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Abstract
Son yıllarda, ülkeler ve özellikle gelişmiş olanlar uluslararası öğrencileri kendi ülkelerinde okumak üzere etkilemek için yoğun çaba sarf ediyorlar. Buna rağmen, Türkiye’de çalışmaların birçoğu gelen ve giden Erasmus öğrencilerinin varlığı sebebiyle uluslar arası öğrenciler hakkında farkındalık oluşturmaya odaklanmıştır. Uluslararası öğrenciler üzerindeki çalışmaların eksikliğini de göz önünde bulunduran bu çalışmanın temel amacı (I) uluslar arası öğrencilerin dil konusundaki yeterliliklerini, (II) uluslararası öğrencilere verilen sosyal desteği, (III) uluslararası öğrencilerin Türklerle olan gerçek iletişimlerini araştırmaktır. Bu araştırma ise uluslararası öğrencilerin kendi kültürleri ve Türk kültürü arasındaki farkları ve benzerlikleri ortaya koyarak çeşitli önerilerde bulunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Kültürel mesafe sebebiyle uluslar arası öğrencilerin Türkiye’de karşılaştıkları zorlukları göz önünde bulundurarak varılan temel sonuç şudur: üniversiteler uluslararası öğrencilerin konaklama, sosyal aktivite ve dil kursları gibi ihtiyaçlarını göz önünde bulundurarak bu konularda yatırım yapmalıdır. Üniversiteler kültürler arası farkındalık geliştirmeli ve üniversitelerdeki öğrenci ofisleri uluslar arası öğrenciler için büyük bir çaba sergileyip onlarla ilgilenmelidir. Çalışmayı özetlemek gerekirse, Türkiyeuluslar arası öğrencilerin yaşam standartları konusunda tüm sorumlulukları üstlenmelidir. Eğer Türkiye uluslararası öğrenciler üzerindeki bu rolünü başarıyla yerine getirirse, dünyada gitgide önem kazanan bir ülke olan Türkiye uluslararası ve akademik alanlarda gelişim sağlayabilir.
Keywords
Abstract
In recent years, countries especially well-developed ones have been striving in order to fascinate international students to study in their countries. However, in Turkey, the majority of studies have focused on raising awareness about international students thanks to the incoming and outgoing Erasmus students. Considering the dearth of the studies on international students, the primary focus of this paper is to understand (I) how proficient they are in languages, (II) the social support given to the international students, (III) the actual contact of international students with Turks, and, in turn, to convey their suggestions through clarifying the similarities and differences between Turkish culture and their own cultures. Regarding the difficulties international students faced in Turkey due to cultural distance, the main conclusion is that universities should invest in international students by focusing on their needs such as accommodation, social activities, and language courses. Universities should also raise intercultural awareness, and student offices at universities should show great effort and care for international students. To sum up the study, Turkey should shoulder all responsibility of international students in terms of their standard of living. If Turkey achieves its role on international students, Turkey, with its increasingly important role in the world, can develop in international and academic areas.
Keywords
- According to Ward and Kennedy (1993), adjustment can be classified under two
- According to Ward and Kennedy (1993), adjustment can be classified under twocategories: psychological adjustment and sociocultural adjustment. The former is directlyrelated to how individuals feel about themselves, and the second refers to “the ability to“fit in” or negotiate interactive aspects of the host culture” (Ward & Kennedy, 1993, p.131). This study focused on the socio-cultural part since it has a significant role inunderstanding the new culture, language and contact (Ataca & Berry, 2002). On the otherhand, there is a reciprocal relationship between sociocultural adjustment, and languageproficiency, contact with host nationals (Swami, 2009) and social support (Ramsey, Jones, & Barker, 2007).
- Among these factors, language ability or proficiency is highly important for adjustment(Ward and Kennedy, 1993). Several studies indicated that language proficiency had aneffect on acculturative stress (Duru & Poyrazli, 2007; Gibbs, 2011), and this can beinterpreted as to have an indirect effect on sociocultural adjustment. The second factor isthe actual contact which refers to the participation of international students in new hostgroups (Berry, 1997). According to the literature, amount of actual contact is related tosociocultural adjustment (Ataca, 1998; Zheng & Berry, 1991). The third dimension, socialsupport, is related to the integration of international students with their friends,acquaintances and professors in their daily life. To make international students feel apiece of the puzzle and adjust to the host culture, they should be welcomed and included in the society (Hendrickson, Rosen, & Aune, 2011; Hotta & Ting-Toomey, 2013).
- To be able to describe the current situation, the survey research was used. After a partassessing demographic/background information, the surveys adapted by the researcherconsisted of four parts: language proficiency, social support, cultural distance (Ataca,1998) and actual contact (Kostovcik, 1983). The survey was prepared in two languages(Turkish and English) considering the language proficiency limitation of the participants,and conducted through face-to-face interview with the participants. The responses fromthe participants were coded and entered to SPSS Statistics 20.0 package program for thedata analysis. In the current study, descriptive statistics were employed to take a snapshot on the data, and the results were shared in the following section.
- Based on the self-reported measures, a limited number of the participants wereinterviewed for the study. In this sense, instead of making generalizations, the problemsand the suggestions of these participants can be analyzed, and some suggestions can beput forward in line with the results. Considering the results, language proficiency, socialsupport and actual contact were interrelated concepts. The participants from Balkancountries claimed to have sufficient language proficiency, and they could communicatewith Turks well. The reason behind that might be that they were similar to Turks andTurkish culture except language. Therefore, they had many Turkish friends. Theparticipants from Turkic Republics and The Far East had some Turkish friends andcommunicated with Turkish people at an average level. However, the participants fromThe Far East were different in terms of religious beliefs, cultural values, food, clothing,and daily life. As most of the African participants were Muslim, the similar point wasreligion; however, clothing, food, recreational activities, family life, friendships, language,political ideology, and social customs were different. As a result of these differences,African participants had a few Turkish friends, and they were not good at four skills ofTurkish. Therefore, they were having communication problems. According to the results,cultural distance makes adjustment of the students more difficult (Rosenthal, Russell, &Thomson, 2007). In other words, cultural similarity results in better adjustment of international students (Ward & Kennedy, 1999).
- As the first year of international students are highly crucial, universities should invest ininternational students (Ramsey et al., 2007) by focusing on their needs such asaccommodation, social activities, and language courses. Universities should also raiseintercultural awareness, and students offices should show great effort and care for international students.
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- Berry, J. W. (1997). Lead article: Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46, 5-34.
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