Abstract

It is not unusual for students, parents, educators, and administrators to expect study abroad participants to become fully immersed in the host environment and experience significant gains in host language proficiency, global-mindedness, and intercultural competence. Contemporary study abroad researchers, however, have found that multifarious internal elements (e.g., motivation, investment) and external factors (e.g., access to local communities of practice, host receptivity) can lead to strikingly different learning paths and outcomes. Meaningful advances in intercultural learning, global citizenship identities, and second language proficiency may not take place without a pedagogical intervention. Accordingly, many study abroad researchers now recommend theory-driven, research-based pedagogical interventions at all stages of the study abroad cycle: pre-sojourn, sojourn, post-sojourn. Drawing on intercultural competence theories and research findings, intercultural educators are devising innovative pedagogical interventions to support and enrich the language and intercultural development of student sojourners. This presentation highlights several of these interventions, including a fully online intercultural communication course for outbound international exchange students from CUHK. The poster also identifies readily-available, web-based/print resources that can facilitate the design and delivery of intercultural interventions in international education.