<p dir="ltr">Based on existing literature on social support, this research study examines the effects of having social support ties– instrumental, informational, emotional, and academic – on international students' sense of belonging and resilience. Additionally, the study explores the relationship between international students’ social support ties and their home and host connectedness as well as the extent to which they experience liminality. Drawing from the concept of acculturation (Berry et al., 1989; Berry, 2005), I establish liminality as a disorienting experience that involves international students existing in the “between and betwixt” or “limbo” space during acculturation to the host community and argue that having access to social support resources is crucial for the well-being of international students within an unfamiliar territory. I administer quantitative surveys and focus groups to examine these phenomena, inviting international undergraduate and graduate students to share personal social support-seeking, adaptation, and belongingness experiences within the college community. </p><p dir="ltr">Based on the findings published in the study, I conclude by presenting the implications for college counselors and organizations tasked with ensuring the overall well-being of international students, and making a case for an extensive acculturation model for international students which centers the role of the host society.</p>

Because many Bemba Christians do not experience the guality of life through would follow conversion they are tempted to either settle for shallow, superficial religious'experience, or, during times of crisis, revert to traditional religious beliefs and practices they know are inconsistent with their theological understanding. In order to assist Christian communicators in their task of bringing the Bemba to authentic conversion and an experience of salvation that genuinely meets their needs, we have, in this study, tendered one strategy for reaching the Bemba heart. most comprehensive idea of order. Because the heart, or worldview, is where reality is known, vaiued · and ordered, it should be the focus of Christian communication that has as its purpose restoring people to comprehensive well-being, or restoration of peace with God, others, one's self and nature. To this end, we have gathered 2,686 Bemba proverbs. from approximately fifteen previously seven Bemba informants, provided conte:-..tually deterrt"$1ed translati_ons, meanings, usages and teachings, inter alia, and have attempted, by means of employing Hiebert's critical conte:-..tualisation method ( 1985: 188), to begin constructing a contextualised local theology of marriage which is the result of engaging in a dialogue between Bemba traditional values as expressed in their proverbial lore and related biblical values. The process of contextualisation is incomplete because it is our contention that it is the responsibility local Bemba theologians, not of foreign researchers, to construct a theology of marriage that is relevant t local Bemba needs. Thus, this study does not attempt to provide theological answers to marital needs; rather, it is offered to Christian communicators for exploratory use as a beach-head for constructing a bridge across which both Bemba and biblical worldview values might be mutually enriched. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

Global student mobility has become a dynamic force in American higher education. Integrating international students into diverse campus environments provides domestic as well as foreign students with enriched learning opportunities. However, a diverse campus climate itself will not make college students interculturally competent. Intentional curricular design is critical for overcoming issues such as resistance and reinforcement of stereotypes, but the research literature is extremely limited on effective pedagogical strategies for cultivating college students' intercultural sensitivity. This paper explicates a research study to investigate college students' development of intercultural sensitivity through an intentional course design utilizing Kolb's (1984) learning styles cycle and Hammer's (2009) Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to explore domestic and international students' intercultural learning experiences and to potentially identify pedagogical approaches that facilitate students' intercultural competence. These findings show that the four pedagogical strategies associated with Kolb's learning cycle were effective and crucial when designing an intercultural course in order to develop college students' intercultural competence. This study also revealed a gap in intercultural development through the intentional intercultural course between American students and Japanese exchange students due to their vastly different intercultural experiences.

Because many Bemba Christians do not experience the guality of life through would follow conversion they are tempted to either settle for shallow, superficial religious'experience, or, during times of crisis, revert to traditional religious beliefs and practices they know are inconsistent with their theological understanding. In order to assist Christian communicators in their task of bringing the Bemba to authentic conversion and an experience of salvation that genuinely meets their needs, we have, in this study, tendered one strategy for reaching the Bemba heart. most comprehensive idea of order. Because the heart, or worldview, is where reality is known, vaiued · and ordered, it should be the focus of Christian communication that has as its purpose restoring people to comprehensive well-being, or restoration of peace with God, others, one's self and nature. To this end, we have gathered 2,686 Bemba proverbs. from approximately fifteen previously seven Bemba informants, provided conte:-..tually deterrt"$1ed translati_ons, meanings, usages and teachings, inter alia, and have attempted, by means of employing Hiebert's critical conte:-..tualisation method ( 1985: 188), to begin constructing a contextualised local theology of marriage which is the result of engaging in a dialogue between Bemba traditional values as expressed in their proverbial lore and related biblical values. The process of contextualisation is incomplete because it is our contention that it is the responsibility local Bemba theologians, not of foreign researchers, to construct a theology of marriage that is relevant t local Bemba needs. Thus, this study does not attempt to provide theological answers to marital needs; rather, it is offered to Christian communicators for exploratory use as a beach-head for constructing a bridge across which both Bemba and biblical worldview values might be mutually enriched. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

Cette thèse se propose d’étudier l’exploitation des documents authentiques dans le cadre de l’enseignement/apprentissage du français langue étrangère à des publics chinois dans une perspective interculturelle. Nous avons d’abord essayé de comprendre l’émergence et l’imposition d’une approche interculturelle au sein de la didactique du F.L.E. en traçant l’évolution historique des méthodologies universalistes des langues étrangères, et d’étudier les rôles que jouent des documents authentiques dans l’enseignement des langues étrangères, en vue de développer une compétence de communication interculturelle. Ensuite, nous avons tenté de justifier notre étude à partir d’une recherche empirique reposant d’une part sur une présentation-analyse de la situation actuelle de l’enseignement du F.L.E. en Chine (l’enseignement universitaire) et d’autre part sur une enquête menée auprès des apprenants et des enseignants. Enfin, nous avons abordé l’impact des documents authentiques comme outil didactique pour une approche interculturelle de l’enseignement/apprentissage du français à travers d’une expérience d’enseignement mené dans une université chinoise pendant un semestre universitaire. / This thesis proposes to study the use of authentic documents in the teaching/learning of F.L.E. (French as a foreign language) to Chinese students in an intercultural perspective. We first tried to understand the emergence and imposition of an intercultural approach in the didactic of F.L.E. today. We also studied the roles of authentic documents in the teaching of foreign languages in order to develop intercultural communication competence. We then tried to justify our study from an empirical research based firstly on a presentation-analysis of the current situation of the teaching of F.L.E. in China (the university) and secondly on a survey of learners and teachers. Finally, we discussed the impact of authentic materials as teaching tool for an intercultural approach to teaching/learning of French through a teaching experience conducted in a Chinese university for one academic semester.

Grounded in a social penetration perspective, this exploratory study aspires to examine the impact of self-disclosure on intercultural friendship development between Taiwanese and native English speakers by a section of the following populations: (a) Taiwanese sojourning in the US, (b) native English speakers sojourning in Taiwan, and (c) Taiwanese in Taiwan. This research employed a triangulation of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to answer the proposed research questions and hypothesis regarding four dimensions and six topics of self-disclosure. Consistent with the quantitative results, the five themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis indicate both unique challenges in self-disclosing to intercultural friends and a positive association between self-disclosure and cultural adaptation. Additionally, this study highlights the role of self-disclosure in the four identified stages of intercultural friendship development. Finally, findings from this study have implications for the social penetration theory, anxiety/uncertainly management theory, and theory of adaptation in intercultural dyads.

This research examined the relationships of cultural orientations to preferences for public relations messages on the Internet websites among college students in South Korea and in the United States.

This study, conceptually replicating the study by Funder and Harris (1986), examined the difference between African Americans and white Americans on measures of social acuity. Social acuity, as defined in this context, is the ability and inclination to perceive the psychological state of others and guide one's behavior in accordance with that perception.

Au Canada, les diplomates de carrière sont mutés à l’étranger tout au long de leur carrière. En raison de la nature intrinsèquement internationale et interculturelle du travail diplomatique, des compétences en communication interculturelle (CCI) sont essentielles aux diplomates. Pourtant, les études consacrées à la CCI et à l'expatriation ont négligé cette population, utilisant plutôt des échantillons de voyageurs, d'expatriés du secteur privé ou d'étudiants en échange universitaire. Partant du principe que les diplomates sont des expatriés particuliers en raison de leur situation spéciale à l’étranger, cette étude a pour objectif de remédier à cette lacune dans la littérature. Utilisant une méthodologie qualitative, cette étude examine les expériences d’affectation à l’étranger de diplomates canadiens à travers l’optique conceptuelle de la CCI. Les données ont été recueillies à travers des entretiens individuels semi-structurés avec douze diplomates canadiens, et analysées selon une approche dialectique combinant les principes de la théorie de la dialectique relationnelle et du postmodernisme. L’analyse a identifié cinq tensions dialectiques, trois au niveau individuel et deux au niveau organisationnel. Ce mémoire contribue à la littérature interculturelle en théorisant la CCI en tant que concept organisationnel, en repensant la compétence en tant que gestion durable de dialectiques et en réfléchissant la CCI sur une échelle de temps de moyen terme. / In Canada, career foreign service employees are posted abroad on a rotational basis throughout their career. Because of the inherently international and intercultural nature of diplomatic work, intercultural communication competenies are essential for diplomats. Yet, studies examining intercultural communication competence (ICC) and expatriation have neglected this population, instead employing samples of sojourners, private sector expatriates or exchange students. Based on the premise that diplomats are particular expatriates because of their special circumstances abroad, this study aims to remedy this gap in the literature. Using qualitative methodology, this study examines the experiences on posting of Canadian diplomats through the conceptual lens of ICC. Data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews with twelve Canadian diplomats on posting, and analyzed through a dialectical approach combining tenets of relational dialectics theory and postmodernism. Analysis identified five dialectical tensions, three which interplayed at the individual level and two which interplayed at the organizational level. This thesis contributes to the intercultural literature by theorizing ICC as an organizational-level construct, by re-thinking competence as the sustainable management of dialectics, and by considering ICC on a meso-time scale.

This study examined comparisons of gender stereotypes of executives in two cultures, American and Japanese. Undergraduate students in Japan and the U.S. estimated the extent to which executives in general, male and female exectuives possessed person-oriented and task-oriented leadership traits.