Descripción de la Muestra

In this study, I explore the ways in which the participants’ affective adjustment processes are produced and reproduced, negotiated and

renegotiated, and transformed in their intercultural communication in specific sociocultural contexts, in order to gain a detailed and comprehensive

understanding of the dynamics, uniqueness, and complexities of their affective adjustment experiences. Hence, the following areas must be closely examined: the group members’ daily experiences of emotions in their intercultural

encounters; the dynamic construction and negotiation processes of their understanding of emotions, which underpin or guide their adjustment actions; and, finally, the relevant sociocultural and historical contexts that both affect and are influenced by these understanding and actions.

The above aims and focuses have led me to adopt a qualitative approach in this study. To begin with, a qualitative approach is useful when the researcher wants to explore a research problem and expects a detailed, comprehensive understanding of this problem based on an understanding of the meaning individuals attach to it (Creswell, 2013). As previously established, the

emotional aspect of intercultural adjustment is under-studied and needs further exploration. I am particularly interested in gaining an insight into the complexity of sojourners’ intercultural adjustment by examining participants’ own

understanding of their emotional engagements in intercultural encounters; this is because individuals’ emotional engagement is a very subjective issue and understanding their own perspective is therefore highly relevant to exploring such a topic. Moreover, a qualitative approach is appropriate ‘when the

researcher seeks to understand the context or settings of participants’ (Creswell, 2013, p. 47). As previously stated, special attention is paid in this study to the

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interactions between participants’ affective intercultural adjustment experiences and the relevant contexts in which these experiences evolve in order to uncover the effects of contexts on the participants’ experiences. I will therefore locate this study within a qualitative framework.

When considering a variety of alternatives to qualitative inquiry approaches, an ethnographic approach is specifically suited to the particular features of this study. First, in regard to the objective of this study, ethnography studies a cultural group that shares knowledge which shapes, informs, and explains the activities of the group members (Van Maanen, 2011). In my study, the group under investigation consists of thirteen Chinese taught Masters students living in the same hall of residence in a UK university. In addition to their shared Chinese primary and secondary socialization (which occurred respectively in their own families and in the society beyond their home, particularly at school; Berger and Luckmann, 1966), as both taught Masters students and live-in residents of university halls for a complete academic year, these thirteen students also shared similar sojourner experiences in a UK university in the same hall of residence to an extent. This group of students can therefore be seen as a group that shares knowledge which guide their activities.

Second, as to the focus of inquiry, an ethnographic study explores some aspects of a group’s daily lives in specific contexts in order to reveal ‘how these people view the situations they face, how they regard one another, and also how they see themselves’ (Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007, p. 3). In this study, I aim to investigate the ways in which a group of Chinese students construct their understanding of emotions that evolve as they encounter the host environment, interact with and relate to people in this context, and present themselves

during these encounters and engagements in their daily lives. Such exploration hopes to reveal the motivations, needs and goals, and value orientations that underpin the emotional meaning they attach to their intercultural

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Third, as to the methods of inquiry, ethnographers carry out fieldwork that involves ‘‘living with and living like those who are studied’’ over a certain time period within specific contexts (Van Maanen, 2011, p. 2). As a Chinese doctoral student who also studied at the same university and lived in the same hall of residence as the cultural group members under consideration, I participated in and observed this group’s emotional lives within this context on a daily basis: from the beginning to the end of each group members’ taught Masters study journey (i.e., one year). The importance of conducting participant observations in this study lies in two areas. To begin with, it promoted mutual understanding and rapport between myself and participants (Schensul, Schensul, and

LeCompte, 1999), which further enabled an open communication of information and in-depth discussions of emotional experiences in both interview and observation contexts, a relatively challenging task due to the private and sensitive concerns of individuals’ emotional experiences. Moreover, by engaging in the same events and situations with my participants in the research field on a daily basis, I was able to gain access to a wide range of their daily affective intercultural experiences in great depth, thereby helping me grasp the participants’ perceptions of these experiences and providing the basis for analysing the data I collected.

To sum up, this study shares the characteristics of an ethnographic study in terms of its object, focus, and methods of inquiry. As a result, I adopt an ethnography approach in this study. Furthermore, while this study is an academic ethnography, it also shares some characteristics with an applied ethnography. By exploring Chinese students’ emotional engagements in their intercultural encounters in a UK university, this study mainly aims to contribute to extant intercultural adjustment and intercultural competence literature; it is therefore ‘‘primarily theoretical in nature’’ (Fetterman, 2010, p.4). The findings of this study, however, also have practical implications for prospective Chinese international students, British universities, academic and supportive staff in British universities, and intercultural education in higher education (for more

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detailed discussions of these issues, see the ‘‘Social and educational

implications’’ section in Chapter 8). Although this study is academically-oriented, it can therefore also be applied in pragmatic and policy terms (Fetterman,

2010).