Teaching Practice Abroad for Developing Intercultural Competence in Foreign Language Teachers (original) (raw)
Related papers
2021
Recent years have witnessed the surge of the number of students who partake in various study abroad programs. As a result, more students are exposed to international and intercultural experiences, leading to increased intercultural competence. This exposure is especially significant for language teachers as they are at the frontline in exposing their students to foreign languages and cultures. The present study investigates pre-service English as A Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' study abroad experiences. More specifically, the present study investigates pre-service teachers' intercultural competence development during their study abroad programs. A qualitative research approach is applied. In-depth interviews were done with three participants to collect the data. The research finding may contribute towards a better understanding of Indonesian pre-service teachers' intercultural competence development in their study abroad programs.
Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2021
Study/Teach abroadexperiences, are shown to impact prospective teachers’ beliefs and values, offering exposure to diverse educational systems and teaching philosophies. This qualitative exploratory case study aimed to investigate the impact of the Comenius language assistantship program on the sociolinguistic perspectives and meaning schemes of Turkish pre-service teachers of English, in different intercultural educational contexts in Europe between 2011 and 2014. It incorporated both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and World Englishes (WE) perspectives. The theoretical framework in the study is Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning theory. The data, collected via semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, were analyzed via content analysis. The findings indicated that although their social and educational backgrounds affected their interpretations of international teaching experiences, participants seemed to share an overarching sociolinguistic perspective. Changes emerged in four meaning schemes: inclusive pedagogical practices, teaching and learning English from the ELF-and WE-aware perspectives, creative and critical thinking activities, as well as intercultural awareness. The study underscored the necessity of integrating the following issues into pre-servicelanguage teacher education programs: intercultural awareness, competence, and communication, as well as linguistic and cultural diversity. The findings also emphasized the teacher educators’ role as facilitators in terms of enhancing the transformative potential of the international teaching experiences
The longitudinal impact of teaching abroad: An analysis of intercultural development
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2017
h i g h l i g h t s Preservice teachers experienced being the 'other' teaching in Florence schools. Teaching language learners produced professional growth during and post experience. A limited understanding of how culture impacts teaching and curriculum was evident. Contexts of experience were significant factors in intercultural development. Personal identity was not central to professional intercultural competency growth.
Sustainable Multilingualism
Summary With the globalization of the world and the ease to travel to different parts of the globe, the popularity of exchange programs for students has increased. Many students around the world apply such programs in order to have international learning experiences in which they can, besides educational purposes, meet new social and cultural values while introducing their native cultures. As study-abroad experiences have attracted attention regarding their various effects on the participants, research focusing on students participating in such programs may provide useful insight on their contributions to pre-service teachers’ teaching philosophies. Therefore, this study is intended to investigate the effects of a study-abroad experience on the way three pre-service teachers perceived the teaching profession and whether it modified their teaching philosophy. The data were collected through reflection reports and semi-structured interviews with three Turkish pre-service teachers who ...
The Impact of Study Abroad on the Professional Lives of World Language Teachers
Foreign Language Annals, 2010
This article adds to the limited body of research on study abroad for experienced world/foreign language teachers. It describes a 3-week institute sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities that took place in Lyon, France, during summer 2007. The study examines the institute' s impact on a wide spectrum of the professional lives of the 30 teacher participants. Following a qualitative research paradigm, the study reports on the teachers' perspectives of further development of their proficiency in French and the expansion of their knowledge of cultural products, practices, and perspectives of France and Lyon. The study describes the curricular and instructional changes teachers made due to their participation and reports on the impact of the institute on their professional lives outside the classroom.
Interculturality and English as a lingua franca - Internationalizing teacher education
2016
This dissertation examines factors that distinguish an international English-medium instruction (EMI) teacher education programme from mainstream teacher education programmes. International teacher education is understood in this study as a transdisciplinary programme that is taught in English as a lingua franca (ELF) and that admits both international and domestic students. The students thus originate from different backgrounds and they are not all familiar with the local school system. The programme is mostly taught by teacher educators educated in the local context. This study explores student teachers' and teacher educators' conceptions and experiences of and adjustment to multiculturalism and English as a lingua franca in a Finnish university context. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the roles that these factors play in implementing an international subject teacher education programme within the context of local (teacher) education. This PhD study consists of five separate but interrelated studies that together form a more holistic picture of the phenomena studied. The five sub-studies examine the phenomena from different perspectives and aim at highlighting issues that are important for programme development. The sub-studies use various data collection methods: interviews, focus groups, student course work, questionnaires, and an excerpt from a recorded lecture. The data analysis methods consist of discursive pragmatics, thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis. As its theoretical contribution this study weaves together the four factors of internationalization, interculturality (including the inclusion of immigrant teachers in local schools as an intercultural phenomenon), transdisciplinarity and English as a lingua franca, and conceptualizes their interrelations. On the one hand, this study reveals the complexity of constructing an international teacher education programme. On the other hand, the study provides a model for supporting teaching and learning in the context of international, transdiscipinary teacher education in order for it to serve the needs and demands of today's students, teachers, institutions and societies.
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the self-perceived influence of short-term exchanges in schools abroad on future foreign language teacher’s professionalization, regarding professional values and pedagogy and practice. It grasps students’ changes in the perception of values attached to short-term exchanges in a professional setting. Design/methodology/approach – In the scope of the European project SPIRAL, four prospective foreign language teachers attended a two-week internship at schools in another country. This paper explores, resorting to a combined content and discourse analysis, their letters of motivation (two months before the exchange), emails sent individually to the local coordinator (one week after the arrival) and a focus-group interview (two months after the arrival). Findings – Future foreign language teachers change their focus when referring to the values attached to their experiences at schools abroad: from an initial focus on language skills improvement, they come to value the intercultural pedagogic experience they lived, focusing on differences and similarities between professional values and pedagogical practices across the contexts. Practical implications – A generalized introduction of professional exchange programs, both in pre-service and continuing teacher education, could improve teachers’ perceptions of global structural, educational, political and curricular contexts and demands. It would also help the teachers decenter from educational practices and professional habitus taken for granted, and raise their awareness of what it means to be educated and professionalized in other contexts. Originality/value – Few studies have focused on short-term exchanges and their impact on teachers’ professional development. The present paper highlights the pedagogical, intercultural and identity building potential of short-term exchanges in foreign language teacher education. Keywords: Professional development, Pre-service teacher education, Foreign language teachers, Short-term exchanges
Foreign Language Teachers’ Intercultural Competence as a New Aspect of Professional Development
Journal of Culture and Values in Education
This mixed-method study aims to offer an insight into foreign language teachers’ perceptions on the relationship between intercultural competence and professional development. It is also attempted to explore some methods for evaluating teachers’ intercultural competence through their professional development activities. The research participants are local and international instructors at a private university in Turkey. Data was collected via a web-based questionnaire adapted from Sercu (2006) and a semi-structured interview designed by the researchers. The general findings of the study indicate that learning about a) target culture, b) local culture, and c) international students’ culture contribute to foreign language teachers’ intercultural competence and it is considered as a part of their professional development. However, it is pointed out that pre-service and in-service teacher training programs in Turkey cannot provide sufficient facilities to develop teachers’ intercultural ...
Intercultural competence of university teachers: a challenge of internationalization
Journal of Language and Cultural Education
The aim of the authors is to respond to the growing demands on the intercultural competence of university teachers due to intensified internationalization pressures on higher education, especially due to the growing number of students and teachers’ international exchanges. They report on an intercultural course design responding to this need, presenting a case study from Slovakia. First, they define the need of intercultural competence of university teachers, especially those teaching in English-medium study programmes. Then they share a) findings from a needs analysis preceding the design of a new curriculum for an intercultural competence course (ICC) at Matej Bel University (MBU) with three aims (development of linguistic, cultural and pedagogic competences); and b) results from action research during piloting the ICC course. A comparison of 2011 and 2018 surveys pointed to the growing dominance of the English language, including an increasing command of English by MBU teachers. ...
2017
The present research is an investigation into how, if at all, the personal development and professional competences of secondary education foreign language teachers are affected by a complex input abroad such as a short term Erasmus+ Mobility program. It was assumed that spending time abroad in a different cultural and professional environment may serve as a certain kind of input, more precisely a stressor (Bennet, 1986; Selye, 1966) for anyone. How they cope with it inadvertently influences the outcome of their professional development. While the effect of long-term input abroad has been widely researched (within expat literature, ESL and culture shock studies, etc.), the impact of short-term mobilities has not been explored. The aim of the present research is therefore to explore if such an input has any effect, and if yes, what kind of effect it exerts in personal and professional life. The research approach is explorative (Creswell, 2007) and participatory action research (MacDo...