This research project had the following goals: 1) To locate, describe, and synthesize recognized authoritative standards of performance and guiding principles of effective good practice for study abroad programs that have been established, endorsed, and supported by professionals and national organizations in the study abroad field. 2) To review selected literature on intercultural communication that has been published in the last fifteen years and examine intercultural communication theories and strategies applicable to the study abroad field to identify aspects which can most clearly benefit the study abroad experience of a sojourner through improved communication competence. 3) To assess the extent to which study abroad institutions or programs are operating according to the principles and standards of good practice specified by the professionals and national organizations in the study abroad field, and to discover how important study abroad program administrators feel these principles and standards are for their programs. 4) To assess the degree to which study abroad institutions or programs are incorporating relevant intercultural communication training into their study programs abroad.

This phenomenological multiple case study provides the details, reasoning, and discussion of the role of study abroad experience and its perceived impact(s) on three in-service teachers. Two research questions were posed: What are the perceived impacts on in-service teachers' practice of a study abroad program experience and how does the in-service teacher's perception of impact change over time within a teacher's career? Results of this study suggest that the teaching practice of in-service teachers who study abroad would benefit, especially in the area of intercultural competence, if this experience is structured in a way where the curriculum of the study abroad program aligns with the content of their future teaching assignment i.e. curricular bridging. Case evidence further suggests that long-term impact of a study abroad experience upon a teacher's practice is related to providing the future teacher an opportunity for to develop and maintain pedagogical relationships with students while abroad. The term ‘submersion' is introduced to help articulate depth of impact during a study abroad program experience.

Study abroad programs are a common component of many foreign language programs across the United States. Of these university-based study abroad programs, short-term language-focused programs are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Despite the growing popularity of short-term study abroad programs, there is little research on students’ sociocultural experiences under these short, intensive language-immersion conditions. Relatively few studies have addressed the issue of gender in the study abroad context. Brecht et al. in their longitudinal study on the effects of a study abroad stay on language proficiency gains in Russian found that gender was one of the significant predictors of language learning. The impact of gender on the process of second language and culture acquisition becomes particularly important in countries like Russia where perception and construction of gender roles is very different from that in the United States. These gender-related differences may cause students to have negative attitudes towards the Russian language and culture. Students belonging to ethnic minorities have different study abroad experiences from students who belong to the ethnic majority or mainstream culture. In the rise of terrorist attacks administered by Chechen separatists on the territory of Russia in the past several years, native Russians are becoming less tolerant with representatives of ethnic minorities and therefore, more suspicious and hostile towards individuals with non-Caucasian features. Being constantly racially-profiled can turn an otherwise pleasant language and culture learning experience into a nightmare. A better understanding of how race and ethnicity affect learning processes in a study abroad setting will result in rethinking of how learners’ differences (and the outcomes of those differences) enter the formal language teaching curriculum. The present study investigates how American college students visiting Russia on a five-week-long study abroad program perceive and describe their cultural, gender, and ethnic experiences. The results of this ethnographic case study are analyzed through the lens of critical theory that argues that human society is essentially oppressive and that societal inequality is reproduced through the dominant ideology. / text

The purpose of this study was to identify current practices in study abroad offices and to investigate factors that may impact the number of minority students that participate in study abroad programs. The predictors, commitment to study abroad, proportion of staff and student workers, and awareness were selected for this current exploratory study are a result of the literature review. The other selected variables: endowment, financial aid and SAT/ACT scores are predictors typically used in higher education. This exploratory research focused on the policies, procedures, and strategies implemented allowing us to comprehensively describe the activities and efforts study abroad personnel employ in American higher education. We used as our population the Carnegie 101 public doctoral/research extensive universities that serve undergraduates. The researcher implemented the Study Abroad Office Survey to collect the data. The researcher conducted multiple regression analyses to examine whether the proportion of all students studying abroad is influenced by endowment, percent of a university's students receiving financial aid, university's commitment to internationalization and study abroad, the SAT/ACT scores, and the proportion of staff. The results of the regression reveals that the proportion of staff was highly significant Analysis of the standardized regression coefficient and associated p value reveals (β=.5 18, t=5.233, p The researcher conducted independent samples t tests to address the awareness factor. Results indicate that there is a significant difference in the proportion of the undergraduate student population studying abroad when presentations by study abroad office faculty/staff at student club meetings are implemented as a recruitment activity (t = is 2.595, 70 df, p = .012).Employing systems theory, the researcher recommends that higher education administrators should consider embedding internationalization in the curriculum by finding ways of making an international experience a more routine part of attending a twenty-first century university. The researcher further recommends continued lobbying efforts regarding the fate of the Abraham Lincoln Fellowship legislation.

One of the major debates regarding studying abroad concerns criticism that it lacks measurable and demonstrable learning outcomes and is usually viewed as less rigorous than other university courses (McKeown 2009). As one Western Kentucky University (WKU) faculty member noted when responding to the Faculty Attitudes Survey deployed for this project, all too often “too many study abroad experiences [are] little more than glorified fieldtrips.....” (Anonymous WKU Faculty Member, 2009, Appendix IV). While this may be the case, upon their return to the United States, students often say their study abroad experience proved life changing. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze students’ acquisition of geographic knowledge as a result of their engagement in a study abroad course regardless of their major academic discipline, with a secondary objective of creating baseline data for future research on the effects of study abroad for students at WKU. The analysis summarizes what geographic literacy (geo-literacy) is and how it relates to study abroad. The research also presents trends about education abroad on a national, state, and university level. Additionally, general attitudes about study abroad from University Experience (generally first-year) students at WKU are discussed. Also analyzed is the geographic knowledge gained by students, using the National Geography Standards of 1994, with evidence of attitudes and literacy collected using surveys, focus groups, and a cultural assessment tool called the Global Competence Aptitude Assessment – Young Adult version (GCAA-YA). Throughout the study, students showed signs of being geographically informed measured against the National Geography Standards of 1994; however, as illustrated by the GCAA-YA, both students who had studied abroad and those who had not, scored in the underdeveloped or developing range of global competence (with students who had studied abroad scoring higher in all components of the assessment). Students who participated in various research projects for this thesis had completed their education abroad course within 12 months or less before participating in any of the research. It is generally accepted that study abroad can improve students’ geo-literacy. Concrete evidence of immediate improvement in geographic literacy was not obtained from this research, suggesting that the short-term implications of a study abroad experience could not be precisely articulated by the students or captured by the researcher. Further, the research suggests that improvements are only marginal and cannot really be measured successfully until many years after students’ graduation. What was discovered is that students who studied abroad, almost without exception, exhibited that their minds were opened to the world around them and that a desire for further learning was clear. The results suggest that further research on the effects of education abroad is needed, using the baseline data collected during the 2009-2010 academic year at WKU.

Cultural diversity is affecting every aspect of society today and nurses need to be able to provide culturally competent care to remain relevant, and useful, within the current climate. Cultural immersion experiences are one of the teaching strategies that have been incorporated in an attempt to prepare nurses to be culturally competent in practice. However, there are only a few research studies that have been conducted, within the discipline of nursing, to empirically document the process and outcomes of a cultural immersion experience. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine factors that facilitate a meaningful cultural immersion experience during a nursing program, as well as the short-term effects of such experiences on personal and professional growth and cultural awareness. The theoretical framework for the study was Leininger's theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality.This study identified factors that were relevant and important in facilitating a meaningful cultural immersion experience within the categories of situational predetermining factors, modifying factors, and transitional factors (adjustment strategies). Situational predetermining factors identified as relevant included prior personal and professional experiences, prior attitudes and values, preparation before departure, andprior cultural knowledge. Modifying factors identified as relevant included the perception of living in another world, and being "stuck there," as well as the type of location, type of nursing experience, and people met on site. Transitional factors identified as relevant included social support from classmates and the use of coping responses such as humor, self-reliance, personal strength/faith, as well as adjustment of communication style to be able to talk with host-nationals. Finally, personal and professional growth and changes in cultural awareness were identified as outcomes of the immersion experience. Further research on the process and outcomes of cultural immersion is needed to continue to generate a base of nursing knowledge related to cultural immersion, and to assist nurse educators in the planning and execution of such experiences. / School of Nursing

It is widely assumed that participation in study abroad contributes to developing second language (L2) proficiency, as well as related outcomes such as higher levels of L2 learning motivation and intercultural competence. However, empirical studies into the outcomes of participation in study abroad have been affected by a series of methodological limitations, including complete reliance on participant self-assessment, the omission of longitudinal design elements, failure to control for non-equivalent comparison groups where these are included and insufficient sample sizes for testing programme effects. Thus, the present study investigates further the impact of studying abroad with the EU's ERASMUS programme on the participants' overall L2 proficiency, their self-efficacy and anxiety in using the L2 with native and non-native speakers and on their self-motivation to continue learning the L2. To this end, a longitudinal mixed methods design was employed in which 143 German university students who applied for an ERASMUS exchange with a British university for the academic year 2012-2013 and were either accepted or rejected/ withdrawn formed the abroad and comparison groups. All students completed C-tests of overall English language proficiency and questionnaires that inquired into the students' mobility history, their L2 learning background, L2 motivation, intergroup attitudes and aspects of the study abroad experience itself. Both instruments were administered online at the onset of the study abroad period (September 2012), one term into the programme (December 2012) and prior to the students' return (either December 2012 or June 2013). This predominantly quantitative group-level study served to establish the outcomes of participation in study abroad for the students' linguistic and motivational development. Repeated interviews with a sub-sample of 15 participants served to illuminate the observed outcome patterns in terms of the motivational dynamics during study abroad, as well as common factors associated with individual differences in linguistic development. The results of the study show that during the first 3 months abroad the ERASMUS students made significantly higher gains in overall English proficiency than the group of potentially mobile students who continued to study at home. The effect of the learning context was large and highly significant (p =.001), even after the influence of pre-existing participant characteristics on the students' proficiency development was controlled for. During the subsequent 6 months of the study abroad period, however, progress among the ERASMUS group slowed and the between-group differences were no longer significant. The participants' L2 proficiency level at programme entry emerged as the strongest predictor of overall L2 proficiency gain, explaining up to 31.5% of the variance. The students' attitudes towards their own national group, their perceptions of self-efficacy and feelings of anxiety when using English in social interactions, the perceived present-future L2 self-discrepancy and gender explained another 13.6% of the variance in overall L2 proficiency gain. Learner-external factors, including participation in English language instruction, participation in clubs and societies, the number of academic contact hours and type of enrolment, and free time spent with co-national peers, including friends and family back home explained a further 10.9%. The qualitative analysis of the students' accounts provided further insights into the ways in which these factors play out in L2 learning abroad, as well as into the students' perceptions of aspects of studying abroad that contributed most to their linguistic development. Regarding the motivational impact of the study abroad experience, the study found that ERASMUS students tended to develop significantly higher levels of self-efficacy in using English in social interactions as compared to the group of potentially mobile students who continued to study at home, while both the levels of perceived present-future self-discrepancy and English use anxiety with native and non-native speakers fell during the first 3 months abroad. While the overall impact of the study abroad experience on the students' motivation to continue learning the L2 was perceived as positive by the vast majority of participants, a decline in learning motivation was observed for most students after the initial 3-month period. The qualitative analysis showed that this decline can be plausibly explained by developments in the students' English self-concept that occurred in response to the study abroad experience. Evidence-based recommendations are made regarding ways in which the linguistic and motivational development of ERASMUS students can be more effectively supported by higher education institutions.

This thesis reports on a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of the relationships between informal (i.e. out-of-class) second language (L2) contact, vocabulary-related strategic behaviour and vocabulary gain in a study abroad context. The study addressed three main gaps in knowledge that arose from analysis of the literature: (1) the evidence of informal L2 contact was largely unreliable, ungeneralisable, or both; (2) the evidence of vocabulary-related strategic behaviour in informal L2 contact was neither context nor task specific; and (3) there was no evidence of the interplay between informal L2 contact, vocabulary-related strategic behaviour and vocabulary gain in a study abroad context. The sample (n=241) were adults undertaking a study abroad experience (SAE) in England, who comprised a range of nationalities and first language backgrounds and for whom the majority of the SAE was spent outside of the classroom. A vocabulary test was administered at the beginning and end of the SAE. A questionnaire was administered during the SAE to determine the most highly identified with informal L2 contact scenarios and out-of-class vocabulary-related strategies. Subsequently, an innovative research tool comprising computer-based simulations of the most identified with scenarios was developed and used as the stimulus in semi-structured interviews to capture task and/or context-specific vocabulary-related strategic behaviour. Analysis grouped participants by length of stay and location. The most highly identified with informal L2 contact scenarios involved participants seeking information from external sources, such as interlocutors, posters or websites. The vocabulary-related strategies most highly identified with by the sample pertained to the use of a newly encountered lexical item; that is, they were strategies in which the learner used or prepared to use a lexical item that they had decided to engage with strategically. The strategic behaviour manifested in response to the simulation tool (the 'OWLS') provided strong evidence in support of the fundamental considerations of task, context and intention in strategy-based research. Regression analysis revealed that informal L2 contact scenarios that were less strategically prohibitive and strategies that were less context-dependent were predictors of vocabulary gain. The pedagogical implications of these findings are far- reaching in terms of preparing L2 learners for informal contact on a SAE and guiding their manipulation of that contact for maximum linguistic gain.

The key purpose of this research was to interrogate how cross-border learning experiences of students, who are culturally diverse in terms of ethnicity, language and religion at Ethiopian universities, can and should be managed. An important aspect of this study was determining the relationship between unofficial strategies which are employed at the three selected universities to address cultural diversity and students’ cross-border learning experiences which resulted from them. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks from Sociology, Education Management and learning theories guided this study which was informed by a literature study on addressing socio-cultural differences of students at national and international levels. Qualitative empirical information was collected mainly through individual and focus group interviews with information-rich participants, namely senior management personnel, Student Service officials, lecturers and students. Although the contextual literature review showed that inter-group hostility amongst ethnic, linguistic and religious diverse students prevailed at universities, despite the implementation of the multicultural policy adopted in Ethiopia, empirical findings, however, indicated that management provisions in terms of lodging and catering services, co-curricular activities and teaching and learning processes promoted cross-border learning experiences that enhanced inter-group understanding, as well as the academic skills of culturally diverse students. Diversity sensitive lodging, multilingual services at Student Service units, inclusive co-curricular activities and diversity sensitive group learning activities, which involved heterogeneous grouping of students, promoted the development of the self and others across ethnic, religious and linguistic lines and brought about a decrease in mistrust and suspicion and hostility towards students of other backgrounds. Based on the findings, a model for officially incorporating strategies which advance cross-border learning experiences within management processes at higher education institutions was developed to further the realisation of cross-border learning experiences by means of measures which are rooted in Student Service units and teaching and learning processes These should be developed as an alternative for the multicultural teaching programmes which find expression in Civic and Ethical Education and Communicative English Skills courses to advance the cross-cultural development of students. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

One of the aims of the thesis was to explore the Czech insurance market and choose an optimal travel insurance to a model client by using methods of multi-criteria decision making. The second aim was to set up a general procedure for wider use of selecting the optimal insurance product for customers with different preferences. The theoretical part of the study explains the basic concepts in the field of insurance and describes the methods used for the weighting of the criteria and selection of the optimal insurance. In the practical part of the study, insurance offers were obtained, a set of possible variants and a set of evaluation criteria were compiled. Based on the calculations was given recommendation to the client. The whole procedure was generalized after that and for verification was carried out a survey among students participating in the study program Erasmus+