Supporting international students' intercultural communication and adjustment process to university through activities based on interactional rituals: An action research in communication studies

This research aims to develop international students' intercultural communication skills into their adjustment to university life through action research. With reference to Gay, Mills and Airasian (2009) and Yıldırım and Şimşek (2008), four stages, consisting of "needs analysis, making and implementation of the action plan, evaluation and sharing of the action" were taken as fundamental and a unique model, "Action Research Interactional Ritual Cycle: The Compass Model", has been introduced. Ten international undergraduate students from different countries studying at a foundation university in the Southeastern Anatolia Region voluntarily participated in this study. The research data was collected through "face-to-face interviews, activity-centered focus group meetings and practices, reflective diaries and observation forms". The interactional data was analyzed and evaluated using Kádár's (2017) "interactional ritual" perspective and discourse analysis was used for the analysis of student reflective diaries to determine their reflection of the interaction. A series of practices in the action plan was carried out as activities, experience sharing and workshops by academics who are experts in their fields. The interactional rituals established within the group emerged under the main theme of "in-group interactional rituals in intercultural communication" with sub themes "in-group belonging" and "in-group interaction". The concept maps for the themes and sub-themes were created with MAXQDA. Analysis of the findings obtained from the activities identified two sub-themes of in-group interactional rituals with different sub-themes. "In-group belonging" showed itself as "experience sharing" and "feeling valuable"; "in-group interaction" with the sub-themes of "getting to know cultures" and "getting to know each other". In addition, fine transcription (Jefferson, 2004) of the interactional data obtained from the group was carried out and interactional rituals were revealed through discourse analysis. International students have established and/or reinforced a relationship within the group (Kádár, 2017). This relationship provided the opportunity and benefits for their intercultural communication. It was observed that their sense of belonging to the group and the university increased during this relationship process. By implementing the action plan for social interaction problems determined at the beginning of the action research, students' intercultural communication skills improved and it contributed to the university adaptation process.