earticle

영어

This study investigates two Korean study abroad students’ adjustment process, highlighting their linguistic, academic, and emotional issues. Retrospective narrative was used as a methodological framework to reconstruct their life and experience in the host country. Autobiographies, personal conversations, and interviews are the primary data source. The participants were asked to write an autobiography focusing on their study-abroad experience. Personal conversations took place occasionally and field notes were kept during the conversations. Each participant was interviewed every other month, a total of six times distributed over a year. Data analysis reveals that they faced linguistic, academic, and emotional struggle when they arrived in the host country, and that the successful adjustment can be achieved only when all three types of struggles are eliminated. For instance, one was linguistically and emotionally well adjusted, but his unsuccessful academic life forced him to return. The other suffered from the emotional struggle, which was a serious obstacle to integration into the life in the host society.