Summary: The Influence Of Intercultural Education

Nowadays, intercultural classrooms are common in China and in English speaking countries. With large numbers of Chinese immigrating into western countries and westerners working and studying in China, there are more exchanges of teachers and students between China and western or English speaking countries (Zhao, 2007). The findings of Wu, et.al, (2015) revealed that international students deal with academic challenges, social isolation, and cultural adjustment. Specifically, academic challenges included communication with professors, classmates, and staff.

The classroom discourse in China is more oriented towards a hierarchical face system and assumes more respect from students toward the teacher (Zhao, 2007). Teachers prefers standing

The university needs to be prepared to meet students not only academically but also socially and culturally (Wu, et.al, 2015). Multicultural education advocates inadequately design their program to focus on cultural differences in content and form (Ogbu, 1992). Intercultural communication scholars often assume that if a person wants to survive in a foreign country, he or she will try to adapt to the host culture (Yuan, 2011). Despite these connections, the two cultures differ considerably with respect to the sociocultural influences on students’ lives. For example, the United States and China differ in their social values, political environments, and economic systems, the degree to which they have experienced industrialization, and now participate in the global economy (Chen, 2005). These factors are likely to have implications for Chinese American students’ emerging values, academic performances, and emotional/behavioral development. The beliefs of the Chinese Americans appear to show the influences of both their Chinese heritage and the European American culture in which they reside (Chen, 2005). Immigrating to another country means loosening the emotional attachments to old friends and giving up security of a familiar way of

Universities can host workshops where international students become familiar with the use of colloquial English, commonly used slang words, and the social and cultural mores of the US society in order to communicate effectively both in academic and in nonacademic settings (Wu, et.al, 2015). One solution is for teachers and interventionists to learn about the students' cultural backgrounds and use this knowledge to organize their classrooms and programs, to help students learn what they teach, to help students get along with one another, to communicate with parents, and the like (Ogbu, 1992). US students and faculty, they should be aware of the value of embracing international students and appreciating the diversity from each other. Faculty should consider the equal access and learning opportunities for all students. American students also need to develop intercultural competence to interact with international students such as providing training for staff, who will work with international students (Wu, et.al, 2015). Tutoring and counseling are expected because international students need guidance to succeed in their academic learning, and their psychological stress should be supported. Some problems caused by primary cultural differences can also be solved through well, designed and implemented multicultural education (Ogbu, 1992). A related approach that