4. To know if international students use marginalization
5.1 DISCUSSION
In this section, the researcher discusses the two research questions of this study respectively. In research question one, the researcher discusses each of the four components of ICC, and in research question two, the researcher discusses the
“integration acculturation strategy” used by bilingual education students in Thailand.
5.1.1 RQ1: What are bilingual education students’ ICC perceptions in Thailand?
In order to answer this question, the researcher adopted explanatory research design, and the qualitative research results were used to support the quantitative research data. From the overall analysis of the quantitative research data in Chapter 4, only one of the 41 items in the questionnaire was “moderate agreement”, and all the other items were “agreement’’ level.
Therefore, in general, it can explain that all the bilingual education students who participated in this research agree that they have ICC. That means they hold the opinions that they have the abilities to communicate effectively and appropriately with people from different cultural backgrounds (Byram, 2009. Specifically, they think they have the following abilities made up of ICC:
5.1.1.1 Knowledge
Generally speaking, seen from the quantitative data, all the participants agree that they have cultural knowledge about ICC, which means these students knowing the customs and taboos associated with the language and culture of one's own country and the other country and knowledge about ICC (Byram, 2009). It is supported from the qualitative data that these students know some customs and taboos about Thai culture; they can recognize cultural pressure and can use some strategies to overcome cultural pressure. But they can’t cite a definition of host culture and describe its components and complexities, which means they can’t define Thai culture and describe clearly the components of Thai culture. This shows that although these students think they have the customs and taboos associated with the language and culture of one's own country and the other country and knowledge about ICC, they still lack the knowledge of the host culture such as Thai language and the other specific cultural knowledge of Thailand.
To explore the reasons behind, through the semi- structed interview, the researcher found that because these students think themselves have not been in Thailand for a long time and haven’t met and interact with a lot of people, they didn’t know much about Thai culture. The results of quantitative research show that 58.8% of the students have only stayed in Thailand for 1- 2 years. Then the researcher found further information through interview that during their stay in Thailand, most of these students took classes on university campuses, so they seldom spent time communicating with people from other backgrounds.
This means that the length of time students spend in a foreign country will affect the amount of time they spend interacting with others and may therefore affect their ICC. This is confirmed with the results of some previous studies, such as:
Bagwe & Haskollar (2020) found that the level of ICC is positively correlated with the time spent abroad and effective interaction with local people of the host culture enables students to obtain information about the language and culture, views, daily expectations and customs of the host culture (Lee & Chen, 2000).
5.1.1.2 Attitudes
The quantitative research data found that all participants agree that they are willing to communicate with people from different cultures and to be open, curious,
and respectful of other cultures (Byram, 2009 & Fantini, 2019). That is to say, they have a positive attitude towards ICC, which means they are curious, open and respectful for other cultures ( Byram, 1997) . At the same time, from the quantitative data results, the mean score of top 3 statements are all their attitudes aspects: “I am willing to try to communicate in the host language and behave in appropriate ways (item 13)” ; “ I am willing to learn from the language and culture of host country (item 12) ” ; and “ I am willing to try to understand differences in the behaviours, values, attitudes and styles of my culture and those of the host” (item 17).
Qualitative research further supports the quantitative results. After semi-
structed interview, the researcher found that the reasons why these students are willing to take a positive attitude towards Thai language and culture are: they think themselves are now studying and living in Thailand, learning language and culture of Thailand and behave appropriately, understanding cultural differences, which will make their study and life more comfortable and easier. By the way, Chinese students, Nigerian and Burmese monk students, both men and women all hold this view. This suggests that in terms of ICC perception, nationality and gender didn’t show big difference. This is also consistent with the results of previous studies, which showed that there is no significant difference in nationality affecting ICC. And gender as well, for example: Novikova &
Shlyakhta, (2020) pointed out: "in terms of flexible and intelligent behaviour ability in intercultural interaction, male and female students have the same attitude since there is no significant gender difference".
5.1.1.3 Skills
From the results of the questionnaire, all participants agreed that they have skills in dealing with people from different backgrounds. In other words, they thought that they themselves could use certain strategies to effectively and appropriately communicate and interact with others (Byram, 2009). Qualitative research results also confirmed that these students do have skills, mainly manifested that all students were able to compare and contrast different aspects of their own culture and those of the host, and use some strategies so as to be able to better communicate with others. And almost all the participants could use culture- specific information to improve their style and personal interaction.
Among the items of " skills" aspect, mean ( x= 3. 85) scored the highest, which is item 24: I am able to compare and contrast different aspects of their own culture and those of the host. Because in the interview process, the researcher found that students basically can give some specific examples to compare and contrast the differences between their own national culture and Thai culture. However, the lowest mean (x=3.62) among "skills" is item 28: I use culture-specific information to improve their style and personal interaction. It is known through qualitative analysis that participants do not understand the expression of “culture- specific information” and cannot give sufficient information. However, after the researcher’s explanation, in general, participants can still give some related descriptions about this topic.
This shows that the performance of students' skills is also based on their mastery of knowledge. As Byram (2009) points out, skills depend on one's knowledge and attitude, which are important for successful communication in a specific social environment. Byram (2009) further points out in his ICC model that skills include two levels: one is the ability to interpret and relate, that is, to be able to describe the cultural phenomena of the destination country and relate them to one's own culture. The other is discovery or interaction skills, that is, discovering and acquiring new linguistic and cultural knowledge and applying it to real-time interactions.
These students are basically able to describe some cultural phenomena in Thailand and can compare them with their own culture. At the same time, through interviews, the researchers learned that they also imitate the style and behavior of Thai people, such as greeting with hands folded, so as to get along better with others and live better in Thailand. In fact, the development of skills by these students are also linked closely to their social interaction. This is in line with previous studies: “interpersonal communication provides all the details of the social context, providing students with a first-hand opportunity to learn social skills with complete, immediate, intense and lasting feedback” (Kim, 1982; Kunjara, 1982; Miller & Sunnafrank, 1982; Mowlana, 1986; Sarbaugh, 1979).
5.1.1.4 Awareness
Draw conclusion from the quantitative research results, all the participants agreed that they have the ability to aware similarities and differences between their own culture and other cultures and aware the development of
themselves (Byram, 2009). Qualitative research also supports this result, which showed that all students believe they are aware of differences and similarities across their own culture and the host language and culture. At the same time, they are aware of the hosts' reactions to them and the reason that reflected their cultural values. In addition, they believe they can also be aware of their personal habits and preferences and reactions or responses to differences reflected the values and ethics of their own culture.
During the qualitative research, it is learned that these students reflected on their own beliefs, values and behaviors and then contrast with Thai culture, which shows that they have awareness. As Fantini (2019) mentioned in his ICC model: awareness differs from knowledge in that it is always about
" self" as opposed to everything else in the world ( other things, other people, other ideas, etc.) entity of a person. And when it comes to awareness, participants also used the knowledge and skills they have learned and held a positive attitude.
As Fanniti ( 2019) ICC 4 Dimensions mentioned: " awareness is further developed through the development of knowledge, positive attitudes and skills, which in turn promotes their development".
To sum up, in general, all the bilingual education students who participated in this study think that they have ICC and they think themselves have knowledge, skills, awareness, and hold a positive attitude towards the differences of language and culture. Meanwhile, these four components are also closely related, mutually promoting, and influencing each other.
From the above findings that answer the first research question, the bilingual education students thought that they were competent in IC at the
“agree” level but not 'strongly agree' level, and they would be willing to learn the local language and culture. It can mean that the level of confidence in their ICC was not high, so the host university or the host program can provide ICC related training courses to help their international students to gain more knowledge in the Thai language and culture. Since the majority of participants are Chinese, the host program and university can also offer ICC courses in Chinese to facilitate them in adjusting in Thailand.
5.1.2 RQ2: What are the acculturation strategies that bilingual education students use during their sojourn in Thailand?
The researcher used qualitative research methods to explore the acculturation strategies, including integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization ( Berry, 1997) , used by bilingual education students at a private university in Thailand. The result of the study found that all eight students interviewed used " integration"
acculturation strategy. That is, they all accept and identify their own cultural values as well as the cultural values of the Thailand.
The reason for this is that they believe that they grew up in their own country, so they need to accept their own culture and identify with the cultural values of their own country. As for Thai cultural values, they will also accept them, and learn more from friends or people around them to adapt, so as to better help them study and live in Thailand. However, some students think that they will accept some Thai culture, because they haven't stayed in Thailand for a long time and haven’t met a lot of people, they don't know all the Thai culture.
The result of this study showed that bilingual education students in Thailand use the " integration” acculturation strategy, which is consistent with previous studies results: “integration is the most popular acculturation strategy, sojourners and immigrants have the best effect in the process of acculturation” (Berry, 2003; Berry and Sam, 1997; Berry et al., 2006).
However, it cannot represent that students in other majors, universities or countries who also use the same acculturation strategy. Because Berry (2006) said that these strategies vary from person to person, group to society, and the interaction between groups, hence, the finding should not be applied uniformly to every country and individual. Other studies result also confirmed that, for example, separation was found to be the favourite acculturation strategy of the Turks in America, while assimilation was the favourite of the Vietnamese in America (Berry et al., 2006). Another 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.