| This study on acculturation strategies is designed to improve the understanding of acculturation and explore the changes resulting from contact between the two distinct cultural groups through a survey of 51 subjects, namely, American expatriates who are currently working or living in Guangzhou.Previous research has been thoroughly reviewed and carefully drawn upon, on the basis of which two hypotheses are developed to go in line with the research questions: "What is the predominant acculturation strategy among American expatriates in Guangzhou?" and "Whether the intercultural contact factors affect American expatriates' choices of different acculturation strategies".Built upon Berry's Acculturation Attitude Model and his four acculturation strategies, this study was carried out through statistical analysis using factor, reliability, and correlation analyses. A specially designed 39-item survey combining Berry (1987) and Fan's (2004) questionnaires was administered to the voluntary participants. Data obtained from the questionnaire was processed in SPSS 13.0.The encouraging results prove the expectation that integration is the most preferred acculturation strategy of American expatriates, followed by separation and assimilation, while marginalization is the least preferred. These results are in line with the previous studies. However, other findings show that beyond initial expectation, the intercultural contact factors do not present a significant influence on American expatriates' acculturation strategies.The results in this study might contribute to the respect and understanding of both American and Chinese people and their cultures, improve American expatriates' communication effectiveness as well as reduce problems and misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. It is intended that this thesis could provide some insight to those who are interested in acculturation and to the issues associated with intercultural communication. |
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