Research concerning intercultural issues

Academic motivation scale Intercultural sensitivity scale The relationship between motivation and intercultural sensitivity in English achievement (Kim 2004) Subjects 437 college students Methods Academic motivation scale Intercultural sensitivity scale

Results Korean students were highly extrinsically motivated to learning English with only a moderate level of intercultural sensitivity. Students’ level of intercultural interaction was the best predictor of their English achievement. Females and humanities majors were more interculturally sensitive than males and science majors

Assessing intercultural effectiveness outcomes in a year-long study abroad program (Pedersen 2010) Action research assessing the efficacy of intercultural pedagogy using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI, Hammer, 2007; Hammer & Bennett, 1998, 2002) was conducted in a year-long study abroad program to central England. Three groups were compared using IDI pre and post.

Group 1 students (n = 16) Intercultural effectiveness and diversity training pedagogy including cultural immersion, guided reflection, and intercultural coaching Group 2 (n = 16) in the same study abroad experience without the intervention. Group 3 (n = 13) a control group of students who stayed home.

Results Statistically significant difference was found from pre to post-IDI scores in Group 1. Students’ change scores pre to post in Groups 2 and 3 were not statistically different. Findings from this research suggest that it is not enough to send students to study abroad without intentional pedagogy focused on outcomes of intercultural effectiveness.

An investigation of ELT students’ intercultural communicative competence in relation to linguistic proficiency, overseas experience and formal instruction (Hismanoglu 2011) 35 students at the Department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at European University (from beginners to upper- intermediate level)

The participants were required to ask a good friend for some money. While NS participants used “Can you lend me some money?” and “I hate to ask you this, but would it be possible to borrow —- $? I will pay you as soon as possible” NNS participants used “Can you lend me some money?”, “Could you lend me some money?”, Would you lend me some money?”, “Do you have any cash on you that I can borrow?” as acceptable responses. Some NNS participants used “Can you give me some money?” which was a case of L1 transfer.

The participants were asked to warn a group of noisy teenagers to be quiet while watching a film in the cinema. NS participants (for example, Could you please keep your voices down? I can’t hear a thing., Could you be quite please?). However, some NNS responses to this question (for example, Where we are! Where we are now. Please it’s just 2 h) were reflections of the effect of L1 culture on NNS participants. From six students (17%) who gave unacceptable responses to this question, four students (11%) were in the higher proficiency group, whereas two students (6%) were in the lower proficiency group.