Abstract:

One of the imperatives for post-secondary institutions arising from general processes of globalization is the creation of international study opportunities for our students and for international students. In this paper we report on steps taken by UBC Okanagan and the Universidad de Quintana Roo to implement such a program in the field of language learning. We anticipate this program will not only bring the sort of general benefits that exchange opportunities bring, but also demonstrate that synergistic link between intercultural training and experience and the augmentation of language competence/fluency.
Communication in today’s world requires culture (Cummings, 2009; Egbo, 2009; Bennet, 2007; 2004; Liceras, 2006; Paige et. al, 2006; Hernández Sheets, 2005; Banks, 2004; and Gay, 2000) and language-culture awareness is as important as it is challenging in situations of intercultural contact. In 1921, Sapir said that language was a guide to social reality and a symbolic guide to culture. However, the application of the relationship between language and cultural processes into the raising of cultural awareness in second language classrooms has not been an easy endeavor (García-Pérez and McLeod, 2010; García-Pérez and Ragoonaden, 2009; Paige et. al., 2007; 2006; and Paige, 2005; 2004). Nonetheless there is good evidence that the development of effective intercultural relations in social, professional and academic contexts contributes to successful learning experiences. (Bennett, 2007; 1993; and Hammer, 1999). Moreover, there are intercultural training resources which focus on improving knowledge and skills helpful in coping with “ culture shock “ and facilitating new cultural learning (García-Pérez, 2008; and Oberg, 1960). Intercultural sensitivity, that is “the ability to discriminate and experience relevant cultural differences” and intercultural competence, and the “ability to think and act in interculturally appropriate ways, are central to understanding and improving relations across cultures in a globalised world (Bennett, et. al., 2004a; 2004b; Hammer, 1999).
Forty Canadian adult students enrolled at the intermediate Spanish Language Program at UBC Okanagan and forty adult Mexican students enrolled at the intermediate English Language Program at the Universidad de Quintana Roo will participate in a pilot study. These two groups will be subdivided into two experimental groups and two control groups. The experimental groups will receive a field training course (including basic introductions to the language, cultures, and history of the area they will visit, and instruction in intercultural communication followed by an intensive three week language-culture class abroad (in Canada and Mexico). The control groups will receive a regular (but intensive) on-campus language class. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) will be used to investigate the students’ orientations toward cultural differences before and after these language learning experiences. Communicative competence in general and fluency in particular will be measured by recording an extemporaneous narrative description (of the city they will visit) before and after travelling to the foreign country. We expect that by providing the students with intercultural encounters in a native environment their intercultural and communicative competence in general, and their oral fluency in particular will improve.

Keywords:

Intercultural awareness, access learning, language learning.