By looking into a group of 13 Chinese master's in business administration students' study abroad experience in the United States, this study contends that being situated in the second language (L2) communicative context does not guarantee international students complete access to language and cultural resources in the host society. Due to limited communicative skills and cultural competence in the target language and culture, L2 learners are at a disadvantage to negotiate symbolic power in the host country, which may mediate their opportunities to gain learning resources and academic recognition. How the students negotiate in the academic contexts to balance and counterbalance unequal power relationships strongly influences their access to already limited host culture language resources. The study addresses the issues in communicative difficulties encountered by the international students, and proposes recommendations on what can be done to facilitate the students' academic and sociocultural adjustment.