2007
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Education
Program
Education
Supervisor
Dr. Suzanne Majhanovich
Second Advisor
Dr. Robert Bob Macmillan
Abstract
Given the reality of large numbers of Chinese students studying in colleges and universities in Canada to pursue higher education, and the alienation that they experience during their studies, it is important that educators understand the nature of culture shock, the factors that contribute to culture shock, as well as the role that culture shock plays in the process of cross-cultural adaptation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between each of the six demographic factors (e.g. age, gender, future study plan, number of Canadian friends who are native speakers of English, previous travel experiences and length of stay in Canada) and culture shock linguistically, socially, and psychologically. Two instruments were developed to collect data for this research. First of all, the researcher developed a questionnaire and translated it into Chinese to ensure that students fully understood the content. Fifty-five Chinese-speaking international students who were enrolled in two different English language institutes in Ontario, Canada responded to the survey questionnaire for this study. Secondly, personal interviews were employed. Of the students who indicated willingness to participate in the in-depth interview, four, one male and one female from each of the two language institutes, were selected as the informants. The interviews were tape recorded and then transcribed by the researcher for further analysis. Data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed by using Excel and SPSS. Qualitative methods were applied to analyze the data collected from the personal interviews. iii The results indicated that demographic factors such as age, gender and previous travel experiences were not variables that influenced culture shock adjustment of Chinese English learners. However, the number of Canadian friends who are native speakers of English, plans for future study and students’ length of stay in Canada were variables associated with lower culture shock linguistically, socially and psychologically. Based on the data collected from the personal interviews, problems such as English language challenges, racial discrimination problems, financial difficulties, emotional problems and academic concerns were also identified. Meanwhile, students also expressed their satisfaction with Canada’s respect for individuality and diversity, the politeness of Canadian people and the convenience of life in Canada.
Recommended Citation
Chi, Weijuan S., "FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO CULTURE SHOCK: A CASE STUDY INVOLVING CHINESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH" (2007). Digitized Theses. 5102.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/5102