Preparing college students to be contributing members of local and global societies requires educators to analyze the capabilities and needs of their students and to adjust instructional content and practice. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was twofold: (a) to explore how classroom approaches designed to facilitate students' questioning of assumptions and beliefs regarding different cultural beliefs, social structures, and practices might influence Japanese college students' self-reported development of intercultural competence, and (b) to investigate whether or not the students developed their potential for intercultural competence. Mezirow's transformative learning theory informed this study. Archival qualitative data were from 137 Japanese undergraduate students' journals from a course with approaches designed to facilitate questioning their assumptions and beliefs. Multilevel coding was used to support thematic analysis. Archival quantitative data of students' pretest and posttest scores on the Intercultural Adaptation Potential Scale (ICAPS) were too few for meaningful analysis. Limited trend interpretations of the quantitative data helped support the qualitative data findings. Key findings included students identifying the importance of opportunities to discuss conflicting cultural beliefs, social structures, and practices; several questioned their assumptions and enhanced their intercultural competence. Expanded research into the challenge of enhancing cultural competence is needed. Positive social change is possible when intercultural competence and understanding the importance of dealing with cultural conflicts in an informed manner are enhanced. Students who expand their comfort levels and understandings will gain membership into multiple societies, reflect critically on their worldviews, and be able to take positive actions during conflicts.

The Internet with its World Wide Web feature opened up a whole new frontier for language-culture learning that foreign language textbook authors have integrated into their programs. Designing tasks that progress beyond promoting learners' passive consumerism and reiteration of facts remains a goal and a challenge. Thus, three research questions characterized this study that sought to examine the on-line tasks associated with six current Spanish textbook programs. The design focused on an analysis of these tasks in light of prevailing culture learning concepts and other pedagogical paradigms posited by reputable foreign language educators to determine if they filled the gap left by textbooks in facilitating second culture acquisition. The first question asked for evidence that learners were encouraged to recognize their own cultural conditioning. Evidence was present only to a miniscule degree. The second question sought to determine the extent of opportunities provided to learn about the target culture - Hispanic - as they mirrored the objectives of the perspectives on culture learning. Low-level thinking skills and a predominance of tasks concerning products, in contrast to those concerning behavioral practices or perspectives, characterized the extent of target-culture learning. The third question sought to discover if learners were engaged in process-based tasks, whether they were prompted to identify authentic problems, suggest solutions, and apply new vii knowledge. Evidence for these situations was minimal. Additional findings revealed factual information questions to be a majority with a few tasks inviting learners to respond to hypothetical and creative situations. Results indicate that in this early stage, the World Wide Web remains an authentic venue for culture learning; however, future directions ought to include expanding the scope of adjunct tasks as they complement the multiple presentations of culture in the companion textbook chapters.

This study aims to investigate the representations that Indian students have of Hispanic cultures and, on the other hand, to assess the degree to which native Spanish teachers give importance to the intercultural competence in teaching an L2. This research has been carried out by means of questionnaires and interviews with teachers and students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL). The data, gathered through the questionnaires and interviews, show a clash between the Indian students´ self-stereotypes and their other-stereotypes regarding the Hispanics. The results also show a contradiction between the will and determination of the SFL teachers to incorporate "intercultural" elements in their teaching practice and the feeble extent to which they manage to do so.

Magistro darbe nagrinėjama universiteto dėstytojų tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos užsienio kalbų dimensija kaip internacionalizacijos asmenio lygmens aspektas. Darbo tikslas - teoriškai pagrįsti tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos užsienio kalbos dimensijos svarbą ir empiriškai ištirti Šiaulių universiteto dėstytojų užsienio kalbos kompetencijos, kaip vieno iš sėkmingos internacionalizacijos faktorių, raišką. Išanalizavus mokslinę literatūrą bei sudarius specialų klausimyną kalbinei kompetencijai nustatyti buvo apklausti Šiaulių universiteto dėstytojai. Identifikuojant viso universiteto internacionalizacijos problemas, papildomai atlikta antrinių duomenų apie dėstytojų mokslinę ir pedagoginę veiklą analizė. Gauti tyrimų rezultatai, patvirtina hipotezę, kad nepakankamas dėstytojų užsienio kalbos mokėjimas trukdo sėkmingai integruoti tarpkultūrinį aspektą į pedagoginę ir mokslinę veiklą. / Foreign language dimension of university teachers intercultural competence in the context of higher education. / In der Masterarbeit wird die fremdsprachliche Dimension der interkulturellen Kompetenz als persönliches Bereich der Internationalisierung untersucht. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist die theoretische Begründung der fremdsprachlichen Dimension der interkulturellen Kompetenz und die empirische Erforschung des Fremdsprachenkompetenzausdrucks der Lektoren von Universität Siauliai. Diese Kompetenzen gelten hier als Faktoren der erfolgreichen Internationalisierung. Nachdem die wissenschaftliche Literatur analysiert und Fragebogen für die Feststellung der Sprachkompetenz entwickelt worden waren, wurden die Lektoren der Universität Siauliai befragt. Zwecks der Identifizierung der Internationalisierungsprobleme für die ganze Universität, wurde daneben die Analyse der Sekundärdateien über die wissenchaftliche und pädagogische Tätigkeit durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Forschung bestätigen die Hypothese, dass die ungenügende Fremsprachenbeherrschung der Universitätslektoren bei der Einbeziehung des interkulturellen Aspekts in die wissenschaftliche und pädagogische Tätigkeit hindern.

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjamas tarpkultūrinių kompetencijų ugdymas, šio proceso svarba, problemos, aktualumas, įtaka žmogiškųjų išteklių valdymui tarptautinėse įmonėse. Darbe yra supažindinama su tarptautinių įmonių veiklos aplinka, pristatoma tarpkultūrinių kompetencijų samprata, jos elementai, kultūros, žmogiškųjų išteklių vadybos, edukacinės teorijos. Baigiamajame darbe yra parodomos tarpkultūrinių kompetencijų ugdymo tarptautinėse įmonėse sąsajos su šiuolaikinės ekonomikos reiškiniais – globalizacija, darbo jėgos migracija, tarptautinių įmonių plėtra, nacionalinės ir organizacinės kultūros susiliejimu. Praktinėje dalyje pateikiami atlikto tarpkultūrinių kompetencijų ugdymo tarptautinėse įmonėse tyrimo tyrimo rezultatai apie tarptautinėje veikloje reikalingas kompetencijas, kylančias bendravimo su kitataučiais problemas, tarpkultūrinių kompetencijų ugdymo būdus ir pan. Išnagrinėjus teorinę medžiagą, pasaulinę praktiką ir gautus tarpkultūrinių kompetencijų ugdymo tyrimo rezultatus, pateikiami strateginiai sprendimai ir mokslinių tyrimų prioritetai tarpkultūrinėms kompetencijoms ugdyti, tarptautiniu mastu veikiančioms įmonėms. Darbo pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados. Darbą sudaro: įvadas, nagrinėjamos srities tobulinimo prioritetai, teorijų ir metodikų studija, praktinė (tyriminė) dalis, siūlytini starteginiai sprendimai, išvados, literatūros sąrašas. Darbo apimtis – 106 p. teksto be priedų, 36 iliustr., 10 lent., 75 bibliografiniai šaltiniai. Atskirai pridedami... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The importance of intercultural competencies improvement, problems, topicality and the influence for the human resource management of this process in the international companies is the aim this masters‘ work. Here are presented the working environment of international companies, the conception and elements of intercultural competence, cultures‘, human recourse maangements‘ and educations‘ teories. There are shown the links between the improvement of intercultural competencies and the phenomenons of todays economy, such as – globalization, labour force migration, global business expansion, the amalgamation of national anr organizational cultures. The results of the survey about the most necessary intercultural competecies, biggest problems in communication with foreignors, the ways how to improve intercultural competiences and so on. are written in the practical part of masters thesis. After theoretical and practical analysis, there are given the strategic proposals and the advices for the future surveys about the improvement of intercultural competencies in the enterprices working internationally. There are conclusions at the end of the work. Structure: introduction, the development priorities of intercultural competecies, the culture study of theories and methods, practical part, strategic proposals, conclusions and suggestions, references. Thesis consist of: 106 p. text without appendixes, 36 pictures, 10 tables, 75 bibliographical entries. Appendixes included.

Embodied conversational agents put a “human” touch on intelligent tutoring systems by using conversation to support learning. When considering instruction in interpersonal domains, such as intercultural negotiation, the development of an interpersonal relationship with one’s pedagogical agent may play a significant role in learning. However, there is conflicting evidence in the literature both regarding the ability of agents to cultivate social relationships with humans, and their effect on learning. In this dissertation, I present a model of social dialog designed to affect learners’ interpersonal relations with virtual agents, a development process for creating social dialog, and empirical studies showing that this dialog has significant effects on learners’ perceptions of the agents and negotiation performance. In early work, I explicitly prompted learners to have social goals for the interaction. I found that while students who reported social goals for interacting with the agents had significantly higher learning gains, explicit prompting was not effective at inducing these goals. I thus focused on implicit influence of learner goals, developing a model of social instructional dialog (SID) that integrates conversational strategies that are theorized to produce interpersonal effects on relationships. In two subsequent studies, an agent with the SID model engendered greater feelings of entitativity, shared perspective, and trust, suggesting that the model improved learner social relationships with the agent. Importantly, these effects transferred to other agents encountered later in the environment. The social dialog condition also made fewer errors and achieved more negotiation objectives in a subsequent negotiation than a control group, evidence that the improved social relationship lead to better negotiation performance. These findings regarding interpersonal relationships with agents contribute to the literature on learner-agent interactions, and can guide the future development of agents in social environments.

H πολυπολιτισμικότητα, τόσο στην κοινωνία όσο και στην εκπαίδευση, είναι μία πραγματικότητα στον 21ο αιώνα και σημαντικές αλλαγές έχουν γίνει στη διάρθρωση του εκπαιδευτικού μας συστήματος ώστε να ανταποκριθεί στις προκλήσεις της πολυπολιτισμικής, πια, ελληνικής τάξης. Σημαντικές αλλαγές έχουν γίνει και στην εκπαίδευση των μελλοντικών δασκάλων. Καθώς οι εκπαιδευτικοί αποτελούν κινητήριο δύναμη του εκπαιδευτικού συστήματος ο εμπλουτισμός των Προγραμμάτων Σπουδών των Παιδαγωγικών Τμημάτων Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης. Mε γνωστικά αντικείμενα συναφή με τη διαπολιτισμικότητα θεωρήθηκε ότι θα δώσει στους μελλοντικούς δασκάλους τις δεξιότητες, τη γνώση και τις πρακτικές που χρειάζονται για να κατανοήσουν τη δική τους ταυτότητα καθώς και την ταυτότητα των διαφοροποιημένων μαθητών τους με σκοπό μια αποτελεσματική διδασκαλία για όλους τους μαθητές. Η παρούσα εργασία μελετάει τη συμβολή του Προγράμματος Σπουδών στη διαπολιτισμική επάρκεια και ετοιμότητα των μελλοντικών δασκάλων, αποφοίτων του Παιδαγωγικού Τμήματος Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης Πατρών. Εξετάζει την πορεία της διαπολιτισμικής εκπαίδευσης στο Πρόγραμμα Σπουδών του Παιδαγωγικού Τμήματος Δημοτικής Εκπαίδευσης Πατρών, τις απόψεις των μελλοντικών δασκάλων πάνω σε διάφορα θέματα που σχετίζονται με τη διαπολιτισμική επάρκεια και ετοιμότητα καθώς και τις απόψεις τους σε θέματα που σχετίζονται με την ύπαρξη αλλά και τον τρόπο εργασίας με αλλόγλωσσους μαθητές. Η συλλογή δεδομένων έγινε με τη χρήση ερωτηματολογίου που δόθηκε σε τεταρτοετής φοιτητές κατά τη διάρκεια των τελευταίων πρακτικών ασκήσεων. Η ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων έδειξε ότι ο περαιτέρω εμπλουτισμός του Προγράμματος Σπουδών των δασκάλων τόσο για την απόκτηση θεωρητικών γνώσεων όσο και για την απόκτηση διδακτικών δεξιοτήτων πάνω στη διαπολιτισμική εκπαίδευση είναι αναγκαίος. / Multiculturalism, not only in society but also in education, is a reality in the 21st century and important changes have become in the structure of our educational system in order to corresponds to the challenges of the multicultural Greek classroom. Important changes have also taken place in the education of pre-service teachers While teachers have an important role in the educational system, the enrichment of the undergraduate educational programmes of studies in Greek University Departments of Elementary Education with subjects related to intercultural education is seen as affording pre-service teachers with skills, knowledge and practices needed to understand their own identity as well as the identity of their diverse students with the aim of an effective teaching and learning for all students. This thesis seeks to set out how the undergraduate programme affects the intercultural competence and readiness of pre-service teachers, who will graduate from the Department of Elementary Education in University of Patras. It looks at the development of intercultural education in the undergraduate educational programme and examines the opinions of pre-service teachers about issues related to intercultural competence and readiness. It also focuses on how they feel about working in a multicultural class. The questionnaire was given to students who were in the last year of their studies during their supervised teaching practice at schools. The analysis of the results showed that further enrichment of the educational programme of pre-service teachers in theoretical knowledge and practical experience in intercultural education is necessary.

[pt] O presente trabalho identifica e compara aspectos culturais e linguísticos inseridos em relacionamentos amorosos entre brasileiros e britânicos, a partir de duas categorias sugeridas pelo interculturalista Geert Hofstede: individualismo e masculinidade; e da categorização de Richard D. Lewis da cultura brasileira como multiativa e da cultura britânica como ativo-linear. O objetivo desse estudo é o de entender melhor como esses relacionamentos interculturais se dão, seus desafios, seus sucessos, investigando qual a influência da cultura e da língua nessas relações. Para nossa análise, utilizamos dados gerados por meio de entrevistas e questionários realizados com dez casais - todos formados por um/a brasileiro/a e um/a britânico/a envolvidos em um relacionamento amoroso. Entre os nossos resultados, identificamos os seguintes elementos que influenciam a relação desses casais: (i) o papel da mulher na relação; (ii) ciúmes, traição e dependência emocional; (iii) linguagem verbal, não verbal e estilística; e (iv) o lugar que o casal escolhe para viver. Portanto, esta pesquisa sinaliza os desafios encontrados pelos casais interculturais e apresenta sugestões, dadas pelos próprios informantes, para entendermos essas diferenças e tentarmos evitar que elas interfiram de maneira negativa nos relacionamentos de mesmo tipo. Por meio desse estudo, esperamos evidenciar a importância de se trabalhar esta temática em sala de aula, dando mais subsídios e embasamento teórico aos professores de PL2E, para que possam mostrar aos alunos de português a importância de se entender não só a língua como, principalmente, a cultura do outro, e contribuindo, assim, para o desenvolvimento das competências comunicativa e intercultural dos aprendizes. / [en] The present work identifies and compares cultural and linguistic aspects inserted in love relationships between Brazilians and Britons, from two categories suggested by the interculturalist Geert Hofstede: individualism and masculinity; and Richard D. Lewis s categorization of Brazilian culture as multiactive and British culture as active-linear. The objective of this study is to better understand how these intercultural relationships are given, their challenges, their successes, investigating the influence of culture and language on these relationships. For our analysis, we used data generated through interviews and questionnaires conducted with ten couples - all formed by a Brazilian and a British person involved in a loving relationship. Among our results, we identified the following elements that influence the relationship of these couples: (i) the role of women in the relationship; (ii) jealousy, betrayal and emotional dependence; (iii) verbal, nonverbal and stylistic language; and (iv) the place the couple chooses to live. Therefore, this research indicates the challenges encountered by intercultural couples and presents suggestions, given by the informants themselves, to understand these differences and try to avoid them interfering in a negative way in relationships of the same type. Through this study, we hope to highlight the importance of working this theme in the classroom, giving more subsidies and theoretical background to the teachers of PL2E, so that they can present to Portuguese students the importance of understanding not only the language but, mainly, one s culture, and thus contributing to the development of the communicative and intercultural competences of apprentices.

[pt] O conceito de jeitinho está presente em uma série de discursos que expressam um conjunto de valores que os brasileiros percebem como sendo seus. De fato, o jeitinho não pode ser correlacionado exclusivamente a uma camada ou classe social. Ele se constitui como uma prática social conhecida e legitimada por todos os segmentos da sociedade brasileira. Dessa forma, com base em uma perspectiva social da linguagem, a abordagem desse conceito em um contexto de ensino de português do Brasil como língua estrangeira ou segunda língua mostrase relevante. Nessa dissertação, abordamos o conceito de jeitinho por meio da leitura e análise de três crônicas de autores brasileiros. Esse gênero apresenta uma linguagem singular: é um produto do discurso jornalístico e, ao mesmo tempo, inclui-se entre os gêneros literários. A análise das crônicas foi realizada sob a perspectiva da semiótica discursiva, tendo por objetivo a busca de sentidos que se relacionam ao conceito de jeitinho. Com base em uma perspectiva intercultural, os aprendizes estrangeiros podem, por meio da leitura das crônicas, entrar em contato com certos aspectos culturais que envolvem o conceito de jeitinho na sociedade brasileira. Acreditamos que o resultado dessa pesquisa possa contribuir para promoção de uma consciência cultural crítica no âmbito de ensino do português do Brasil. / [en] The concept of jeitinho is present in a series of discourses that express a set of values that Brazilians perceive as their own. In fact, jeitinho cannot be correlated exclusively to a social class or select group. It is constructed as a social practice known and legitimized by all segments of Brazilian society. Thus, based on a social perspective of the language, the approach of this concept in a context of teaching Brazilian Portuguese as a foreign language or second language is relevant. In this dissertation, we propose to approach the concept of jeitinho through the reading and analysis of chronicles of three Brazilian authors. This genre presents a unique language which is a product of journalistic discourse and, at the same time, is included among recognized literary genres. The analysis of chronicles was carried out from the perspective of discursive semiotics, aiming to search for meanings that are related to the concept of jeitinho. Based on an intercultural perspective, foreign learners can touch on certain cultural aspects that involve the concept of jeitinho in Brazilian society, through the reading of chronicles. We believe that the result of this research may contribute to the promotion of a critical cultural awareness within the scope of the teaching of Brazilian Portuguese.

De nombreux chercheurs ont déjà souligné l’importance de préparer les étudiants à la mobilité académique (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2003 ; Jackson, 2013) notamment pour faire face à l’ère hypermoderne actuelle (Aubert, 2004). Par ailleurs, les diverses terminologies de référence en ce qui concerne le nouveau paradigme des mobilités (Urry, 2007) et le concept de compétence interculturelle, justifient ce travail de doctorat. Le cadre théorique sur lequel nous nous appuyions est l’ « interculturalité renouvelée » (Dervin, 2012). Les compétences interculturelles sont ainsi définies en tant que distance performée vis-à-vis des discours sur l’Autre qui émergent pendant les rencontres. Six groupes-centrés ont été organisés pour deux groupes de participant (étudiant dans un Institut d’Études Supérieures à Hong-Kong) et une formation, pré-mobilité académique à l’interculturalité renouvelée, a été mise en place afin d’en analyser l’impact sur le discours des participants. Les théories de l’énonciation et l’approche du dialogisme ont été les apports méthodologiques qui nous ont permis d’observer les voix rapportées et leurs concrétisations prosodiques dans le discours des participants (Martin & White, 2005) avant et après l’expérience de mobilité. Nous nous sommes efforcés d’observer dans le discours des participants l’espace dialogique disponible à la rencontre et à la reconnaissance de la voix de l’Autre. Si les résultats semblent indiquer une augmentation du nombre de voix rapportées dans le discours des participants, suite à la mobilité académique, d’autres mises en place de recherches semblent nécessaires afin d’étudier l’impact d’une préparation pré-mobilité sur l’hétéroglossie. / Numerous scholars have already stressed the need to prepare students prior to academic mobility (Abdallah-Pretceille, 2003; Jackson, 2013, for example) in order to face hypermodernity (Aubert, 2004). As per the new mobilities paradigm (Urry, 2007), this implies considering individuals at the centre of political and institutional issues. Furthermore, the multiplicity of terminology of references towards academic mobility, and intercultural competences, justifies this research. The theory, for this doctoral dissertation, applies “renewed interculturality” (Dervin, 2012), a move away from a culturalist approach. Intercultural competences are therefore defined as a stepping back from discourses on the Other that may emerge during encounters. In order to collect the data, six focus groups have been organised with two batches of students from a Higher Education Institution in Hong-Kong, an “education hub” (Dervin & Machart, 2014) that is striving to be competitive particularly in increasing the number of incomingand outcoming students. Training and education to interculturality have been implemented prior to academic mobility in order to observe the impact on participants’ discourses before and after the mobility. Theories of enunciation and dialogism represent the methodology allowing us to compare and analyse the reported voices in the participants’ discourse and their prosodic realisation (Martin & White, 2005) before and after the experience of academic mobility. I have attempted to observe the dialogic space available to welcome the Other during encounters in the participants’ discourse. The results seem to underline the increased number of reported voices in participants’ discourse after study abroad, but as the space opened for negotiation is instable and depends on the interlocutors and the voices addressed, consequently, further research appears necessary to study the influences of a preparation prior to mobility on the contraction or expansion of heteroglossia. All in all, this doctoral dissertation aimed to renew preparation for mobilities in an academic setting that emphasises on the well being of lifelong learners.