Playing with Identity: Performance Changes in Cultural Adjustmen

The initial idea of this study is from my personal experience when my family and friends said, "You have been Americanized!" While I have been interacting with other international students, I realized that this experience is not only my own. This thesis examines international students' changes in performance of identity during cultural adjustment. Seven international students, at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, were interviewed in the period between February 8th and April 4th in 2016. I used the phenomenological method. These students are from five different countries.;Several themes emerged regarding performance changes, and were extracted using Tesch's method of themes (1987). Those themes included international students' changes of behavior patterns and attitudes; also, the factors that might influence the degree of those changes. Those factors are the separation from home culture, family, and friends; the prior images of America; and the experience of American culture. The influence of the decision to change/Anglicize their name is also noted.;All of the participants experienced a change in their performance of identity in the United States. Those changes were enacted differently by each participant. The degree of change was influenced by the individual's background and situation.;This study would be helpful for scholars who study international students or immigrants' processes of cultural adjustment. In addition, it could give a guideline to people who have plans to come to the United States.