The impact of studying abroad on students’ intercultural competence (original) (raw)
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The impact of studying abroad on students’ intercultural competence: An interview study
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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...
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...
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.
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...
Developing Intercultural Identity on a Sojourn Abroad: A Case Study
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 2021
This article reports on a longitudinal case study and gives first-hand accounts of the lived experiences of five Erasmus+ students from Turkey during their sojourn at a university in Poland and its impact on the students’ individual identities. The research aimed to investigate students’ learning experience at the host institution and intercultural adaptation, focusing on the transformative outcomes that the sojourn brought about in them. The framework used as a theoretical basis for the study was Kim’s integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation. The theory claims that cultural adjustment is a function of an individual’s development of social and personal communication competence in their respective environments. As a result of frequent meaningful interactions with cultural others, through meeting and overcoming multiple intercultural challenges, people are likely to develop intercultural personhood, going through three consecutive stages, i.e., stress-adaptat...
2014
Global citizenship and intercultural competence are highly sought-after skills in today’s globalised world. Desired graduate capabilities, as developed through higher education, include the attitudes, skills and knowledge that one needs to competently and successfully live, work and interact in a world where peoples’ cultural identities are developed beyond national borders. Through the internationalisation of the tertiary education system, institutions can assist students in developing these capabilities to effectively and appropriately communicate with people of different cultural backgrounds. Outbound mobility and study abroad is one side of these internationalisation efforts, which helps students to become interculturally competent global citizens. In this thesis, after an introduction of the importance of study abroad on a global and national level, an overview of current theories in the field of intercultural and language learning is given. The attitudes, skills and knowledge ...
Intercultural Wonderment: Short Term Study Abroad
International Research in Higher Education, 2019
The proliferation of study abroad opportunities on college campuses has necessitated a deeper investigation of the impacts derived from participation. The concept of intercultural wonderment focuses on how individuals perceive themselves in an international culture. This concept guided embedded assignments and analysis of assignment responses for a short-term study abroad experience for human development and family studies students to Italy. Intercultural wonderment is a relatively new concept that has potential to guide future research and practice. Results from this exploration using the lens of intercultural wonderment are presented based on a thematic analysis. Conclusions indicate that the intercultural wonderment lens can strengthen cultural awareness and enhance intercultural competency. By noting students' perceptions of their experiences outside their comfort zones, study-abroad experiences can target and foster global learning and development outcomes.
Intercultural Wonderment and Study Abroad
Frontiers, 2015
This study seeks to identify elements of a study abroad experience that foster participants’ intercultural wonderment as well as how intercultural wonderment influences students’ development of a global perspective. The results demonstrate that intercultural wonderment is an important determinant of change in students’ global perspective and influenced by curricular, co-curricular, and community-based experiences.