Walking Across the Wall: Changes in Communicative Behaviors of Chinese Students in the United States (2013)

Undergraduate: Yueqin Chen

Faculty Advisor: Debashis Aikat
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

---

The burgeoning group of Chinese students pursuing higher education in the United States poses new research questions about how their study abroad experiences reshape their values and behaviors. Based on qualitative data from in-depth interviews, this study seeks to understand how study abroad experience, especially the idea of freedom of speech, influences how Chinese students studying at U.S. higher institutions express opinions and ideas. It also explores changes in their social-media practice and other communicative behaviors. Examining the changes in these students¿ values and particularly their opinion expression in practice would shed light on how they might influence the formation of public opinion in China.