Intercultural effectiveness of international post-graduate students
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Abstract
In the increasingly multicultural and multiethnic campuses it has become important to foster not only intercultural awareness and cultural sensitivity, but effective interaction among culturally diverse students. Therefore, this research studied whether or not a five-week Thai language course favors the development of intercultural effectiveness of international postgraduate students in a Thai public university. In doing so pre- and post-tests were administered. The population was all international post-graduate students registered in a Thai language course (N=35) in 2014. 25 respondents (n=25) accepted to take part in this study, 10 were females and 15 males, and the sample average age was 32. The research design was a quantitative study, the research instrument was the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IAS) along with a demographic questionnaire. The sampling method was purposive sampling. Results of the pre-test revealed that the study sample exhibited a moderate level of intercultural effectiveness. The post-test results showed students’ transition from moderate to high level of intercultural effectiveness. However, the difference between the pre- and post- test was not statistically significant. Students scored the lowest on Behavioral Flexibility and the highest on Interactant Respect in the pre-test. After the completion of the 5-week Thai Language course students scored the lowest on Message Skills, while maintained scoring the highest on Interactant Respect. The paper concludes with a description of the study’s limitations, discusses the implications of the findings for the increasingly multiethnic and international campuses, and finally presents suggestions for further studies.
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