Testing Hypothesises

As the above finding does not seem to warrant any further investigating beyond what they have proven, a discussion of the different hypothesis is now warranted. The choice of acculturation strategy, the effect of language barriers, and migration intention effect on principle variables were tested. The effect of language efficiency on acculturative stress was also further examined. The difference between the ISSAFC in Montreal and in Toronto, in regard to the choice of AS, level

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of acculturative stress, intercultural adaptation and sociocultural adaptation, is addressed as well (see table 6 for One-Sample T Test Value=0).

4.6.1 Integration as a Preferred Acculturation Strategy of International

Students from Sub-Saharan African Francophone Countries

This part explored the principal question of this thesis: what is the preferred acculturation strategy of the ISSAFC?

H1. Most international students from Sub-Saharan African francophone countries will choose integration as their preferred acculturation strategy, by keeping their ethnic cultural values while adopting the host country’s mainstream culture (Berry, 1997). A one sample t-test was performed to test whether ISSAFC will choose integration as their preferred acculturation strategy. The result showed that our test statistic is statistically significant. The ISSAFC choose a different acculturation strategy (M=41.19, SD=6.6) than did international students in general, t (32) = 35.35, p<.001. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected, and a conclusion is made that there are statistically significant differences in the preference of our participants acculturation strategies, with less ISSAFC preferring integration (N = 9) compared to assimilation (N = 17) (see table 7). To confirm our findings, this hypothesis was further examined in the qualitative analysis.

4.6.2 The Effect of Communication Competences on Intercultural Adaptation

We speculate that with greater intercultural communication competences (ICCC), our ISSAFC will be able to fit into the new environment through their participating in a constant communication with the host community (Kim, 2001). This assumption will lead us to the test of the next hypothesis.

H2. ISSAFCs’ greater intercultural communication competences will be associated with the better intercultural adaptation.

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A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between the ICCC (M=31.78, SD=6.36). and ICA (M=19.78, SD=4.31). There was a weak negative linear relationship between the two variables, r = -0.316, n= 32, p = 0.078. Decreases in ICCC were correlated with decreases in ICA.” We were not able to reject the null hypothesis.

4.6.3 Do Language Barriers Increase Acculturative Stress and Decrease

Sociocultural Adaptation?

The next analysis looked at the effect of language barriers on acculturative stress and on sociocultural adaptation.

H3. Language barriers will enhance conflicts with the new culture and lead to greater acculturative stress and lower sociocultural adaptation.

Do Language Barriers Increase Acculturative Stress?

To respond to the question: “do language barriers enhance acculturative stress?” we conducted a Pearson correlation coefficient to assess the relationship between the two variables, language efficiency (M=5.4, SD=1.14). and acculturative stress levels (M=7.6, SD=1.7). The test showed a very weak positive correlation between the two variables, r = 0.018, n = 32, p = 0.921. There is no meaningful relationship between language efficiency and acculturative stress. This is opposed to the general assumption that there is a negative relationship between the two variables (Berry et al., 1987; Kim, 2001; Zhang & Goodson, 2011; Zhou & Zhang, 2014).

Do Language Barriers Hinder Sociocultural Adaptation?

Sociocultural adaptation has been placed within a culture learning approach to acculturation, which emphasises the importance of cross-cultural interactions and the acquisition of culture-specific interpersonal skills and behaviours in new cultural environments (Ward, Bochner & Furnham, 2001; Ward & Kennedy, 1999). According to Zhang and Goodson’s (2011) review of adjustment antecedents, it is postulated that factors such as English language proficiency,

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length of residence, and acculturation preferences predicted sociocultural adaptation. To test the relationship between language efficiency (M=7.7, SD=1.7) and sociocultural adaptation (M=61.7, SD=9.6) a Person’s correlation coefficient was used. The calculation and subsequent significance testing reveal that language efficiency and SCA were significantly positively correlated r (32) = 0.542, p< 0.000. As our participants increase their knowledge of the majority language, they increase their sociocultural adaptation. We fail to reject the null hypothesis.

4.6.4 Migration Intention as Predictor of Principal Variables

We hypothesise that permanent residency intention is a predictor of AS and ASS, SCA, and ICA as measured by the total score on different scales (ps > .05).

H4. Permanent residency intention will significantly predict ISSAFCs’ acculturation orientation, increase sociocultural and intercultural adaptation, and reduce acculturative stress.

Multiple regression analysis was used to test if the intention to migrate after graduation significantly predicted the effect of our principal variables. Intention to immigrate after graduation did not predict any of our dependent variables as shown in the table 8.

4.6.5 Migration Intention as a Moderator of Sociocultural Adaptation

Multiple regression analysis was used to test if the intention to migrate after graduation is a moderator of the significantly negatively correlated relationship between AS and SCA r = -0.50, n = 32, p< 0.00. The results of the regression indicated that migration intention (β = -0.075, p=.68) does not moderate the relationship AS-SCA as shown in the table 9.

4.6.6 International Students from Sub-Saharan African Countries in Toronto

vs. Montreal

To further investigate at which level language barriers affected our participant we have decided tout compare our group from Toronto to another group in Montreal, a French environment. We hypothesis that:

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H5. International students from Sub-Saharan African francophone countries studying in Montreal, a francophone environment will undergo less acculturative stress than the participants studying in Toronto an anglophone environment.

Prior to our analysis, we checked the statistical significance of our variables for Toronto and Montreal Participants. The result showed that all the variables have a p-value p<005 (see table 10). To test whether ISSAFC in Toronto differ from one in Montreal based on their level of acculturative stress, sociocultural adaptation, intercultural adaptation, and the choice of acculturation strategy, we ran a series of Independent Samples T-test. As a result, the participants in Toronto choice of acculturation strategy (M=42.43, SD=6.2) do not differ from the one of the ISSAFC in Montreal (M=38, SD=6.8), t(30) = 1.77, p= .087. For SCA there is no difference between ISSAFC studying in Toronto (M=63.17, SD=9.81) and the one studying in Montreal (M=57.78, SD=8.41), t (30) =1.45, p= .157. The comparison of the two groups for BIAS showed that, Toronto (M=19.35, SD=5.05), Montreal (M=20.89, SD=4.99), t (30) = -.91, p= .372 do not differ in regard to their intercultural adaptation. Our calculations also showed that Toronto ISSAFCs’ level of acculturative stress (M=33.35, SD=10.32), is not statistically different from Montreal participants (M=33.78, SD=7.90), t (30) = -.11, p= .911. As seen in the table 10, in the different cases, the p-value is greater than our chosen significance level α = 0.05. We failed to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no difference between ISSAFC in Montreal and in Toronto regarding their level of acculturative stress, sociocultural adaptation, intercultural adaptation and the choice of acculturation strategy (see table 11). This is based on the fact that the students have access to learning in a French environment. Likewise, both groups had significantly higher preferences for assimilation than did the international students in general.

Following this session is the analysis of our qualitative data. Qualitative data consisted of individual and group interviews. Researchers suggested that combining individual and group

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interviews gives considerable insight into the meanings that acculturation experiences hold for the interviewees (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006). According to Adamson (2004) adding qualitative interviews to standardised survey questions can be a successful method to explore research issues and give insight into challenging topics. The next session also helped to compare and check the findings from quantitative analysis.