Culture Shock as the Learning Outcome of Intercultural Communication among International Students in the Host Culture

Abstract

When students across the world have many opportunities to study abroad due to the trend toward internationalization and globalization in the 21st century, they may get various experiences from total immersion of the host culture. This study aims at international students speaking English as a foreign language (EFL) and coming from Southeast Asian countries to study at a university in Taiwan where Chinese is the target language. The study explores whether and how these students can experience culture shock, which arises from intercultural communication during studying abroad through qualitative research. As it is found that international students speaking either English or Chinese as a shared language in the process of intercultural communication indeed feel the emergence of culture shock displayed in their attitudes, it can thus be concluded that regardless of which language is adopted by international students, culture shock emerges as one of the learning outcomes of intercultural communication during studying abroad. While finding that culture shock can be a type of transition shock in one context but can become a kind of intercultural sensitivity in another, it is also concluded that culture shock may vary with both the frequency of intercultural communication and different contexts. As the results of the study also show that culture shock may be transformed into worldviews or cultural awareness among international students, it is further concluded that its emergence may reflect other learning outcomes of intercultural communication in the host culture and benefit international students in developing certain levels of competence to respond to world affairs in the global society of the 21st century.