Developing intercultural communicative competence has become an inevitable need within 21st-century demands, mobilizing global efforts to promote unity through diversity. However, within the Colombian context and supported by an economic interest in bilingualism, most English language teaching programs still advocate educational practices that…

In this study, we examine the fundamental difference hypothesis in language motivation, which suggests that language learning--at the motivational level--is qualitatively different from learning other school subjects. Despite being a long-standing assumption, few investigations have directly examined it. Using a comparative cross-sectional…

This study offers a critique of the questions used in anti-racism discourse and education. It discusses the dangers of asking whether a person or group is racist and the possible consequences such questions could have on people's discourses and attitudes. Reactions or responses to the questions can vary from anger, defence of self against other,…

Given the importance of ethnocentrism in social interactions and its influence on language learning and teaching, the present study intends to explore the possible relationships between using life syllabus and "emotionalization" on ethnocentric views using the foreign language achievement (FLA) scores. To this end, 273 Iranian English…

This chapter reports on a qualitative investigation on the development of adult Spanish language learners' intercultural sensitivity while using Web 2.0 technologies to explore living abroad. Comments provided by 33 participants on wikis, Pinterest, and journal entries were analyzed using a line-by-line interpretative approach (Charmaz, 2006).…

The paper presents the core aims and objectives of the teaching materials developed within the IEREST (Intercultural Education Resources for Erasmus Students and their Teachers) project, and shows how the innovative approach adopted for these activities can be implemented in the classroom. The IEREST teaching modules are innovative in that the…

Colombian English as a foreign language student teachers' opportunities to grow as educators through international sojourns do not usually subsume the traditional study and residence abroad goal. This was the case for our participants who engaged mainly in working abroad with study being ancillary. Fifty student teachers from two public…

Numerous articles have been written about the impact of community-based work and self-esteem, self-efficacy, and gardening in an educational environment. Empirical data suggest that when students have become involved in a group effort designed to improve a school, community, or society, a sense of interdependency and loyalty to that institution…

A study measured student agreement or disagreement with statements related to G. Hofstede's dimensions of culture and compares those responses with various cultural characteristics of the respondents. A 40-item Likert-type questionnaire was administered to 535 university students (301 females, 234 males) enrolled in business and communication…

This project sought to establish an affective concept exemplar variable called "exemplar intensity," a characteristic that would challenge the notion of equivalence by its impact on cognitive gain. The hypothesis that the high-intensity exemplars would increase cognitive achievement above learners receiving low-intensity exemplars was…

Reporting on a pilot study of urban junior high students, this report examines the way young people acquire perceptions of their own and other nations and attempts to identify the sources of those ideas. This action research approach used a survey research instrument with a 20-item semantic differential form to measure students' knowledge of and…

A study demonstrated that integratively motivated secondary students in French courses volunteered more answers, gave more correct responses, and were more satisfied with participation. The teacher's behavior seemed affected by these factors. References, a list of test battery subscales used, and the Language Research Group National Test Battery…