Cultural Adaptation’s Communication for the Foreign Students of Autonomous Universities in Northern Region.

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to study the foreign students’ communication competence in autonomous universities in northern region, investigate their self-adaptation, and examine the relationship between their communication competence and self-adaptation. The data of this quantitative research were collected by using a questionnaire with 400 foreign students in autonomous universities in the northern region. The statistics used to analyze the data were frequency, percentage and standard deviation. The hypothesis were tested by using t – test, One-way ANOVA and Pearson’s Coefficient. The results showed that the students’ communication skills were already good with background in English, but there were problems with use of Thai language and the adaptation to local life. Also, in terms of cultural adaptation, the foreign students tried to study new Thai language, culture and tradition, by being open-minded, thinking positively and accepting differences in ethnic, nationality, religion and culture. In addition, they relied on communication technology to enhance adapting process including internet, social media, and smartphone. The results also showed that there was a relationship between communication competence and self-adaptation of the foreign students of autonomous universities in northern region, with the significance at .05.