{"title":"Developing Intercultural Competences in the Study-Abroad Programme Semester at Sea (SAS)","authors":"C. Mayer, L. Louw, Jeff Larsen","doi":"10.36923/jicc.v24i1.644","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Semester at Sea is a US-American study abroad programme during which students spend a semester on a ship studying while visiting various countries. The purpose of this article is to determine the intercultural competence development in the students during the Fall voyage through a self-assessment questionnaire. The research is anchored in a post-positivistic research paradigm, using an intercultural competence survey questionnaire to determine the intercultural competence at the beginning and at the end of the voyage in 182 participants. Results show that the intercultural competences, in terms of intercultural knowledge, awareness and skills of the students improved significantly during the voyage, when comparing all pre-voyage and post-voyage scores of the three components. This means that the SAS programme creates a diverse and multicultural learning space within the international educational system, promoting cultural knowledge, awareness, skill development through the combination of an academic curriculum and hands-on intercultural experiences. The study contributes to evaluating SAS as a US study abroad programme and provides conclusions and recommendations for future research and practice.","PeriodicalId":52519,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Intercultural Communication","volume":"33 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Intercultural Communication","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v24i1.644","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Semester at Sea is a US-American study abroad programme during which students spend a semester on a ship studying while visiting various countries. The purpose of this article is to determine the intercultural competence development in the students during the Fall voyage through a self-assessment questionnaire. The research is anchored in a post-positivistic research paradigm, using an intercultural competence survey questionnaire to determine the intercultural competence at the beginning and at the end of the voyage in 182 participants. Results show that the intercultural competences, in terms of intercultural knowledge, awareness and skills of the students improved significantly during the voyage, when comparing all pre-voyage and post-voyage scores of the three components. This means that the SAS programme creates a diverse and multicultural learning space within the international educational system, promoting cultural knowledge, awareness, skill development through the combination of an academic curriculum and hands-on intercultural experiences. The study contributes to evaluating SAS as a US study abroad programme and provides conclusions and recommendations for future research and practice.
海上学期 "是美国的一项海外学习计划,学生在海上学习一个学期,同时访问多个国家。本文旨在通过一份自我评估问卷,了解学生在秋季航行期间的跨文化能力发展情况。研究采用后实证主义研究范式,使用跨文化能力调查问卷来确定 182 名参与者在航程开始和结束时的跨文化能力。结果表明,比较航行前和航行后三个部分的所有得分,学生在跨文化知识、跨文化意识和跨文化技能方面的跨文化能力在航行期间有显著提高。这说明 SAS 项目在国际教育体系中创造了一个多元化和多文化的学习空间,通过将学术课程与实践性跨文化体验相结合,促进了文化知识、意识和技能的发展。这项研究有助于对 SAS 作为美国留学项目进行评估,并为今后的研究和实践提供结论和建议。
期刊介绍:
The goal of the journal is to promote research but also education and training in the area of intercultural communication. The journal is an outgrowth of the activities of NIC – the Nordic Network for Intercultural Communication. The great interest shown in the activities of NIC have pointed to a need for more journals employing a peer review procedure within the area of intercultural communication. By starting this journal, we hope to encourage more research and to facilitate contacts between interested researchers as well as to provide better possibilities for reviewed publication. We welcome contributions and reviews concerning all areas of intercultural communication.