This investigation examined intercultural knowledge development in a short-term study abroad program in a cultural and linguistic minority context (Basque Country, Spain). A pre- and post-program quantitative and qualitative design was used with 26 participants. The quantitative, survey-based results demonstrated an increase in intercultural…

While there is a growing body of research on study abroad programs, as Li, Olson, and Frieze (2013) observed, "Research on study abroad has primarily focused on the effects or outcomes of study abroad participation on the students involved in these programs…Very limited attention has been devoted to studying factors affecting students'…

In recent years, teacher education programs across the country have worked to increase the focus on global competency among the skills needed for a beginning teacher. For the purposes of this study, global competency is defined as, "a body of knowledge about the world regions, cultures, and global issues, and the skills and dispositions to…

Study abroad is typically seen as a primary vehicle for building students' global competence. The belief is that study abroad will better prepare graduates to meet opportunities and challenges in an increasingly globalized and interdependent world, that is, study abroad will produce global citizens. Given the low participation rate in study…

As globalization becomes commonplace and the world becomes increasingly interconnected, institutions of higher education have begun to prioritize the development of intercultural competence in their students. In order to measures intercultural competence, the authors developed the "Wesleyan Intercultural Competence Scale" (WICS). The…

In the era of globalization, the number of students studying abroad is increasing dramatically. Accordingly, there is an increasing interest among researchers in students' language gains in the study-abroad (SA) context. To deepen our understanding of second language (L2) reading acquisition in different contexts, it is necessary to examine…

Language learners and educators have subscribed to the belief that those who go abroad will have many opportunities to use the target language and will naturally become proficient. They also assume that language learners will develop relationships with native speakers allowing them to use the language and become more fluent, an assumption…