INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATION ADAPTATION TO ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

As part of globalization with the greater ease of communication and transportation technology, the number of international students studying overseas, especially non-Westerners who study in Western countries such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia, has increased over the years. This research explores the challenges international students faced in the Master's Programs in their adaptation to the new academic environment in the United Kingdom. The researchers used phenomenology as a theoretical perspective by taking into account the U-curve model of intercultural adaptation. This study employed a qualitative method by interviewing six female international students. Based on the research findings, the international students found challenges in adapting to the new academic environment in the United Kingdom. The challenges incorporated a lack of language skills to master study skills, besides difficulties in building relationships and making friends.


INTRODUCTION
There have been many studies focusing on international students' intercultural communication with the host society, emphasizing the adaptation of international students, especially those who have studied in Western countries. The studies focused on international students' experiences in countries with distinct cultures include the following: Ward et al. (1998), Li & Gasser (2005), Cemalcilar & Falbo (2008) Fritz, Chin & DeMarinis (2008), Mulyana & Murtiningsih (2017), Aisha & Mulyana (2019). However, there were fewer studies of the international students' adaptation in the United Kingdom, especially studies based on a phenomenological stance with a qualitative method such as the present study.
One of such a few phenomenological studies is the study conducted by (Aisha & Mulyana, 2019), who investigated 13 Indonesian postgraduate students in the context of education in the United Kingdom. Based on semi-structured interviews with the informants, the study revealed that some interconnected factors were evident in facilitating academic engagement, including socio-cultural, institutional, and individual factors. They consist of institutional support service, course design, caring, and casual tutors, learning from prior experiences, having the initiative to ask, and realizing to make the most of the opportunity. However, the main three factors were also indicated as hindering academic engagement, which consists of the transition to a new academic environment, intense academic workload, 'expert' or 'boring tutors, linguistic barriers, and having feelings of uneasiness.
International students who come to the United Kingdom are taking along their own cultures and expectations with them. They traveled from their home country and entered another environment which might have different ways of living. Regardless of the international students' intellectual ability, their ethnocentric attitude might constitute a significant obstacle in their adaptation to the new academic environment, which will hinder their academic success in the new country. As international students carry their cultural baggage, they have to face the new academic environment as part of their intercultural adaptation. Hence, to some extent, they will find some learning challenges. However, these challenges appeared not only because of cultural differences but because the international students were not familiar with the academic requirements of the United Kingdom higher education institutions (Brooks & Waters, 2011). Several researchers have revealed the academic obstacles. Ryan (2005), for instance, contends that international students suffer from 'academic shock' due to the challenges of a different academic culture and expectations.
Additionally, Gu (2009) suggested that students from non-Western cultural backgrounds encounter various problems when adapting to Western teaching styles. These barriers are related to lack of academic skills, unfamiliarity with different teaching and learning approaches, and tension in student-academic staff relationships. Several challenges were experienced by most international students in the United Kingdom, regardless of their cultural backgrounds (The Higher Education Academy, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c, 2014d. These challenges include problems with language, academic writing, independent learning, and critical thinking. Therefore, exploring the international students' challenges in their intercultural adaptation to the new academic environment in the United Kingdom is deemed necessary. The research question addressed is: "What challenges are faced by the international students in their adaptation to their new academic environment due to cultural differences between the culture of the sojourners and the culture of the host society?" This research considered the wellknown model of U-curve intercultural adaptation theoretically (initially developed by Lysgaand (1955)), which delineates discrete phases from the honeymoon phase to the adjustment (adaptation) phase through the crisis phase (culture shock) and the recovery phase. It has a practical benefit as a lesson learned by prospective students, including those from Indonesia. Future international students may use the results to prepare themselves better to get the best results of their studies in the United Kingdom.

CONCEPTS
The term "adaptation" is often associated with the term "adjustment" and the term "acculturation." Adaptation is the process of change when dealing with a new environment.
It is a dimension of acculturation associated with the change in a group's culture or the individual psychological change when entering a new culture.
Anthropology's discipline often uses the term of acculturation; it is considered a process that is broader than adaptation (which has a biological connotation) and adjustment (which has a psychological connotation). In the literature, the U-curve often links to the three concepts (adaptation, adjustment, and acculturation). It is often considered an adaptation model, or an adjustment model, and occasionally an acculturation model. The last term is often used when the adaptation or the adjustment is cross-cultural or intercultural. Berry (1997) used the term acculturation at the individual level as a process of adapting to a different culture, which involves internal and behavior changes taking place throughout first-hand intercultural contact. He explained that acculturation experiences would differ among people, as a result of group-level and individual moderator factors that influence prior to, or during acculturation, such as demographic factors (gender, age, ethnicity, etc.), cultural distance, or expectations. For instance, in the case of international students, it is assumed that students with better English may find their acculturation process in a foreign country more manageable. However, those who are more dependent on or spoiled by their families may find their acculturation process in a foreign country more difficult. The higher the similarity between the international student's culture and the host country's culture, the easier the student's acculturation will be. For instance, due to this greater cultural similarity, an Indonesian student will adjust to Malaysia more quickly than in the United Kingdom. The outcome of the acculturation process could be positive or negative, depending on the nature of the complex interaction among the factors mentioned above. If the student's acculturation experience is favorable, it could lead to academic success. Conversely, if it is unfavorable, it could lead to acculturative stress and, finally, an academic failure. In their intercultural communication with the host society, and in adjusting themselves to the new academic culture, international students may experience various challenges. One most significant obstacle is often associated with culture shock.
According to Oberg (1960) in their intercultural communication, individuals who enter a different culture will lose familiar cues and signs that are useful to orient themselves during their everyday lives. These cues might include words, gestures, facial expressions, customs, or norms.
The international students transitioning to the United Kingdom higher education system might also meet the challenges in their adaptation to the unfamiliar academic, social, or cultural environment of the country. Culture shock might be experienced in various degrees by these individuals when they are unable to find familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse (Oberg, 1960). According to Furnham & Bochner (1986), culture shock is "the confusion and disorientation that many sojourners experience when they enter a new culture". However, culture shock is normal, and almost every individual experienced it, including international students when entering and living in a foreign country.
In the context of this study, the international students as the subjects of this study may undergo the four phases contained in the U-curve adaptation model: the honeymoon phase or tourist phase, the crisis phase, the gradual recovery phase, and the adaptation phase (Winkelman, 1994). The crisis phase is often associated with culture shock characterized by physical and psychological symptoms such as insomnia, dizziness, frequent urination, itching, homesickness, and irritation.
Although the U-curve has been criticized as simplistic and reductionistic, this theoretical model of cross-cultural adjustment is still beneficial. According to Martin, J. N. and Nakayama (2004), "Although this framework is simplistic and does not represent every migrant's experience, most migrants experience these general phases at one time or another." Mulyana & Murtiningsih (2017), for example, have indicated the usefulness of the U-curve by exploring Indonesian students' intercultural experiences in adjusting themselves in Busan, South Korea. Most of the ten informants of the study experienced all the adaptation phases based on the U-curve model, including culture shock. In the context of their experiences, the process of intercultural adaptation is characterized by the main obstacles that include differences in language and values of friendship, intercultural stereotypes, and prejudices that led to discrimination. Interestingly, those who suffered from culture shock were able to cope with it.
In considering the U-curve intercultural adaptation model, this study highlighted the crisis phase of adaptation or before the recovery phase, characterized by challenges consisting of confusion and difficulties, which might or might not lead to culture shock. Although this study used a phenomenological stance, it did not deny that some structural factors such as gender, ethnicity, religion, and educational background might affect the nature, patterns, and fluctuations of the international students' adaptation in a foreign country. Instead of considering their intercultural adaptation characterized by a linear process such as implied in the U-curve model as delineated above, researchers assume that the international students are also creative in their adaptation to the new academic environment.
Consequently, while theoretically, the four phases of adaptation described above are discrete, researchers argue that in practice, as experienced by the study subjects, they overlap.
For phenomenologists, human behavior is not determined, as suggested by the positivists; instead, it is the product of how people interpret objects around them. The meanings they attach to the objects arise from social interaction and may be modified in the course of that interaction. In this context, the phenomenological perspective emphasizes the vital role of language for human behavior. It also emphasizes a sort of open-ended, partially unpredictable, view of events. Such a process will only be possible if human beings possess and share symbols.
To use Schutz's perspective, in indicating meanings of objects, situations, and behaviors to themselves as well as to others, people have to use what Schutz terms typifications to typify human individuals, human motivations, goals, and action patterns (Schutz, 1976). These typifications are to a large degree determined by the system of relevance, or more specifically, the varieties of goals, purposes, interests, plans, and hopes held by the individuals, all of which originate from or are included in their biographically determined situation, that is "the sedimentation of all man's previous experiences, organized in the habitual possessions of his stock of knowledge at hand" (Schutz, 1972).
An individual's stock of preconstituted knowledge functions as a scheme of interpretation for them until they encounter problematic situations and includes the problematic situations in their stock of knowledge after the problems have been settled. An individual's stock of knowledge continually changes as he or she undergoes new experiences and encounters new problematic situations.
In terms of its structure, the different domains compose the individual's stock of knowledge, the number of domains becoming more complex with each domain containing specific modes of solutions for specific problematic situations. Such social processes have likely been experienced by this study's subjects in their adaptation to the new academic culture in the United Kingdom.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In phenomenology, the number of subjects to be studied is not a significant issue. The study can focus on a few subjects, as Duke recommends from 3 to 10 subjects (Creswell, 2013). According to Braun and Clarke (2013), three to six interviews is deemed sufficient to conduct a phenomenological study aiming to explore the subjects' experience, understandings, and perceptions.
In the context of this study, six female informants from four different countries (one Malaysia, one from China, one from Turkey, and three from Indonesia) undertaking the Master programs at the University College London and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom took part in the research. Since non-probability sampling was used in this study, representativeness was limited. Therefore, this study does not intend to make generalizations. The informants were also diverse in terms of age and experience living in a foreign country. They consisted of a 22year-old Malaysian who lived in Singapore; a 22-year-old Chinese who spent her whole life in China; and a 31-year-old Turkish who had lived in several foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, and three Indonesian students who were 28, 26, and 32 years of age who had also been overseas several times before their studies in the United Kingdom. One informant (Malaysian) was fluent in English while the other five informants (Turkish, Chinese, and Indonesian) had English as their second language. The reason for choosing these informants was solely based on easiness of access (their availability for the research).
As a qualitative approach, the interview was chosen as the method to answer the research questions for various reasons. First, the interview provided the possibility to generate rich data capturing the international students' personal experiences. It also enabled the researchers to understand the context of the challenges they faced since they expressed their views using their own words. Additionally, the in-depth interview offered an opportunity to understand the informant's perspective, considering that each individual might have different angles of seeing things as a result of previous experiences that might influence them (Flick, 2014).
Moreover, the interview has flexibility and adaptability in the process of exploring an issue (Goodenough & Waite, 2012), compared to other methods such as questionnaires. It means that it provides a chance to make necessary changes to the way of asking questions to gain the information needed. In addition, there was also the possibility to dig more information on interesting responses given by the informant. This kind of flexibility and adaptability was useful for further exploration of the international students' experiences.
The type of interview adopted for this study was a semi-structured interview, which took into account data-guided through theories behind research questions as well as the informant's personal experiences (Galletta & Cross, 2013). It was chosen since it allowed the researchers to cover the topic using questions that could be asked in a flexible order and be expanded depending on the responses given. Thus, it offers spaces for unanticipated discoveries within international students' experiences that have not been considered beforehand (Holliday, 2007;Breakwell, 2012).
The instrument used for this study consisted of eleven main questions. It was constructed by considering the concept of culture shock (Oberg, 1960) and acculturation framework (Berry, 1997) which covered the reasons of coming to the United Kingdom, the similarities and differences between the United Kingdom and the informant's home country, expectations that had been and had not been met, and challenges faced during their stay in the United Kingdom.
The interview length varied from 20 to 45 minutes, most informants were interviewed once, and the rest twice. Before conducting the interview, permission was asked for the interview to be digitally recorded. The participants were informed that the questions asked were related to their experience as international students. They were also assured that their identity would be anonymized. In this study, the pseudonyms used for the Malaysian, Chinese, Turkish, and Indonesian students were Tya, Xiao Fei, Fatma, Rina, Nur, and Ani.
Thematic analysis was used as a method to examine the data gathered from the interviews. It refers to the process of analyzing data according to commonalities, relationships, and differences across data set (Gibson & Brown, 2009). Creswell (2013) noted some essential characteristics of phenomenological research. He said that individuals' experiences of the phenomenon under study must be scrutinized and analyzed thoroughly. The data collected from interviews should be analyzed thematically (Miles & Huberman, 1994). This practical method of data analysis was chosen mainly because of its flexibility in terms of how it is used to analyze qualitative data. Moreover, it takes into account themes that emerge through the interview and minimally organize and describe them into detail (Braun & Clarke, 2006). These themes approximate what Schütz (1962) terms "second-order constructs" that have been developed from the informants' stories of their experiences as "first-order constructs." The emerging themes approximately parallel what Moustakas (1994) terms "the composite structural descriptions" developed from the informants' "individual textural descriptions."

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After reviewing and coding all the data, with different codes, researchers have identified two main themes that emerged, as depicted in Figure 2 and Figure 3. Researchers have constructed these thematic networks and compared the emerging themes to one another to figure out how they fit together.

The Euphoria
The first theme was the international students' first impressions of coming to the United Kingdom, as seen in Figure 2. This theme approximately comprises the honeymoon phase of the informants' intercultural adaptation.
By integrating and interpreting the thematic network and the analysis of the data, researchers have found that basically, the whole process of the international students' adaptation to the new academic environment has come closer to the model of cross-cultural adjustment as formulated by Oberg (1960). Although, this study assumed that the informants were free and creative to tell their experiences in adjusting themselves in the United Kingdom.
According to (Oberg, 1960), the first phase prior to culture shock is the honeymoon phase, which is indicated by the interest, excitement, and positive expectations. The findings also indicated that the international students studying in the United Kingdom also went through the honeymoon phase when they felt their experience of coming to the United Kingdom as a dream or a movie scene. They were excited to visit a new advanced country like the United Kingdom, beautiful buildings and sceneries, new people with different cultural traits and characters. The following extracted from the interviews confirm this tendency. All informants showed the excitement of their experiences when arriving in the United Kingdom.
"This kind of like a dream, you know. Suddenly, from an Asian country and then you fly thirteen hours, and you are going to stay there for a year or something and I will be here alone"-Tya.
"I really loved when I arrived here, very exciting, and I feel oh it is just like the movie. I walk through the road and find out wow the buildings; I think it is a movie scenery something like that like a story."-Xiao Fei "I was excited and nervous. Luckily my best friend picked me up at the airport. When I first realized that I will study in the UK, I was proud and anxious" -Nur. "I love living in Oxford. Maybe it will be different if I first settled down here, but Oxford is like a dream city, and it is all like peaceful."-Fatma "The people were very kind. I brought a very heavy loaded baggage and have to use public transport, London Underground to head home. But, throughout my journey, a lot of people helped to carry my bags without different intentions, sincerely helping others. The city is prettier than I imagined. My flat was around Hyde Park. The public park was huge, well organized, artistically decorated, and very clean" -Ani.

Source: Research Findings
However, when they began their studies, soon they realized that things were not as dreamlike and easy as they had thought.

The Challenges
The second theme is related to the challenges faced by international students. It represents the second (crisis) phase of the international students' intercultural adaptation characterized by anxieties, confusion, and difficulties. Researchers found that the informants hardly suffered from severe culture shock characterized by serious physical and psychological symptoms such as dizziness, frequent urination, irritation, insomnia, and homesickness. In the beginning, they acted like observers of the new culture than as participants or members of that culture.
The challenges of the international students faced in the second phase of their adaptation were categorized into academic challenges and non-academic challenges. The academic challenge consists of four subthemes, while the non-academic challenge consists of two subthemes. Figure 3 illustrates such thematic network.
The crisis phase may begin immediately upon arrival or delayed, depending on the individual. (Berry, 1997) explained that acculturation experiences are influenced by group-level factors as well as moderating factors of the individual before or during acculturation. The study participants have different ages, nationalities, expectations, and experiences, which might make them experience the crisis phase differently. During this phase, minor problems may turn into major issues, and cultural differences start to become irritating (Winkelman, 1994). Central to the crisis phase was the academic challenges faced by international students. All participants had expectations about their teaching and learning processes that were not met.
"I am occupied by my study because it a one-year study. Besides, my study background is Journalism, but now I am studying Digital Anthropology. So, I have to study classical theories that were written in the 19 th century. It is very tough." Ani.
"I didn't like the way of teaching (laughs)." Fatma.
"It is difficult to write papers as assignments the way students do here by reading a lot and criticizing what I read. I am not used to doing it" -Nur.
In this phase, some informants were confused about how to apply the knowledge in the real world. "So, they put a lot of focus on research work in the class rather than teaching us the application of the theory, like how we apply it in real life." -Tya "We just know the research; we don't know why they do the research or some further information about it." -Xiao Fei Some informants found difficulties in being an independent learner. "The format of the study is different. Here I have to be an independent learner. I have to explore academic journals alone. I have to answer questions and organize the structure of the paper with the right grammar, while diction must also be enriched." -Ani "The teacher only teaches two classes, two courses, two days. Maybe one day I can get used to the teacher, and another day, he will go, change to another teacher." -Xiao Fei.
"You are so, like independent. You should try to study by yourself. They don't really teach in the class, and they don't really help you a lot." -Fatma Two informants felt they lacked the necessary study skills, which became a barrier for them in their studies.
"I think it is, it's a challenge for me because there is so much literature I read and I always forgot the previous one, what is it that he said in that article, so I need to go back into and find the conclusion." -Xiao Fei "My British friend helped me to review my grammar for my dissertation. His input was very detailed with suggestions" -Ani.
Besides academic difficulties, some informants faced difficulties in building relationships and making friends with other people. "Here it's more like just meeting people at school and then going home because people will be busy at work, full-time work, part-time work, or other activities." -Tya "I find it English people are always, I mean they are polite, but there is some distance with foreigners and me." -Xiao Fei "I find difficulties in making friends with people from various corners of the world. It is my first time to live overseas for a relatively long time. I am not confident in my English, especially when I attend a large university class. At first, I was shy because I thought I could not speak English very well, then I knew that many international students had the same problem. I think most students have different lifestyles, such as when they go to the pub after class or to the party. Even though I would want to know what it was, I hesitated to go, and I thought it was against my values, so I decided to go straight home after class. I only had a chance to chat with other students while studying together and discussing assignments" -Nur.
"The British people lack expression, both men and women. In class, I was the only Indonesian. There were also two Asians, from Taiwan and South Korea. People knew little about Indonesia. Some knew about Indonesia from Bali and the documentary by Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing, which is a very negative tone in terms of human rights violation. The difference was in sharing jokes-the joke with poker face and straight expression. Sometimes I thought they were joking, but they were not, more like satire jokes. They also did not like to talk about private things, like family. Usually, just talk about general daily activities and study" -Ani.
More specifically, language barriers caused the participants to face difficulties in understanding other people as well as expressing themselves appropriately.
"I have to adapt to the British accent, apparently, and try to understand the way they speak or try to change the way I speak so they can understand me." -Tya. "I like communicating with people, but if you struggle with the communication, you stuck when talking to people, you cannot understand what they are talking, it's embarrassing." -Xiao Fei "English is my second language, which I use here, and sometimes I feel like I don't express myself properly, and it's kind of bad feeling." -Fatma "I have difficulties in understanding my teachers' accent. They speak too fast. But they often repeat what they say when I do not understand their expressions." -Ani

Discussion
International students have come to and lived in the United Kingdom for a specific period to obtain a postgraduate degree. Their maximum participation in their course of study is inevitable to optimize their learning experience. This study intended to understand the extent to which these students subjectively feel academically hindered within their courses of study.
This study has confirmed previous studies conducted by some researchers such as Ryan (2005), Gu (2009), Mukminin & McMahon (2013), Novera (2004), that international students have dealt with various problems in their educational sojourn in Western countries. These problems include, among others, a lack of academic (speaking/ listening/writing) skills and unfamiliarity with different teaching and learning styles, in addition to difficulties in developing relationships with the host society.
Although the international students are active and innovative human beings in adjusting themselves and in communicating interculturally, as the phenomenological perspective assumes, this study indicated that to some extent the U-curve as a model of intercultural adaptation is still valid, despite the fact that this model has been criticized by many scholars, especially those who carried out phenomenological research focusing on the consciousness and the creativity of the subjects under study. However, as this study showed, the process of the international students' intercultural adaptation in a foreign country does not always lead to a culture shock, although a mild crisis might be experienced. As in the case of the informants of this study, how great the differences between the sojourners' culture and the host society's culture did not matter.
Overall, the study found that albeit not being delineated here, the informants could adjust themselves better after they had experienced the crisis period. They reported that they had already learned from academic challenges in the previous period how to overcome similar challenges more efficiently, which made their learning process better. Individual and institutional factors might facilitate this easier learning process (Aisha & Mulyana, 2019). This study suggests that to be academically successful in their academic environment in particular and in their new cultural environment in general, the international students require intercultural competence that will facilitate their adaptation in the new country.
There were several limitations regarding the findings of this study. First, as this is a qualitative study based on interviews with six international students, this study's results could not be generalized to the broader population of international students in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the informants were selected through non-probability sampling. Second, the informants only represented four countries, and all of them were females. The results could be different if the study included male participants and also from more countries. Third, the interview lasted for approximately 20 to 45 minutes. A more extended time would offer the opportunity to dig more information about the participants' backgrounds, thoughts, feelings, and experiences faced during their intercultural adaptation.

Conclusion
It can be concluded from the results of this research that after arriving in the United Kingdom, the international students started to face academic and non-academic difficulties, which led to the crisis phase, albeit being mild. The academic difficulties consisted of dealing with previously held expectations about the teaching and learning process, confusion about how to apply the learned knowledge in realworld settings, becoming an independent learner, and lacking the necessary study skills. The difficulties faced outside the academic settings include the difficulties to develop relationships with other people.

Recommendation
To gain more insight about international students' intercultural adaptation in the United Kingdom, researchers should interview more informants from various backgrounds in terms of nationality, ethnicity, religious background, gender, language skills, levels of education (including undergraduate education or doctoral education), even in terms of the cities or the universities where they study. Different models or patterns of intercultural adaptation may be associated with socio-cultural differences among the investigated international students. The research findings might be different if more students from various socio-cultural backgrounds, including more education levels in the United Kingdom, were incorporated into the research to develop better themes and categories.