Acculturation is defined as the process of adjusting to the interaction of two distinct cultures (Ward, 1996). When international students join another country as a temporary immigrant, they will unavoidably face intercultural adaptation issues (Lee &
Ciftci, 2014). Acculturation has a direct and strong effect on the academic performance of international students due to the reasons of acculturation, because they have limited time and energy to successfully adapt to the new environment during their study.
According to Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga and Szapocznik (2010), there are three types of acculturation: cognitive acculturation (e.g., prioritizing one's own needs over those of family and community), affective acculturation (e.g., degree of attachment, host country and/or country of origin), and behavioural acculturation (e.g., language use, media preference, food preference).
Cognitive acculturation evaluates cultural values, norms, or customs (Tadmor, Peng & Tetlock, 2009). Affective acculturation includes cultural identity (Schwartz et al., 2010), such as self-identity, family socialization, and social relationship identity (Fang, Sun & Yuen, 2016), and social relationship identity includes the level of comfort with family members (Gundlach, Zivnuska, & Stoner 2006), or the number of respondents with the family (Keshavarzi, 2013). Acculturation of cultural behavior is the primary topic of acculturation study (Berry & Sabatier, 2010). Behavioral acculturation is the activity of cultural acculturation (such as language usage, media consumption, culinary choices, or other everyday behaviors). There are numerous approaches for assessing language use, including the frequency with which the host or national language is used (Schachter, Kimbro, & Gorman, 2012). Students' media preferences indicate how much they like the country's media (Schwartz & Szapocznik, 2012). Eating preferences are the types of foods that students choose to eat (Kim, H. J, Lee & Kim, K. W, 2016) or changes in food preferences (Christensen, & Brooks, 2006).
Many researchers use Berry's ( 1997) acculturation model as the basis for conceptualizing the acculturation process of immigrants and individual ethnic minorities in various societies. Berry's acculturation model is a landmark acculturation
theory, which is used by consulting psychologists to examine and study the acculturation experience of student groups (Yoon, Langrehr & Ong, 2011). The acculturation model described by Berry has two levels, cultural/ group level and psychological/ individual level. At the group level, there are situational variables, such as the political background of the society of origin and the host society's attitude towards individuals with acculturation ( Berry, 1997) . On the psychological level, it has unique demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, education and acculturation strategies ( Berry, 1997) . On the psychological level, there are two subdivisions: 1) Psychological acculturation, including behavioural change and acculturation pressure; 2) Adaptation, including psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation ( Berry, 2006) . Meanwhile, psychological adaptation can be happiness or self- esteem. Sociocultural adaptation can be a person's level of competence in daily cross-cultural life.
To manage the process of acculturation, Berry (1997) proposed that individuals should adopt specific acculturation strategies. Individuals choose an acculturation strategy that describes whether individuals will continue to behave in similar patterns of behaviour in the same way in the host society as they did in the original society. On the psychological level, the individual's choice of acculturation strategy depends on two factors : 1) cultural maintenance; The importance and retention of cultural identity; 2) Contact and participation; The degree to which individuals participate in the new culture ( Berry, 1997) are two factors that individuals may have different types of orientations toward their cultural groups and dominant society (Berry, 1970, 1997, 2006).
Acculturation literature (Berry, 2006) can help sojourners adjust to their new surroundings. "Differences in language, living and working customs, weather, religion, and dress are key parts of the adjustments that sojourners must deal with" in their new surroundings (Berry, 1992, p.272). Acculturation scholars (Berry, 1997; Wang &
Mallinckrodt, 2006; Zhang & Goodson, 2011) believed that in order to adapt to a new environment, sojourners would go through social and cultural adaptation (such as communication skills and social networks in the new environment) as well as psychological adjustment (such as happiness and self-esteem).Berry felt that there are several stages take place in the process of cultural adaptation. First, acculturated
students communicate with the culture of the host country via education. Second, in such communication, they may have disagreements due to cultural differences in language, clothing style, food preference and other aspects.
To summarize, the definition of acculturation in this study borrowed from Ward ( 1997 ) , which refers to the process of adaption when meeting two different independent cultures. The most famous founder of the acculturation theory and model is Berry ( 1997) . Berry found some factors that influencing students’ adaption in the target country, which are inevitable in the process of acculturation. At the same time, he was dedicated to proposing strategies and methods to help international students adapt.
2.5.1 Acculturation Strategies
Berry (1997) characterized the acculturation technique as a fundamental tool for clarifying cognitive relationships. One is tied to the previous social context, while the other is related to the current social backdrop. He offered four alternative social interaction tactics to accomplish this: integration, assimilation, isolation, and marginalization. Integration entails keeping the cultural qualities of one's home country while also engaging in social engagement with the host nation. Assimilation is the goal of everyday connection with different cultures rather than the preservation of one's native cultural identity (Berry, 1997). Separation is a strong desire to maintain the cultural identity of the nation of origin while minimizing connection with the social setting of the host country. Finally, marginalization refers to a lack of interest in cultural connections in both social situations. This idea presupposes that the two dimensions are independent. This entails adopting dual identity (Thompson, 2005) or mixed identity (Gu, Schweisfurth, & Day, 2010).
Berry's (1997) acculturation theory is the most prominent and pioneering work in the topic of acculturation. The majority of acculturation investigations were conducted within the framework of Berry (2006). (Schwartz, Unger, Zamboanga, &
Szapocznik, 2010). This idea is based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) early research on stress and coping. This idea further splits acculturation's impact into "individual
level" and "group level." Specific events will occur before to and during acculturation, influencing the process and outcomes of sojourner acculturation. Acculturation groups must provide ways for dealing with these stresses based on the relevant stressors during the cultural transformation process. Berry's concept highlights the significance of adaption techniques during this key period of transition. Acculturation strategy is an essential tool for sojourners to cope with psychological challenges throughout the acculturation process, as it may help travellers to adjust to the new culture (Berry, 2006).
Berry's acculturation Model discusses the concepts of psychological acculturation and acculturation stress in Berry's research on acculturation attitude (Berry,2003), or acculturation strategies (Berry, 1997). Berry proposed an acculturation model, which identified four acculturation strategies: " assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization" ( Figure 2. 7) . " Assimilation strategy" describes the phenomenon that individuals seek consistent interaction with the dominant culture without maintaining their own cultural identity. Assimilation means that an individual adapts to the host culture by absorbing some aspects of the new host culture, while losing some aspects of the original culture ( Berry, 2006) . This strategy presupposes that the process of accepting some aspects of the host culture is based on a single dimension, that is, turning to a new culture in a one- way way and eventually losing one's own identity with the original culture ( Sayegh & Lasry, 1993) . In contrast to assimilation,
" separation strategy" means that individuals value their own culture while avoiding interaction with the dominant culture. Individuals classified as using " integration strategies" will maintain a certain degree of integrity of the original culture while participating in the dominant culture. Marginalization strategies refer to those who are not interested in engaging with mainstream culture and in maintaining the cultural integrity of their own nation.
Berry (2003) concluded that bicultural orientation predicted lower depression ( compared with all other cultural orientations) , more positive and less negative effects ( compared with secessionist orientation) , and better life satisfaction ( compared with secessionist and marginalist orientation) . In addition, although biculturalism was associated with the most favourable outcomes, assimilation and separatism were
associated with better mental health outcomes than marginalism ( Berry, 2003) . When examining the progress and results of these groups' acculturation, researchers also focused on the prediction of acculturation stress and psychological acculturation. Sam and Berry ( 2006) showed that according to the measured psychological and psychosomatic symptoms, cultural adaptation strategies such as marginalization and separation were associated with high cultural alienation pressure. Integration strategies were associated with low levels of stress, while assimilation strategies were associated with moderate levels of stress (Savicki, Cooley & Donnelly, 2008).
Figure 2.7 Four acculturation strategies.
Source: Adapted from Berry, 2003
These four strategies depend on the degree to students balance the two issues of cultural maintenance and cultural engagement, which may change due to situational factors ( Sam & Berry, 2010) . These strategies vary from person to person, group to society, because of the interaction between groups (Berry, 2006). Existing studies focus on the preference of acculturation individuals for different acculturation strategies ( for example, Berry, 2003; Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006; Ngwira, Mapoma &
Jianzhong 2015; Yu & Wang, 2011) and how acculturation strategies influence adaptation outcomes (Kosic, Mannetti & Sam, 2006) and mental health (Cemalcilar &
Falbo, 2008). Although among the four acculturation strategies, integration is the most popular one, immigrants have the best effect in the process of acculturation. And marginalization is least welcome because it produces the worst results ( Berry, 2003;
Berry & Sam, 1997; Berry et al., 2006).
However, Berry et al. (2006) suggested that the findings should not be applied uniformly to every country and individual, as the relative preferences for acculturation strategies vary by ethnic group and mainstream society. For example, separation was found to be the favourite acculturation strategy of the Turks in USA, while assimilation was the favourite of the Vietnamese in USA (Berry et al., 2006). For example, Yu and Wang (2011) investigated the mainstream acculturation strategies of Chinese overseas students in Germany, and their research results showed that assimilation and separation were the most frequently selected strategies. Therefore, the effect of acculturation strategy may depend on the orientation of the dominant society to the minority group and the adaptation of the subordinate group to the culture of the host country. Berry ( 1997, 2006) pointed out that no one likes acculturation strategy, but depends on the social response to the acculturation individual. The dominant group's control over the acculturation individuals determines the choice of acculturation strategies.
According to relevant literature, it is not difficult to determine that acculturation study predates intercultural communication research, and the research on acculturation and intercultural communication has a long history and has seen many modifications. Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of empirical researches on intercultural adaptation. Historically, research has focused on immigrants and foreign sojourners as a whole, as well as organizations adjusting to social systems and changing national or cultural identities. However, study in the twenty-first century necessitates a greater focus on the ICC and tactics of people or specific groups in more diverse circumstances.
To sum up, Berry ( 1997) proposed 4 acculturation strategies: integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. These strategies vary from person to person, from group to group, because of the interactions between groups are different.
Berry et al. ( 2006) suggested that the results of the study are not applicable to every country and individual, because the relative preference of acculturation strategies varies with ethnic groups and mainstream society.
2.6 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ICC AND ACCULTURATION