This study emphasizes that importance of social identity. Foreign students are confronted with a new culture and environment during study abroad. In effect, social identity is important for them to adapt to a new culture. The issue of social identity has been investigated from several viewpoints. For enhancing social identity, we investigate what factors could enhance social identity. This research focuses on foreign language ability, person-culture fit, and social behavior, and investigates their influence on social identity. Furthermore, enhancing such factors may help students to adapt successfully to a new environment and lead to positive performance over time for students who study abroad. From the regression analysis, all factors had a positive effect on social identity. This demonstrates that if students enhance such factors then social identity could also improve. Moreover, if students adapt to the culture of Korea successfully then they may be more satisfied with their life studying abroad, which may in turn lead to better academic performance. © 2017 International Information Institute.

Foreign language ability Social behavior Person-culture fit Social identity

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