Student Intercultural Proficiency From Study Abroad Programs (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Impact of Study Abroad on College Students' Intercultural Competence and Personal Development
2018
Today’s interrelated and interconnected world demands that college students develop the intercultural competence to meet the challenges of the 21 century. In response to this challenge, the number of American students participating in study abroad has been increasing. Many studies shave explored the benefits of studying abroad, yet there are few qualitative studies that investigated its impact on college students’ intercultural competence and personal development. This qualitative study explores the impact of a semester-long study abroad on the development of intercultural competence and personal growth of 150 college students who have studied in different countries. Findings of this study shows that study abroad may enhance intercultural competence and personal development, reflected in the participants’ personal essays on their living experience. They gained a better understanding of their own and other countries’ culture and cultural differences, increased their level of self-con...
Fostering intercultural competence: Impacts of a multi-destination study abroad program
2015
The attainment of attitudes, knowledge, and skills that develop students’ intercultural competence so that they may navigate the globally interconnected environment of the 21 century is touted as an important learning objective for higher education (Deardorff & Jones, 2012). Colleges and universities strive to enhance this learning objective by offering a variety of international opportunities; prominent among these is a period of study abroad. However, past research indicates the results of intercultural development through study abroad are mixed. How can education abroad contribute to students’ intercultural development? This study focuses on a cohort of students who traverse through three countries (China, Russia, India) in the course of one semester as they live and learn together, alongside faculty and staff from their home institution. To better understand the features of study abroad programs that contribute to students’ intercultural development, this study examined the real...
Study Abroad and Intercultural Development: A Longitudinal Study
Hammer and Bennett’s (2002) intercultural development inventory (IDI) is used to assess the impact of a semester long study abroad program on the development of cross-cultural sensitivity. The results of this study provide evidence that a student’s integration and adaptation to cultural experiences continue after a student returns home after their study abroad experience. The IDI was administered on three separate occasions: prior to a semester long study abroad experience, at the conclusion of the program and four months later. In general this study supports the conclusion that study abroad programs have a positive impact on the cross-cultural development of students. However, when improvement is viewed from the perspective of long-term change, some of the gains found immediately after a study abroad experience are diminished over time. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for both research and education.
Journal of Teaching in International Business, 2023
Employers are continually looking for graduates who show an understanding of people with diverse cultures, languages, and religions. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine how participation in study abroad enhanced the interculturality of undergraduate business students. Participants included two cohorts of U.S. students participating in a short-term biennial study abroad program in China. The data were student' scores on The Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES), a 52-item Likert scale spanning nine dimensions: continuous learning, selfawareness, exploration, interpersonal engagement, world orientation, relationship development, hardiness, positive regard, and emotional resilience. The IES was completed pre and post trip. Additional data were collected from the students' openended journals that they wrote while participating in the study abroad program. Quantitative findings revealed that mean scores increased significantly between Time 1 (pre trip) and Time 2 (post trip) for most dimensions of the IES. Qualitative findings showed that three main themes impact student experiences: Travel, Memories, and Culture. Additional qualitative findings revealed that the Enjoyment and Challenges that students experience as part of a formal study abroad curriculum enhanced attainment of learning outcomes.
The impact of studying abroad on students’ intercultural competence: An interview study
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
This paper presents qualitative research examining to what extent sojourns abroad engage their participants in intercultural interactions and whether or not such experience translates into students’ intercultural growth. The results of the study demonstrated that studying abroad did not provide students with ample opportunities to immerse into the local community and fully discover a new cultural environment. However, students surrounded by local and their fellow international students met foreign cultures, which motivated them to explore and interpret the encountered diversity, and thus equipped them with knowledge about foreign cultures, sensitizing them to cultural diversity. Sometimes such contacts challenged students’ preconceived judgments and stereotypes of specific cultural groups, their ways of thinking, valuing and acting, and resulted, to a lesser or greater extent, in rethinking these, leading to changing attitudes and values. International experiences also stimulated st...
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad
This study attempts to discover whether the different study abroad activities in which students participate yield different outcomes for the development of students’ global and intercultural competencies. The five travel and study abroad measures analyzed include experiences in a university study abroad program; study abroad program affiliated with another college or university; travel abroad for cross-cultural experiences or informal education; travel abroad for a service-learning, volunteer, or work experience; and travel abroad for recreation. This study explores the research question at a single institution so as to isolate students’ experiences as they may occur within a single institutional context.
The impact of studying abroad on students’ intercultural competence
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2019
This paper presents qualitative research examining to what extent sojourns abroad engage their participants in intercultural interactions and whether or not such experience translates into students' intercultural growth. The results of the study demonstrated that studying abroad did not provide students with ample opportunities to immerse into the local community and fully discover a new cultural environment. However, students surrounded by local and their fellow international students met foreign cultures, which motivated them to explore and interpret the encountered diversity, and thus equipped them with knowledge about foreign cultures, sensitizing them to cultural diversity. Sometimes such contacts challenged students' preconceived judgments and stereotypes of specific cultural groups, their ways of thinking, valuing and acting, and resulted, to a lesser or greater extent, in rethinking these, leading to changing attitudes and values. International experiences also stimulated students to self-analyze their own cultural identity, and thereby contributed to their growth in self-awareness in this respect. By offering opportunities for experiencing cultural differences and prompting students to develop coping strategies and to make references to the home culture, the sojourn is thus of significant importance for tertiary students, allowing for fostering their intercultural development to a certain degree.
Higher Education Evaluation and Development
PurposeThe purpose of this case study is to explore to what extent US university undergraduates participating in a research abroad program through US–Taiwan Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) developed intercultural awareness and cross-cultural adaptability skills. It also suggests additional program design features to enhance students' international experiences.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand participants' experiences in the PIRE program, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach. Demographic questionnaires, pre- and postsurveys, observational field notes and individual interviews were conducted for data collection and analysis.FindingsStudents perceived the experience abroad to improve their intercultural awareness and skills such as openness to cultural differences, coping with challenges abroad and effectively working in diverse teams. Specifically, quantitative findings reflected group gains in the areas of flexibility/openness...