Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Social and Academic Significance of the Present Study
In recent years, the ratio of the university students who volunteer to serve inpublic welfare activities is on the rise. In addition to voluntary service in welfarecenter, voluntary teaching program in ethnic rural regions of China is the mostpopular among university students. A large number of volunteers come from Hanculture and urban region, and the difference in life style and beliefs between ethnicminorities and between rural and urban regions may constantly raise adaptationproblems. Meanwhile, the pressure of interethnic communication will affect the resultof the volunteer program and even the later life when volunteers go back to homeculture. Therefore, the interethnic adaptation of college volunteers also needsattention from researchers in the field of intercultural communication studies. It’sreported that about 1,000 students from different major colleges and universities takepart in voluntary teaching programs every year. The rising population of teachingvolunteers makes it possible to study the intercultural adaptation in ethnic ruralenvironment. Researchers have conducted a variety of studies on interculturaladaptation with immigrants and international students. Whereas the volunteers ininterethnic communication is a special subject which is seldom studied.
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1.2 Background of the Domestic and Overseas Research
As a critical concept of intercultural communication, intercultural adaptationneeds much further study. The influences of institutional factors on the interculturaladaptation process, including the sojourner’s original society, the host society, and theethnic community to which he or she belongs, need to be considered. The study ofintercultural adaptation originated from America in early 20thand was raised byRedfield, Ralf Linton and Melville Herskovites. Redfield believes that interculturaladaptation happens between two communities who come from different cultures andleads to the change of two cultural patterns. In theory, such change should bebidirectional, but in fact, it is the newcomers that have to adjust themselves to the newculture in the contact. Most researchers focus on those who have completed theacculturation process in new environment, such as the overseas students andimmigrants. In the early stage, psychological problems of the immigrants tend to bethe focus of the research as a result of the huge population of immigrants in America.In 1970s, the study of intercultural adaptation was promoted to a developmentalphase but most researches are restricted to the negative results of interculturaladaptation and its theoretical explanation without plenty case study. Since 1980s, boththe research methodology and scope have been enriched and widened. Not onlyanthropologists, sociologists, but also linguists, social psychologists andcommunication experts participate in the study of intercultural adaptation.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical Concepts
Intercultural communication means interpersonal communication betweenpeople from different cultures, which occurs in different settings such as negotiationsand corporations and between as well as within national boundaries (e.g. Northernerscommunicating with southerners, the Han relating to minorities, urban dwellersmeeting rural farmers). Intercultural communication is the study of humanbeings--our attitudes, values, identities, needs, personalities, behavior patterns. It alsoseeks to identify cultural differences in communication rules and processes in order tofacilitate better human communication. The intercultural adaptation study ofuniversity volunteers in ethnic rural environment belongs to the interethniccommunication research field.Rich (1974) argues that the content of intercultural communication can beclassified into five forms. First, intercultural communication focuses on the study ofinteraction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Second, internationalcommunication focuses on the study of interaction between representatives of differentnations. Third, interracial communication focuses on the study of interaction betweenmembers of the numerically or politically dominant culture and co-culture in the samenation. Fourth, interethnic or minority communication focuses on the study ofinteraction among co-cultures in the same nation. Lastly, contracultural communicationfocuses on the study of the developmental process linking intercultural communicationto interracial communication.
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2.2 Colleen Ward's Adaptation Theory
In accordance with Ward’s adaptation theory, Ward (1990) proposed thatcross-cultural adaptation may be divided into two domains: psychological(emotional/affective) and sociocultural (behavioral). The former is related topsychological well-being, including a clear sense of personal and cultural identity,good mental health and personal satisfaction in the new environment; the latter refers to the ability to “fit in,” to acquire culturally appropriate skills in order to negotiateinteractions in the host culture, including their ability to deal with daily life, work andschool (Ward & Kennedy, 1999, p. 660). These two aspects of adaptation areinterrelated with each other, but they are predicted by different variables.Psychological adaptation is largely affected by personality, life changes, coping styles,interpersonal skills and social support. On the contrary, socialcultural adaptation isdecided by length of the stay, language proficiency, cultural knowledge, culturaldistance and the frequency of intercourse with local persons of the host culture. Thefollowing figure presents the related factors between the two domains(see Figure 2.2).
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Chapter 3 Research Methodology....19
3.1 Research Questions and Hypotheses......19
3.2 Research Subject....203.3 Instruments.....25
3.3.1 Questionnaire Design......25
3.3.2 Interview Design.....27
3.4 Procedure.......31
Chapter 4 Results and Discussions.......33
4.1 Results from Questionnaire....33
4.1.1 Demographic information.......33
4.1.2 Assessment of the volunteering.......34
4.1.3 Social involvement......36
4.1.4 Adaptation statement of the volunteers.......37
4.2 Results from Interview.......37
4.2.1 Assessment of the adaptation statement......37
4.2.2 Assessment of the volunteering.......40
4.3 Discussions.....41
Chapter 5 Conclusion.......47
5.1 Significance and Findings of the Study......47
5.2 Advice for Future Volunteers......48
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study......49
Chapter 4 Results and Discussions
4.1 Results from Questionnaire
There are altogether 50 valid samples of questionnaire completed. Among them,the respondents are evenly split by gender, 62% belong to Han ethnic group and 38%belong to ethnic minority groups. 26% are at the age of 18-22, 52% aged 23-26, and22% aged 27-30. Only 16% are in the stage of undergraduate, another 16% justgraduated recently and 68% of the respondents are postgraduates. Quite a largenumber of volunteers took a one-month programme with a proportion of 56%, 16%spent two months and 28% participated in the three-month programme. More thanhalf of them had no teaching experience before taking this programme, 24% hadengaged in teaching less than one year, 12% had 1-3years’ experience and quite a fewhad more than three years’ experience in teaching before. When it comes to trainingbefore departure, most of the respondents had taken a training project and only 24%had no training experience.The mentioned ethnic minority groups which have been taught by volunteersinclude Miao, Yi, Tujia and Zang. Only the Zang people hold typical religious beliefssuch as Buddhism. Mandarin is the main language for volunteers to use with localpeople, 26% of the volunteers are able to speak local dialect and 8% use ethniclanguage. 42% of the volunteers have no knowledge of local language and just 22%have a good command of it.
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Conclusion
Intercultural adaptation has become inevitable due to the development ofmulti-culturalism, large scale population migrations and globalization in bothtechnological and economic aspect. The fast development of globalization providesindividuals plenty of opportunities to interact with people from different nations andcultural backgrounds. As a consequence, the research of intercultural adaptation hasalready been taken into consideration by scholars and researchers home and abroad.However, less attention is being paid to the research of interethnic adaptation issue.This chapter reviews the significance and findings of the study and proposessome realistic suggestions for future university volunteers and NGO. What’s more,the limitations of the study have also been pointed out and new inspirations have beenemphasized for future study.
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Reference (omitted)