Abstract
Social contact, especially intercultural interactions, of international students when studying abroad has recently become a burgeoning research interest. This chapter presents a longitudinal mixed methods study that explores social contact patterns of international students in British higher education during the sojourn and examines the rationale behind such patterns. Findings show that English language proficiency and confidence in English communication skills play major roles in motivating intercultural interactions. However, these alone may not guarantee more pleasant intercultural experiences. Based on these findings, suggestions for researchers and educators in the intercultural communication field are proposed.
TopIntroduction
The number of international students around the world has increased exponentially over the past two decades, from nearly a million in 2002 to over 5.3 million in 2017 (Forest & Altbach, 2006; UNESCO, 2021). The UK is the country with the third largest population of international students (around 538,615) in 2019/20 (Universities UK, 2021). It is common to find a program-in UK universities with the majority of students who are international (Pho & Schartner, 2021). In 2014/15, the fee income of this group accounted for 26% of the total tuition-fee income in UK higher education (HE) (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2016). In UK HE institutions, students are categorized on the fee status: (1) ‘home’ students (i.e., UK students), (2) EU students (students from the European Union) and (3) international students (i.e., students from other countries). However, in this chapter, the term ‘international students’ is used interchangeably with student sojourners to refer to all non-UK students. Due to its burgeoning number, international students in the UK have started to gain more research attention, and their social interactions during the sojourn are one of the key topics.
Three sources of social contact are identified: 1) co-national (i.e., sharing the same national background); 2) host national (i.e., coming from the host culture) (Bochner et al., 1977), and non-co-national internationals (i.e., from different nations) (Schartner, 2015; Pho & Schartner, 2021). Generally, two factors of contact, which are its quality and quantity, are frequently examined. The former is measured by the sojourner’s satisfaction with the contact, the pleasantness of the experience (Leong & Ward, 2000; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 2000; Leong, 2015), the strength and the function of the relationship (Pitts, 2009; Hendrickson et al., 2011; Pedersen et al., 2011; Schartner, 2014). The quantity of contact defines the degree (Leong & Ward, 2000; Leong, 2008; Pedersen et al., 2011; Leong, 2015) or the frequency of contact, measured by the time spent with peers in a time period (Pitts, 2009; Pedersen et al., 2011; Pitts, 2016). In general, most studies measure the quantity but very few consider the contact’s quality (Kashima & Loh, 2006; Hendrickson et al., 2011).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Student Sojourner: Used interchangeably with ‘international students’ to refer to people who voluntarily and temporarily relocate to a new culture to pursue academic purposes.
Re-Entry: The period when a sojourner returns to their home cultures.
Host Language Proficiency: A high degree of competence in the host language.
Non-Co-National International Contact: Interactions of international students with people from different nations.
Host National Contact: Interactions of international students with people from the host culture.
Co-National Contact: Interactions of international students with the people from the same national background.
Social Contact: The act of engagement with other people, often used interchangeably with ‘social interaction’, ‘social ties’ and ‘friendship network’.