Acculturation strategy among Malaysian students in Japan

Abstract

The bottom line for most international students is to do well academically and the perseverance to perform well academically is moderated by many factors. Failure to adapt to the changes in the new environment would tax on the psychological wellbeing, exhaust the students and strain the academic performance. Acculturation which is a part of the moderating factor for adaptation can be assessed by measuring the assimilation into the host culture and retention of the origin culture. Researchers have pointed out that most western theories and findings on adaptation for international sojourners could not capture the phenomenon happening in Japan due to the unique nature of the Japanese host and sojourners. Researches on international students in Japan fall short at clarifying the experience of the Malaysian students in the country. This paper focuses on the need for a measurement tool such as acculturation scale for Malaysian students specifically in Japan by looking into the acculturation studies that has been conducted in both Japan and the West. This paper also discuss the relevant constructs from other acculturation scales such as the Indonesian Acculturative Rating Scale (IARS) proposed by Hondojo (2000) and Acculturative Scale for Asians (ASA) by Kim (2001). The implication of the study is a possible extension on the theory of acculturation strategy which is widely used in the western research, by adding an alternative culture option to the list of preferred culture. It is hope that this study would support effective counseling by suggesting evidence in avoiding generalization and stereotyping of western cases in the counseling, orientation and intervention programs for Malaysian students in Japan universities.