Over the course of the last few decades the debate over culture and its relationship to language has remained heated and one can argue, unresolved. It has been underscored that it is not necessarily the question of culture teaching per-se but rather the methods and content of such teaching that remain controversial. Today's world demands that learners are not simply linguistically but also interculturally competent. It has been argued that high levels of intercultural awareness can be achieved with the help of experiential lessons taught in a formal setting that focus on the exploration of self as a cultural being.In this study, three groups of the intermediate learners of German and Russian were invited to participate in a number of cultural lessons based on either culture box highlights or experiential activities. The pre-posttests measured changes in learners' cognitive, behavioral and affective measures of intercultural competence. Results revealed that experiential activities tend to better facilitate the development of learners' intercultural skills and attitudes. Students written responses to critical incidents were analyzed with the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett, 1993) to assess changes in learners' perspectives and intercultural disposition over the course of the semester. Additionally, learners' experiences with foreign and local cultures were quantified and correlated with cognitive, behavioral and affective measures of intercultural competence. Results showed that not all measures of intercultural competence may be broadened by the individuals' firsthand experiences with other cultures. The relevance of one's previous experiences with `sub-cultures' (states, cities, towns, and communities), i.e. his `mobility' must also be acknowledged.

The purpose of this research is to explore the academic and social experiences of English learners (ELs) in a Spanish immersion program. The researcher is specifically interested in learning about both the English and Spanish language acquisition of these ELs, as well as their social interactions as this pertains to their academic development. The participants were a sample of 12 Spanish native speakers who were working towards acquiring both social and academic English. Additionally, the researcher interviewed five other students who were in the Spanish immersion program, but who were not included in the ESOL class. These 17 students represented a wide range of English language proficiencies, ranging from emergent to advanced, and were in the ninth grade during the period of data collection. The researcher also interviewed five of these students' teachers, so as to gain a better understanding of the experiences of these heritage speakers. Data were collected over the course of the 2009-2010 school year through observations, interviews, sociograms, and ongoing assessments. These assessments were collected from several sources, including an English language assessment that was administered by the ESOL coordinator, an ongoing school-wide assessment of lexile scores, and an English and Spanish informal reading inventory. The findings of this study were divided into two meta themes of the academic and social experiences of the student participants. In investigating these students' academic experiences, the researcher found that the 22 participants placed a considerable emphasis on language development, particularly in the maintenance of the Spanish native speakers' heritage language. A sizeable need existed, however, for instruction that was better differentiated to the wide range xv of proficiencies that these students demonstrated in both English and Spanish. Through the analysis of the participants' social experiences, the researcher also discovered that a strong sense of community existed amongst the participants in the ESOL and immersion programs. This interconnectedness, however, led to an insular behavior amongst the Spanish native speakers, which further exacerbated the racial tension that existed at Greenwood High. Greenwood as a whole would greatly benefit from the fostering of intercultural sensitivity amongst this multicultural and multilingual student body.

Thesis advisor: Philip G. Altbach / Despite the long-held assumption that intercultural sensitivity is the foremost qualification of foreign student advisors and the central role that intercultural sensitivity plays in foreign student advising, the intercultural sensitivity of foreign student advisors has never been empirically studied. This exploratory, quantitative study investigates the level of intercultural sensitivity of a group of foreign student advisors in the United States. A sample of 300 U.S.-based foreign student advisors completed both an online survey and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003) a valid and reliable standardized assessment of intercultural sensitivity that measures an individual's orientation towards cultural differences in terms of Milton Bennett's (Bennett, 1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. Multiple linear regression was employed to analyze the relationships between scores on the IDI and twenty-three independent variables generated by the online survey instrument. Findings from the developmental scores on the Intercultural Development Inventory suggest that three-quarters of the sample experience cultural difference from an ethnocentric position described by the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The results of regression analysis identified five factors that are associated with intercultural sensitivity, including political orientation, length of time spent as a foreign student advisor, academic study in the field of intercultural relations, level of education and support for gay marriage. Notable factors that were not associated with intercultural sensitivity include ethnicity, gender, religion, religiosity, and variously described intercultural experiences. Other key findings include that the profession overwhelmingly comprises European American women, indicating increasingly feminized profession, and that women are under-represented among the senior leadership of the field and are paid significantly less than men. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

This mixed methods study investigated the effects of a pilot peer-tutoring program for high school students between L1 Spanish-speaking tutors and Spanish second language (L2) tutees during Fall Semester 2018 (16 weeks). The purpose of this research was to explore the impact the peer-tutoring program had on the language acquisition, motivation to learn, intercultural sensitivity, and number of Spanish-speaking friendships of the L2 Spanish learners. The study consisted of a matched-group comparison and a qualitative exploration of reflective surveys completed by the participants in the pilot program. The experimental group (n=32) received a treatment of 20 minutes of peer tutoring each class period and the control group (n=41) received no treatment. Results of language acquisition data suggested that, though not statistically significant (p=0.119), the experimental group showed language acquisition gains that are noteworthy. The experimental group showed a 60% greater increase in the oral proficiency score over the control group in a pre-test/post-test analysis of an identical oral proficiency test. Results from the motivation data showed a marked decrease in motivation of the experimental group as compared to the control group. Results from the intercultural sensitivity assessment showed a statistically significantly higher end score on the behavioral scale and a higher end score on the attitude scale of the experimental group vs. the control group. Results from the quantitative data indicating pre and post number of Spanish-speaking friends showed no increase in number of Spanish speaking friends for the experimental group vs. the control group. However, qualitative data showed that 25% of the experimental group reported making a new Spanish-speaking friend after the treatment. Future research needs to consider how peer tutoring as compared to reciprocal peer tutoring among L2 learners with higher proficiency may impact these results.

International expatriate schools require educational leaders to guide culturally diverse stakeholders as they prepare students to address world problems. In the United States, effective educational leadership has been demonstrated as necessary to implement research-based practices. However, researchers have not yet established the leadership needed from expatriate kindergarten through Grade 12 school leaders seeking to develop global citizens. This gap leads to the question of how international expatriate educational leaders demonstrate empathetic, emotionally self-managed, or interculturally sensitive skills when meeting a school's global-minded strategic plan. The purpose of this case study was to describe expatriate school leaders' perceptions of how they and their peers demonstrate these skills. The conceptual framework included distributed leadership, emotional intelligence, and intercultural sensitivity in the context of global citizenship. Data from an expatriate middle school in China included interviews with school leaders, documents, and researcher notes. The results indicated that expatriate leaders demonstrated empathy through social responsibility, emotional self-management through personal and professional competence, and intercultural sensitivity through active civic engagement. International expatriate schools may benefit if educational leaders demonstrate support and concern and provide examples of the global-mindedness expected of students. These results can guide faculty members' professional competencies toward implementing instructional programs that target the development of global citizens. Social change could result from international expatriate schools applying described models of distributed leadership toward a unified and socially just purpose.

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The purpose of this project is to assess students' gains in intercultural competency during participation within a global curriculum in speech-language pathology and audiology as part of an international exchange project between two U.S. and two Brazilian communicative disorders programs using a standarized measure, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) v.3.

abstract: Technology (i.e. the WhatsApp mobile application) can play a positive role in a student’s language and culture learning when it is used in collaboration with a language curriculum that uses a modular framework. When technology tools are used in an intensive language learning environment, those mobile devices will allow students certain affordances (like modifying, authoring, and reviewing content) as well as opportunities to work independently (e.g., create their own content to demonstrate cultural understanding) and/or to reflect upon cross-cultural issues that impact their intercultural sensitivity (Lee, 2011). Barker (2016) adds that cultural discussions performed during a student’s language learning process can lead to intercultural sensitivity development and learning if done communicatively and in engaging environments. In this study, participants intensely interacted in a three week immersion experience where they used WhatsApp to communicate with each other, with their instructors, and with their host families by completing tasks in three modules that were a part of an Advanced Spanish Conversation and Culture Course. The argument in this study is that if WhatsApp is well integrated into the course activities and curriculum of an upper level Spanish university course while abroad, the students will use more innovative ways to communicate, thus, allowing for more intercultural sensitivity growth. In this study, the author analyzed the intercultural sensitivity development and Spanish language use of twelve university level students as they learned Spanish in a 13 week study abroad program abroad in Segovia, Spain. The goal of the study was to gauge how effectively the students communicated with one another while simultaneously measuring their intercultural sensitivity growth to see if the integration of the mobile app, WhatsApp, had any effect on their intercultural learning capabilities. The author analyzed data from twelve learners’ interactions while they studied abroad in a country that they were mostly unfamiliar with. As a result of WhatsApp’s various modalities and capabilities, the findings showed that all of the 12 students showed modest intercultural sensitivity growth along the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Bennett, 1993) to assist them in more effectively communicating in the target language about the host culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2020

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