How Can We Improve International Students’ Cultural Adjustment in the U.S.A.?

Abstract

At the University of Missouri-Columbia (UMC), over 1,300 international students were enrolled during the 2005 academic year. Their family members, as well as international faculty members who included visiting professors, resided in the city of Columbia near the UMC campus. A support system in the form of an International Center is operated on campus, but it is not sufficient to cover international students’ diverse needs, because the major roles of the center are focused on official works. The purpose of this study was to find an effective way of improving international students’ relationships with American citizens, in order to assist in the international students’ cultural adjustment within, and ultimately their integration into American culture. This research surveyed Korean students as a target group, because they are one of the major international student groups at UMC. Based on the data received, these students’ perceptions of their cultural adjustment were analyzed on their behavioral characteristics, such as the frequency of meeting American friends or neighbors per week, by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) / covariance (ANCOVA), and testing the term of residence as a covariate.