Date of Award
Spring 1972
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Nordberg, Robert B.
Second Advisor
Ivanoff, John
Third Advisor
Kipfmueller, Mark
Abstract
In the summer of 1968, the present writer, together with a group of American educators in Taiwan, set up an experimental program named East West Village. This program consisted of intensive courses in conversation and reading in English, lectures in American history, geography and customs, experiences in group dynamics, and home-stay weekends with American families in the Taipei area. The program was offered again during the summers of 1969, 1970, and 1971. Each session lasted five full weeks and enrolled approximately 50 Chinese students who were in the process of preparing themselves for higher studies in the United States. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the graduates of the East West Village program were adjusting to their life in the United States. The subjects for the experimental group consisted of 61 graduates of East West Village (villagers) who returned the completed questionnaire sent to them early in January of 1972. The control group consisted of 53 Chinese students in the United States who had attended no pre-departure orientation programs (non-villagers). The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire adapted primarily from research conducted by Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute and was designed to test six hypotheses. The hypotheses and the related findings are summarized. 1. Villagers are likely to report greater satisfaction in the accomplishment of their goals in the United States than non-villagers. While this hypothesis was not confirmed, a higher percentage of the villagers than the non-villagers reported greater satisfaction in their experiences of accomplishing their goals in the United States; one goal, getting my degree, did achieve statistical significance at .05 level. 2. Villagers will likely report fewer health problems than non-villagers. Nor was this hypothesis confirmed, yet a greater percentage of villagers than non-villagers reported themselves to be in excellent health and gave evidence of fewer health complaints; they reported a greater need for medical attention...