European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1015774 Volume 3 │Issue 10 │2017 UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF BEING AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT: A METAPHOR ANALYSIS STUDY Levent Yaycii Department of Educational Sciences, Guıdance and Counseling, Faculty of Education, Giresun University, Turkey Abstract: The aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of international students studying in Turkey and university students who are Turkish citizens and continue their education in Turkey in relation to being an international student with the help of metaphors. The study group consists of 79 students, 35 of which are Turkish citizens and 44 are international students, studying at Giresun University in the spring term of the 2016-2017 academic year. The study was conducted according to the phenomenology model among qualitative research patterns. The data of the study were obtained by university students filling in the sentences such as being an international student is similar to/like....... because...... . The international students in the study group produced 43 different valid metaphors and students who were Turkish citizens produced 27 different valid metaphors. It was observed that 59 of these metaphors were positive, and 11 of them were negative. The metaphors created by the international students were included in 11 categories, and the metaphors created by the students who were Turkish citizens were included in nine categories. Keywords: metaphor, metaphorical perception, international student 1. Introduction Many students go to other countries than their own countries to receive higher education due to competition or quota limits, the lack of departments that require expertise or the effects of negative political and social factors in their countries “rkalı- Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 379 Levent Yayci UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF ”EING “N INTERN“TION“L STUDENT: A METAPHOR ANALYSIS STUDY Olcay and Nasır, 6 . Turkey has become an attractive country especially for students in the Turkish Republics and related communities because of its program diversity in higher education, the opening of additional quotas for foreign students in postgraduate and doctoral programs, and cultural affinity. The idea that the education in our country is more qualified and the fact that Turkey is perceived as a country worth living can be shown among the reasons why these students prefer Turkey in higher education Kıroğlu, Kesten and Elma, and “ydınlı . In a study carried out by Tekelioğlu, ”aşer, Örtlek , it was suggested that the large part of international students coming to Turkey prefer our country according to preliminary information and expectation. This situation shows that many students who come to Turkey for higher education consciously prefer Turkey. However, international students face education problems caused by being a student during their higher education as well as some socio-cultural problems such as being in a different country, cultural differences, difficulties in family longing and dormitory life, accommodation, health and incompatibility in friend relationships. Meeting these needs facilitates the adaptation process of international students (Uygun, 2004; Ghanbary, 2017). In our country, the definition of "international student" has been used instead of the definition of "foreign student" in recent years, and the contribution that these students make to the "international" identity of the university is brought to the forefront despite the "other, different" meanings of the word "foreign" (Özkan and AcarGüvendir, 2015). "A student who is not a citizen of the Republic of Turkey (R.T) and who is studying on his own account or on a scholarship for social, cultural and professional development in an educational institution of all grades and branches in Turkey with student visas or special permits" is defined as an international student (Ministry of Development, 2015). When the data of the Presidency of the Council of Higher Education on international students studying in Turkey are examined, it is observed that a total of 103.727 international students continued their education in our country in the 2016-2017 academic year. Among them, Azerbaijani citizens are ranked as the first with 15.036 people, Syrian citizens are ranked as the second with 14.765 people, and Turkmenistan citizens are ranked as the third with 10.642 people (General Directorate of Immigration Management, 2017). When the data are analyzed, it is observed that most of the international students in Turkey come from the related countries or the countries with historical or cultural ties with Turkey Özoğlu, G(r and Coşkun, . “lthough Turkey has developed rapidly in internationalization in education, it is still behind the OECD countries. While the number of international students in the OECD countries is % on average, it is at the level of . % in Turkey Şimşek and ”akır, European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 6. 380 Levent Yayci UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF ”EING “N INTERN“TION“L STUDENT: A METAPHOR ANALYSIS STUDY International education is an important tool for communities to remove their prejudices about people from different religions, countries and races and to develop an understanding and respectful point of view on different cultures. Mutual interaction and dialogue contribute to the change of stereotypes in mind. For example, in a study carried out on 11 students who came to the USA to receive education, it was observed that students' negative thoughts about Americans changed after they started to receive education (Pinkerton, 2006). Internationalization in education also provides sociological, political and economic resources for the countries accepting international students. In our country, there is a university in each province, and there are international students from different countries in each university. The citizens of many cities get the opportunity of interacting with foreign individuals and recognizing the cultures outside of their relatively closed cultures through international students. Turkey is a country where especially the students coming from the Turkish and related communities have a relatively easy adaptation due to the hospitality of people and its religious and cultural affinity. International students integrate with the city and have a mutual acculturation process by renting a house, doing shopping, working in different workplaces, meeting with their friends' family and neighbours. These students are also models to their friends in the class or dormitory with respect to receiving international education and increasing the motivation of their friends in benefiting from exchange programs. Some of the Turkish citizen students develop schemes to be international students thanks to these students or make positive or negative changes in existing schemes. In the studies carried out on international students in our country, the issues on the communication experiences of students in the educational environment “paydınŞen, , their satisfaction levels ”ayraktaroğlu and Mustafayeva, support and social commitment Traş and G(ngör, needs Yiğit, , their social , their basic psychological , their social problems Paksoy, Paksoy and Özçalıcı, 012), their social adaptation (Özçetin, 2013), intercultural communication concerns of Turkish and foreign students participating in Erasmus program (Bozkaya and Erdem-“ydın, and their perceptions of Turkey and Turkish “lyılmaz, ”içer and Çoban, , 15) were examined. Abroad, studies were carried out on the issues such as the stress sources of students (Chen, 1999), their satisfaction levels (Arambewela and Hall, 2009), their adaptation to anew culture (Evans and Stevenson, 2011), and student profiles, needs and problems (Ghanbary, 2017). No study aimed at determining the perceptions of international students studying in Turkey and university students of Turkish citizenship who continue their education in Turkey of being an international student, which is the subject of this study, was encountered. The idea that revealing the positive European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 381 Levent Yayci UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF ”EING “N INTERN“TION“L STUDENT: A METAPHOR ANALYSIS STUDY and negative thoughts, stereotypes, worries and wrong information, if any, about being an international student by determining the perceptions of students who have and do not have this experience about being an international student will contribute to counselling studies to be performed and to the development of educational policies constitutes the reason for conducting this study. In the study, an attempt to determine the students' perceptions of being an international student through metaphors was made. The metaphor is to use a word or concept in a way that it will have different meanings other than what is accepted (Turkish Language Society, 2015). Metaphors can be used to show how a concept or phenomenon is perceived “ydın, . Metaphors provide a libertarian environment that supports creative thinking, offers the opportunity to reveal different points of view, develops insight into learners, and entirely progresses according to the thinking system of individuals, not within the framework of certain limits (Zheng and Song, 2010; Koç, 2014). In the studies in which metaphor was used as a perception tool in Turkey, subjects such as the concept of teacher Yılmaz, Göçen and Yılmaz, Kaya, , book ”ektaş, Okur and Karadağ, , globalization , environment Meral, K(ç(k and Gedik, 2016), KPSS (public personnel selection examination) perceptions of students (Karadeniz, 2016) and perceptions of career (Korkut and Keskin, 2016) were studied. The aim of this study was to determine the perceptions of international students studying in Turkey and university students of Turkish citizenship who continue their education in Turkey of being an international student through metaphors.  In line with this purpose, answers to the following questions were searched: By which metaphors do the international students studying in Turkey and university students of Turkish citizenship who continue their education in  Turkey express the concept of "being an international student"? How do students describe the metaphors they have expressed? For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/1112 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 10 │ 2017 382