Significance of intercultural competence development for study-abroad students: Preparing Turkish international sojourners to undertake graduate programs in English L1 countries

This study consists of investigating intercultural competence needs of government-sponsored Turkish international graduate students from an ELF perspective, designing an IC development syllabus, and its implementation. Being the first one to take up the opportunity of identifying IC needs of government-sponsored students undertaking an English language preparatory program, it intends to provide remedies to potential communication problems they face in the context of English L1 countries where ELF is used as a medium of real communication through an intercultural competence development course to equip them with the capability of communicating their own identities, affairs, opinions and reflections in global settings as well as providing utilizable information for the stakeholders in the areas of setting goals and objectives consistent with the students' IC development needs, and developing instructional material selection/adaptation criteria to match the recipients' needs in intercultural competence. The sociocultural learning theory (Vygotsky 1997) was used as the grounded theory in the study, which was accomplished by using the social-constructivist approach that involved the preparatory school's administration in a collaborative process throughout the study. Parallel to this approach, the process oriented model of (Deardorff 2006) was used as a framework for the design and implementation of the syllabus. The study is based on two-phase data collection and analysis. The first phase data collection was used for the needs analysis of the syllabus design which consisted of e-mail interview responses of 25 government-sponsored Turkish students during their graduate studies in English L1 countries, open-ended responses of 9 graduate students to 6-videoclips in which different varieties of English were presented for their comments upon completion of their English preparatory programs prior to their departure to English L1 countries, and self-assessment needs analysis questionnaire (Bayyurt 2009) and intercultural sensitivity scale questionnaire (Chen & Stratosa 2000) responses of 30 graduate students prior to their commencement of an English preparatory program in Turkey. The second phase of data collection was used to evaluate the effects of the implementation of the syllabus which included the field notes taken during the implementation of the syllabus, the students' and the preparatory school's administrator's accounts of its effects during and upon completion of its implementation, and comparison of self-assessment intercultural sensitivity scale responses of students who participated and who did not participate in its implementation. The subjects' e-mail interview responses to ten open-ended questions focusing on the assessment of their own intercultural experience in the ELF context of English L1 countries during their sojourns and used to identify the subjects' orientation to the English language, awareness of ELF and intercultural sensitivity by analyzing their views within five overarching themes and categories that emerged from their: • perceptions of the "ideal English" and native speakerism; • perceptions of their own English; • views on their English learning experiences; • receptivity to ELF; and • intercultural awareness and views on intercultural development needs. Along with a considerable shift in the subjects' perceptions of the "ideal English" and native speakerism indicating that communication was more important for them than conforming to the norms, the study stresses the subjects' lack of intercultural sensitivity and awareness prior to their departure and their desire for intercultural competence development training prior to their sojourns and their propensity to ELF as contributory factors that would contribute to their adjustment and successful communication in the host country. The data based on the participants' videoclip responses prior to their departure was analysed and evaluated in terms of their interaction engagement, respect for cultural differences, interaction confidence, interaction enjoyment, and interaction effectiveness; and their EFL awareness accounted for their attitudes towards the English spoken in the videoclips, their awareness of the cultures of the speakers, and their tolerance for the cultures of these speakers, their willingness and readiness for participating in conversations with these speakers if need be. The videoclip responses presented a critical view on normative based study-abroad preparatory programs, their deficiencies in the area of intercultural competence development, and ELF awareness needed for successful interaction in the ELF context of English L1 countries. The data collected by the Needs and Attitude Analysis Questionnaire and Intercultural Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire prior to the participants' commencement of the preparatory program also demonstrated a significant degree of lack of ELF awareness and intercultural sensitivity in all the five dimensions of the scale's measure indicating the necessity of training prior to sojourn. The syllabus content includes intercultural competence development topics - such as cultural self-awareness, deep cultural knowledge and sociolinguistic awareness - and activities focusing on the global nature of English, which intend to develop sufficient ELF awareness, and knowledge and skills necessary to communicate in ELF encounters such as the attitude of respect and value other cultures, openness, adaptability, flexibility, ability to withhold judgements, and curiosity and discovery while tolerating ambiguity. The data collected in the second phase indicated that the implementation of the syllabus made significant contribution to the participants' in their ELF awareness and intercultural competence skills while the data collected from those who did not take the instruction did not indicate any such improvement. The outcomes of the study have significant pedagogical implications for syllabus design, language planning and policy, language teacher education, and research in language education.