Working On Campus: The Impact of International Student Employees' Dining Services Job Experience on The Development of Intercultural Communication Competence

With more and more international students coming to the United States to study, aside from gaining education, many of them also choose to work on campus to get a better experience of American life. Aside from working on campus as student assistants with assistantships, many international students work for dining services on campus to earn extra income. This paper explored the process of how working for dining services on an American university campus influences international student employees’ intercultural communication competence. The Campinha-Bacote cultural competence model’s five dimensions: cultural awareness, cultural desire, cultural knowledge, cultural skills, and cultural encounters were discussed through a qualitative investigation of eight international student employees who are working at a school cafeteria at a Midwest university. The analysis revealed that workplace cultural encounters became the one essential theme that represented the main influence for participants’ development of intercultural communication competence. Additionally, four sub-themes emerged from the data: gaining cultural knowledge, becoming culturally aware, increasing cultural desire, and learning cultural skills. Meanwhile, the subcategories of self-awareness and stereotyping were found under the sub-theme of becoming culturally aware; self-motivation and motivation from “others” were found under the sub-theme of increasing cultural desire; and English speaking, listening and asking questions were found under the sub-theme of learning cultural skills.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Akron

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lei, Ran

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hill, Patricia

• Communication
• International Relations
• The Campinha-Bacote Cultural Competence model
• international student employee
• working on campus
• intercultural communication competence

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: some rights reserved. It is licensed for use under a Creative Commons license. Specific terms and permissions are available from this document's record in the OhioLINK ETD Center.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1363804723

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:akron1363804723