Identity and the role of expectations, stress, and talk in short-term student sojourner adjustment: An application of the integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation
Although more students are studying abroad than ever before, they are doing so for shorter periods of time often with high expectations. Unfortunately, for many students there is a gap between their expectations and the reality of the sojourn. Expectation gaps are one contributor to adjustment stress. Findings reported here are the result of a 15-month ethnographic investigation into the communication, adjustment, and identity patterns among U.S. sojourners abroad. This investigation extends and offers empirical evidence for Y.Y. Kim's integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation. Within that context, a descriptive model of expectations, talk, and identity in the short-term academic sojourn is proposed. Specifically, this report identifies student sojourner expectations and expectation gaps (i.e., academic/language expectations, social expectations, culture/value expectations, and travel/cultural experience expectations), the sources of those expectations (i.e., host university, co-students, friends/family at home, host family, and home university), and the types of talk students engaged in to negotiate expectation gaps (i.e., advice, superficial introductory talk, information sharing, comparison, humor, storytelling, gossip, complaint, and supportive talk). This investigation reveals that within their co-national network, sojourners are able to refine and create new expectations for study abroad through everyday talk. This process reduces expectation gaps enabling sojourners to adjust over time and allowing for the development of a more nuanced cultural identity.
U.S. universities are sending more students abroad than ever before (Open Doors, 2008). One explanation for the steady increase over the past decade is the increase in availability and participation in short-term sojourns. Approximately 95% of student sojourns are short-term, ranging from two weeks to one semester abroad (Open Doors, 2008). Short-term sojourns provide advantages to students that longer sojourns do not, including affordability, academic flexibility, and a time-frame and program that seem reasonable and safe to students who are perhaps apprehensive about spending a year abroad (Lewis & Niesenbaum, 2005). Disadvantages of short-term sojourns are that they do not offer the same level of cultural immersion and opportunities for intercultural growth that longer programs do. Regardless of the depth of cultural experience, short-term sojourns offer students some opportunity for identity expansion and development of intercultural sensitivity (Anderson, Lawton, Rexeisen, & Hubbard, 2006). Positive outcomes of the short-term sojourn include increased perceived self-efficacy (Milstein, 2005), enhanced intercultural communication skills (Rundstrom Williams, 2005), and intercultural communication competence (Penington & Wildermuth, 2005). However, because of the shorter time overseas, the process of adjustment, identity expansion, and intercultural growth for short-term sojourners likely differs from longer-term sojourns. The purpose of this investigation is to describe the process of sojourner adjustment across the course of a short-term sojourn.
This report draws from a 15-month ethnographic investigation into the process of short-term sojourner adjustment. This methodology differs significantly from much of the current research on sojourner adjustment because it offers a process-oriented, rather than outcome-oriented, account of sojourners' everyday experiences. I apply and extend Y.Y. Kim's (2001) integrative theory of communication and stress, adaptation, growth cross-cultural adaptation (ITCCA) to explain and describe students' adjustment trajectory. ITCCA is founded on a stress-adaptation-growth model of cross-cultural adjustment (Y.Y. Kim, 2008). Y.Y. Kim (2008) argues that by engaging in multiple intercultural encounters over time, sojourners are able to build a repertoire of cultural knowledge and experience that can lead to intercultural growth and identity transformation (Y.Y. Kim, 2008). To date, there have been few studies that offer empirical support for the theory (for an exception, see Y.-S. Kim, 2007) and none have looked specifically at the process of daily communication and daily stressors within this context. Thus, I use ITCCA as a frame to explore and explain the role of expectations, talk, and identity in the short-term sojourn. I argue that gaps in student expectations triggered patterns of everyday talk that allowed students to modify and align expectations. This process of communication not only allowed sojourners to adjust to living abroad, but also to explore and add new dimensions to their self and social identities. This study concludes with a descriptive model of expectations, talk, and identity in short-term sojourner adjustment.
3.2. Sources of expectations
After identifying four categories of expectations, it was necessary to probe for the source. Findings reported here are primarily the result of comparative analysis of recorded interviews with students who talked about why they held certain expectations, but also from recordings of participant-observation episodes when students would talk about the gaps between expectations and reality. Many of the students internalized their own expectations -- a combination of media representations, travel stories from previous sojourners, and schoolbook presentations. However, a great majority of the expectations were placed on students from outside sources.
3.2.1. Host university
IES (the host university) was perhaps the most significant source of external pressures and high expectations. During the orientation sessions students were urged to live every moment like a Parisian and disregard any U.S. American ties. Predominant messages from IES were to succeed, to profit from the experience, and avoid interactions with other IES students. The academic expectations that IES placed on students were similar to those in the States -- attend all classes, complete assignments, arrive on time, and so forth. One difference was that students were expected to use IES only for academic purposes and to do so only in French. This contradicted many students' expectations for a university setting where primary social ties are developed. Expectations for success were partially centered on students' ability to speak coherent French and form social ties with their host families at the very least. But, the overt expectation was that students would reject the English language and their tendency to socialize with other U.S. Americans. Unlike students' own expectations, and the messages from parents and friends supporting a laissez-faire attitude toward academics, IES imposed expectations that students should make academics their priority followed by assuming a normal Parisian lifestyle.
3.2.2. Co-students
Co-students also held significant expectations of each other. This was especially the case when two friends or acquaintances studied abroad during the same semester or consecutively. Having a friend who previously studied abroad was helpful because she was able to offer advice. Students had a difficult time, however, separating their own study abroad experience from those of students who had studied abroad before or who were studying abroad at a different location. Costudents held expectations for each other, such as taking the same classes together, doing equally well or poorly in classes and in French, making the same friends, enjoying the same foods, socializing the same way, and so forth. Students were often unable to disentangle their own expectations and goals from those presented to them by other sojourners, making them feel responsible not only for meeting their own expectations, but their friends' as well.
3.2.3. Friends/family at home
For many, sending someone abroad was more than just an opportunity for that person to experience a new culture, but an opportunity to bring those experiences back home, and maybe even to provide an opportunity for a transatlantic visit. Friends and family who remained in the States expected their sojourner to experience everything and to bring those experiences back home. Unlike IES which expected students to excel academically, and unlike their own expectations to "make Paris their own," friends and family expected student sojourners to get a sampling of everything European (and in some cases North Africa, too!). One key expectation was that students would make the most of their time and money. This was especially important from the vantage point of parents who were often footing the bill. For this exceptional experience it seemed that friends and family were willing to put aside any academic expectations for the sake of encouraging maximum cultural experiences. Upon return, however, it became apparent that these expectations were not without strings. Students perceived receiving the most amount of criticism from, or the feeling that they somehow disappointed friends and family upon return, because they had neither achieved a high level of French proficiency, nor had they established strong intercultural relationships. This was softened only by students' perceptions that friends and family maintained an unconditional love and acceptance of them regardless of their "success" overseas.
3.2.4. Host family
Of all the external expectations placed on students, the ones most surprising to students were those imposed by their host families. Not all host families articulated expectations of students, at least not that students perceived, but a great majority of them did. Some host families were overt about their expectations for how a student should use her time abroad and offered sharp criticism of students who did not meet their expectations. Other host families were subtler about their expectations and offered praise for students who behaved appropriately instead of criticism for those who did not. Common expectations included what to wear, how to eat, who to socialize with and where, and when to travel or study. Whether overt or covert, host family expectations were the most difficult for students to accept because they were the most unexpected. Prior to departure, most students were aware that host families are a mixed lot. Despite this knowledge, students still hoped for (and expected to an extent) a host family that would treat them like an extension of their own family rather than as a novelty, babysitter, money-bearing tenant, or English tutor.
4.2. Model of expectations, talk, and identity in short-term sojourner adjustment
As indicated in the descriptive model of expectations, talk, and identity in short-term sojourner adjustment (Fig. 1), student expectations about their sojourn came from a variety of external sources (i.e., host university, co-students, friends/ family at home, host family, and home university). Most expectations fell into one of four categories (i.e., academic/language, social, travel/cultural, or value/culture). As students engaged in intercultural encounters across the sojourn, they experienced gaps between their expectations and the reality of the sojourn. Uncertainty resulting from expectation gaps prompted students to make adjustments in order to manage stress and increase social effectiveness. The adjustments students made were communicative in nature yielding nine types of talk (i.e., advice, superficial introductory talk, information sharing, comparison, humor, storytelling, gossip, complaint, and supportive talk). Three explanations shed light on why these specific types of talk emerged. First, students were able to evaluate, interpret, and modify their own experiences abroad through the nine types of talk. Second, students were able to assess whether what they were experiencing was "normal," "okay," or "appropriate." Third, and most importantly, through these types of talk, students were able to make minor and major adjustments to their norms and expectations across the sojourn and alter their behavior accordingly. These adjustments allowed students to manage the stress resulting from expectation gaps as well as to anticipate, prepare for, and modify future interactions. The result was closer expectation alignment and, over time, decreased stress and increased ability to function abroad. The extent to which students were able to use this process to align their expectations, and develop norms and behaviors appropriate for their new environment, increased their chances of short-term adjustment and perceptions of "succeeding at study abroad."
Finally, students experienced a shift in personal and social identities. Y.Y. Kim (2001) proposes, "through prolonged experiences of trial and error, the stranger begins to 'earn' a new, expanded identity that is more than either the original cultural identity or the identity of the host culture" (p. 65). Identity formation included a new sense of who students were in relation to the rest of the world, as well as an expansion of their understanding of others. Toward the end of the sojourn and upon return, students articulated an identity shift toward a more nuanced and complex American identity and, for some, a movement toward a world citizen identity. This finding is consistent with Dolby's (2007) finding that while study abroad programs emphasize expectations for a global identity shift, in short-term programs students' nuanced articulation of their place in the world as American citizens is considerably more likely and equally important as the development of a global identity.