This study works with Rotary Youth Exchange to investigate the role of predeparture intercultural training in preparing students to study abroad so that they 5 positively integrate their experience to become interculturally competent people. The Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) along with an intercultural background survey were administered to each student during the first one to four months of his or her exchange to measure his or her intercultural competency development and to learn li about the student's intercultural background. Developing explicit evidence for the role of intercultural training through this study proved unsuccessful because of the students' Jack of knowledge about the subject. However, through analysis of students' answers to decipher the quality of training received and comparing that information to the students' IES scores, the vital role of intercultural training in predeparture orientation is implied.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Esta investigación intenta entender mejor qué tipos de aprendizaje ocurren cuando los estudiantes toman parte en un programa de aprendizaje basado en el voluntariado internacional. Una meta es demostrar que las cinco C’s de ACTFL (comunicación, cultura, conexiones, comparaciones, y comunidades) son parte del aprendizaje percibido por los estudiantes después de haber participado en un programa de aprendizaje basado en el voluntariado en el extranjero. Otra meta es ofrecer un ejemplo de un programa que utiliza los métodos de auto-reflexión y auto-análisis recomendados en los estudios críticos del voluntariado y cómo estos métodos empujan a los estudiantes a alcanzar las cinco C’s de ACTFL, para que otros profesores tengan un modelo para crear sus propios programas de aprendizaje basado en el voluntariado internacional.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study seeks to elucidate the concept of resources at risk as detailed in the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theoretical framework. Risk is the possibility that a communicator’s resources are in jeopardy of change, and this study seeks to explicate how a communicator places his or her resources at risk. An undergraduate spring break study abroad program was selected as the context for this examination, with six students participating in before and after interviews. Results showed that three types of resources at risk were identified, with a fourth type unable to be identified through transcript analysis. This study demonstrates theoretical and practical implications that further the understanding of CMM and its execution. In addition, limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

“Not Drowning but Waving: The American Junior Year Abroad” explores and describes study abroad amongst college students while also showing the historical roots of study abroad. This thesis seeks to understand the history and current issues in study abroad while also giving a literary description of the experiences, personal changes, and development of insight in the students who decide to study abroad. The Introduction serves both as the introduction to my project as well as an overview of the history and current issues within study abroad. It is divided into three main parts. The first section discusses the impetus for the project, the research methodology, relevant literature, and the genre of creative nonfiction. The second section covers the history of American travel and study abroad, as well as the work of the Fulbright Program. The third section is a short survey of contemporary trends within study abroad, and addresses issues of gender, race, location, and student behavior while abroad. The creative portion of this thesis describes the study abroad students’ stories, experiences, and insights during and after a semester in Europe. The first three chapters of this section—“Leaving”, “Destinations” and “Guardians at the Gate”—describe some of the initial experiences during a semester abroad. Chapter one looks at the process of traveling to a new country and adapting to new cultural norms. Chapter two describes the study abroad destinations where I did my primary research for this project. Chapter three explores some logistical issues in study abroad, namely academics, finances, and housing. Chapter four explores the challenges students face after the initial excitement of study abroad wears off, and looks at the issues of student responsibility, danger, harassment, and alcohol abuse. Chapter five describes student travel habits, which is one of the most popular elements of study abroad but also one of the more problematic. Chapter six looks at the challenge of re-entry to North America for study abroad students, and chapter seven provides a conclusion to the piece.

Based on the findings, this study posits some implications for China's overseas education policy and suggests future study directions, as well as identifies its own limitations. / Findings of this study show that mainland Chinese senior secondary students' choice of major for overseas higher education can be explained better by human capital theory. Students are more inclined to choose the major that has higher expected rate of return to overseas higher education. The choice of major is in fact a behavior looking for higher investment return, or for better overseas employment prospects which would increase the probability of capturing the expected rate of return to overseas higher education. / Over the last 50 years, overseas higher education in the world has developed rapidly. Existing literature shows that overseas higher education can promote the economic development of developing countries, and overseas higher education graduates of different majors may have different roles in economic development. / The study employs multinomial logistic regression in the statistical analysis of the data. Major findings of the study are as follows: (1) Two economic factors---senior secondary students' expected rate of return to overseas higher education, and perceived overseas employment prospects---significantly affect students' choice of major for overseas higher education; while other two factors---students' perceived domestic employment prospects, and consumption preferences---have no significant effect on students' choice of major. (2) The choice between each pair of majors are either significantly affected by students' expected rate of return to overseas higher education or perceived overseas employment prospects to overseas higher education, except for the pair of Engineering vs. Business Administration. (3) The interaction effect between students' expected rate of return to overseas higher education and family location, and the interaction effect between students' academic ability and family income, significantly affect students' choice of major for overseas higher education. (4) Some information factors also significantly affect students' choice of major. (5) Students' gender, academic ability, family income, parents' education, and family location also significantly affect their choices of major. / The study is based on the data set of a research project entitled "Seeking Higher Education Abroad: Student Choices and Reasons in China", funded by the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong and conducted by Professor Hung Fan-sing of The Chinese University of Hong Kong as the Principal Investigator. The data consists of the results of a questionnaire survey successfully conducted in early 2007 to 12,961 senior secondary students in seven cities in mainland China. / This study employs human capital theory to analyze mainland Chinese senior secondary students' choice of major for studying higher education abroad, and the main factors affecting their choices. / 劉揚. / Advisers: Fan-sing Hung; Yue-ping Chung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 1865. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-157). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Liu Yang.

Faculty-led short-term international service-learning (STISL) experiences are thought to have great potential in developing students' global citizenship through combining study abroad and community service pedagogies. However, thorough investigation of the pedagogical strategies employed in STISL courses to achieve such outcomes has yet to be conducted. This qualitative narrative inquiry of STISL faculty at 7 different institutions across multiple academic disciplines and country service sites sought to fill that void. Data reveal a new conceptualization of STISL teaching, learning, and service success that involves culturally contextualized solidarity, global civic engagement, and global competence, which culminate into students' global agency. Emerging from the data, the Van Cleave Pedagogical Design framework for Global Agency illuminates the interactions of five interdependent learning dimensions: academic, professional, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and intercultural. Course, program, and policy implications are explicated across pre-departure, host-country, and re-entry experiences.

The purpose of this study was to gather more information about the process of internationalization in U.S. counseling psychology programs. Participants included 26 training directors and 83 doctoral students, representing 32 of the 63 APA-accredited, active counseling psychology doctoral programs. Results suggested that the presence of international learning opportunities did not increase from 2007 to 2010, with the exception that internationalism was increasingly being incorporated into the definition of multiculturalism. Results also suggested that training directors perceived opportunities to gain international experience in their programs integrated to a greater extent compared to their doctoral students. Doctoral students, however, perceived greater institutional commitment to international learning opportunities compared to their training directors. Finally, results suggested that both sets of respondents’ attitudes were generally favorable toward internationalization. Implications for counseling psychology training programs, as well as recommendations for improving internationalization efforts are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Research in the field of second language acquisition in the past five to ten years has focused on individual variation in language learning, and has examined such learner variables as learning styles, personality characteristics, learning strategies, and learner beliefs about the nature of language learning. Recently, research on individual learners has broadened to include a greater focus on the contexts of language learning and to explore the interactions between individual learners and the socio-cultural environment in investigations of these learner variables.This study has two purposes. The first is to investigate the language learning of novice level second language learners in a language and culture immersion program. The six college-age learners of Spanish who participated in an eight-week language and culture immersion program in Mexico are the focus of the case studies. The research focuses on five areas of learner variation: learner beliefs and philosophies about the nature of language learning, approaches to vocabulary learning, classroom behaviors, speaking for communication, and cultural adjustment.The second purpose of the study is to explore the use of multiple approaches to research on individual variation. The research framework for the study is ethnographic and the study employs a multi-methodological approach to data collection over an extended period of time in several language learning contexts. The research procedures used in the studyinclude participant observation, interviews, language learning journals, questionnaires, retrospective analysis of videotaped clips, and standardized instruments such as the Modern Language Aptitude Test, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview. / Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2007. / Title from screen (viewed on July 23, 2007). Department of World Languages and Cultures, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Marta Antón, Kimmaree Murday, Paz Rabanal. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-86).