Since Peoples Republic of China was founded, the history of studying abroad in China develops continuesly. The number of students studying in China has significant increase every year. According to the study in China website (30/03/2009), there were 223,499 international students studied in China for the year 2008, 58,497 of them were short term students. It means that there was 13.94% increase. The data indicate that the number of short-term students has increased enormously, compared to the small addition to the research on cross-cultural adaptation of short-term students.This thesis paper primarily tackles about the cross-cultural adaptation during the short-term study of Thai students from Prince of Songkhla University. This research attempts to study the scope of changes pertaining to cognition and affection of Cross-cultural communication, focusing in examining the changes in cross-cultural communication attitude and apprehension of the said Thai faculty-led students during the duration of their study program. With the aid of in-depth interview, the researcher was able to figure out the problems and factors that affect their cross-cultural adaptation. The results show that after taking the short-term course, the students'cross-cultural apprehension levels were significantly lesser than before taking the course. However, their cross-cultural attitudes, in contrast are getting worse. Although the students have already equipped themselves with the experience of studying in China once last year, the students'perceptions toward cross-cultural communication surprisingly became negative. Base on these results, the researcher proceeds into the in-depth interview in which the results showed that there were 6 major factors that affected Thai students'cross-cultural adaptation: Social supports, Life changes, Knowledge of cross-cultural study, Experiences of study abroad, Foreign language skill and Achievement motivations. Besides recommendations, the limitation of this study and outlook for future research are provided. The researcher is looking forward that this study can fill up one another missing puzzle piece in cross-cultural communication and adaptation theory, by using some theories formulated from the study condition of the said Thai students engaged in short-term study program, and thus benefit for education management of foreign students in China. |