The Effects of Acculturation Preferences on International Students’ Academic Adaptation: The Mediating Role of Willingness to Communicate

The present study investigated the mediating role of communication willingness in the impact of acculturation preferences on academic adaptation among 294 Chinese international students in the United States. The results of the Structural Equation Model (SEM) indicated that adopting American culture was a positive predictor of higher academic adaptation, and maintaining Chinese culture was negatively associated with academic adaptation. The willingness to interact with strangers, friends, and acquaintances in a second language context has been found to be positively associated with adopting American culture, and negatively associated with maintaining Chinese culture, which exhibited significant differences. The mediating role of willingness to communicate underscores the importance of social interactions in the acculturation process. Willingness to communicate with strangers, friends, and acquaintances significantly mediated the relationship between adopting American culture, maintaining Chinese culture and cross-cultural academic adaptation. The findings of this study indicate that willingness to communicate exerts a significant influence on the mediation of acculturation preferences and cross-cultural academic adaptation.