Electronic Theses and Dissertation

Di Universitas Syiah Kuala terdapat mahasiswa internasional yang berasal dari beberapa negara asing, sehingga tidak dipungkiri mereka mengalami fenomena culture shock. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui fenomena gegar budaya di lingkungan lembaga akademik dan cara mengatasi gegar budaya tersebut. Peneliti menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan instrumen berupa wawancara semi terstruktur. Respondennya adalah tiga mahasiswa internasional dari Gambia, Sierra Leone, dan Republik Mali. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian diketahui bahwa semua mahasiswa internasional mengalami gegar budaya baik dalam kehidupan akademik maupun kehidupan sosial. Ada dua hal yang menyebabkan gegar budaya dalam kehidupan akademik, yaitu; perbedaan sistem akademik dan culture shock di kelas. Sedangkan hal-hal yang mempengaruhi kehidupan sosial adalah; kendala bahasa, sikap dan perilaku siswa lokal, dan interaksi antara perempuan dan laki-laki. Dalam proses adaptasi terhadap culture shock, peneliti mengaitkannya berdasarkan teori Affective, Behavior, dan Cognitive atau disebut juga dimensi ABCs oleh Ward (2001). Temuan terpenting yang menjadi faktor utama penyebab culture shock di kalangan mahasiswa internasional adalah kendala bahasa.

At Universitas Syiah Kuala, there are international students from several foreign countries, so it is undeniable that they experienced the phenomenon of culture shock. This study aims to investigate the phenomenon of culture shock in the academic institution environment and how to overcome this culture shock. Researcher used a qualitative method which used semi-structured interviewed as the instrument. The respondents are three international students from The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Republic of Mali. Based on research result, it was discovered that all of international students experienced culture shock in both academic life and social life. There are two points caused culture shock in academic life, namely; differences in academic system and culture shock in the classroom. While the things that affect the social life are; language barrier, local students’ attitude and behavior, and interaction between women and men. In the process of adapting to culture shock, researcher linked it based on the theory of Affective, Behavior, and Cognitive or also called the ABCs dimension by Ward (2001). The most important finding is the main factor that caused culture shock among international students is language barrier.