1 Introduction

This section introduces the expansion of international student enrollment in China and the challenges of cultural adaptation, elaborates on policy requirements regarding cultural adaptation, and clarifies the research focus on enhancing international students’ language application and cultural adaptation abilities through Chinese language teaching to support the high-quality development of international education.

2 Theoretical and Research Review

First, the relationship between cultural adaptation and language barriers is explored, noting that cultural adaptation is a process of change in individuals or groups following contact between different cultural groups, influenced by multiple factors, with language issues being one of the primary stressors in cross-cultural adaptation and closely related to the degree of cultural adaptation. Next, the focus shifts to the cultural adaptation issues of international students in China, emphasizing that China's unique socio-cultural characteristics present complex challenges for them. Scholars have examined these issues from various perspectives and proposed improvement measures, though existing research falls short in addressing the complex relationship between language barriers and cultural adaptation, as well as in leveraging language teaching to promote cultural adaptation. Finally, an in-depth discussion is provided on related research and conceptual definitions of contextualized issues, including the definitions of "contextualization" and "contextualized teaching," the practical value of contextualized teaching, and the delineation of contextualized issues. It highlights that contextualized issues are characterized by context-dependence, individual differences, group commonalities, dynamism, and practicality. Special attention is given to the contextualized issues faced by international students in Chinese contexts, offering theoretical foundations and practical references for optimizing international Chinese language teaching models.

3 Research Design

This section introduces the research design for Chinese language teaching oriented toward cultural adaptation, including research methods and data collection, research subjects, and analytical procedures. The study employs qualitative analysis methods, collecting data through semi-structured interviews while adhering to academic ethics and ensuring informed consent from participants. The selection of research subjects considers diversity, using a combination of purposive sampling and snowball sampling. The analytical procedure follows thematic analysis, involving familiarization with data, initial coding, thematic categorization, review of themes, definition and naming of themes, and report writing. It emphasizes a data-driven inductive approach to ensure the transparency and credibility of the research findings.

4 Research Findings

This chapter, through an in-depth analysis of the cultural adaptation issues faced by international students in China, extracts 95 initial codes, categorizes them into 41 sub-themes, and ultimately synthesizes 7 core themes. These include adaptation to student life, economic costs of studying abroad, leisure and digital adaptation, social pressures and interpersonal relationships, academic adaptation, job opportunities and personal development, as well as cultural differences and value conflicts. These themes reveal the diverse challenges international students encounter during the cultural adaptation process, with language barriers being a key factor. Additionally, the study finds that current Chinese language teaching is disconnected from cultural adaptation, primarily manifested in mismatches between teaching content and practical needs, as well as a lack of interactivity and practicality in classroom teaching methods. This limits students' language application abilities and hinders their cultural adaptation progress.

5 Discussion and Recommendations

This chapter discusses the challenges posed by cultivating cultural adaptation abilities among international students in China for Chinese language teaching models. It notes that their cultural adaptation challenges are diverse, with language barriers at the core, and that traditional Chinese language teaching inadequately covers behavioral culture while employing monotonous teaching methods. Based on this, recommendations are proposed to optimize teaching content, diversify teaching methods, and refine teaching philosophies. Emphasis is placed on centering around contextualized issues, adopting interactive and practical teaching approaches, and integrating language teaching with cultural adaptation to enhance the cultural adaptation abilities of international students in China.

6 Conclusion

This study takes international students’ cultural adaptation as its starting point to explore the issues and challenges they face in Chinese contexts, highlighting the critical role of language ability in cultural adaptation and pointing out the disconnect between Chinese language teaching and the needs of cultural adaptation. By analyzing contextualized issues, it deepens theoretical understanding and provides support for optimizing teaching content, emphasizing the importance of teaching behavioral culture. It calls for strengthening practice-oriented and interactive experiences, optimizing teaching models with a cultural adaptation orientation, enhancing international students' language application and cultural adaptation abilities, and promoting cultural understanding and social integration.