When promoting intercultural learning in the context of study and placement mobility, intercultural educators are specifying what students should be learning.Research not only confirms the genuine impact of real-life intercultural contact on intercultural learning, but also shows how this impact can be enhanced through institutional support and the integration of intercultural learning into the curriculum. In this position paper, we propose a number of considerations that need to be taken into account in setting learning objectives for mobile students. Referring to research and policy documents mostly in relation to the European mobility context, we address consecutively what students are learning in study and placement mobility; what they say they want to learn; what they should learn for; and finally, what they should be learning. We conclude that intercultural educators should pay heed to what students are actually learning in study and placement mobility over a time span that transcends the current sojourn abroad. We also recommend that educators take steps to support students in mobilising the intercultural skills they acquired abroad for increased employability.

Background It is increasingly acknowledged that technical expertise is not sufficient for engineers today, given the complex intercultural global contexts in which they are required to work. This article, therefore, examines how the concept of culture is typically operationalized in engineering education and discusses possible reasons for this approach. Purpose/Hypothesis The specific research question explored here is “How is culture conceptualized in engineering education?” Design/Method To examine this previously unasked question, a mixed‐methods methodology was developed, one that uses both quantitative and qualitative tools. More specifically, a corpus‐assisted discourse analysis of relevant engineering education articles published in leading academic journals between 2000 and 2015 was combined with a close reading of each and a critical discussion of two representative articles. Results Our findings reveal that, first, intercultural communication has not received the attention it deserves, given the multidisciplinary, diverse, global nature of the engineering profession. Furthermore, when intercultural concerns are discussed, the predominant approach is essentialist, meaning that culture is regarded as given (rather than constructed), framed in terms of differences between nations and potentially offering a causal explanation for individual behavior. This approach has been criticized for reinforcing stereotypical thinking and offering simplistic answers to complex problems. Conclusions We conclude by exploring reasons for the relatively wide‐spread acceptance of the “culture‐as‐given” approach in engineering education, then by urging educators to adopt a “small culture” approach for constructing culture in engineering, and finally by suggesting alternative ways for developing intercultural communicative competence.

In order to provide better support for students in higher education throughout a mobility experience, it is important to understand their point of view regarding stay abroad. This paper analyzes the responses of pre-departure, while-abroad, and upon-return students of different academic backgrounds (N = 990) to an open question that asked them to name the three most essential factors for making their stay abroad experience successful. This question was part of a wider online questionnaire distributed in Europe by the IEREST project (http://ierest-project.eu). A sequential mixed-method procedure identified six themes that were frequently cited: language and communication, social contacts, practicalities, personal development, academic advantages, and travel. This paper presents a more detailed analysis of the first three themes. It shows that although language proficiency was the single most frequently mentioned aspect, students attached particular importance to aspects of personal development (in particular with respect to openness) and social contacts (crucially including friendship). These findings informed the development of teaching materials within IEREST for supporting intercultural learning in the Erasmus context and may also be relevant to educators and researchers in various other study abroad contexts. KEYWORDSIEREST; language proficiency; personal development; social contacts; study abroad; student perceptions Per offrire assistenza agli studenti universitari nel corso dell'esperienza di mobilità, è importante capire il loro punto di vista sul soggiorno all'estero. Questo articolo si concentra su un gruppo di studenti (N = 990) iscritti a corsi di studio vari, che si trovavano in fasi diverse del percorso di mobilità al momento dello studio (alcuni non erano partiti, altri si trovavano all'estero, altri ancora erano già tornati). La domanda aperta posta loro chiedeva di menzionare i tre fattori che più di altri determinano il successo dell'esperienza all'estero. Questa domanda faceva parte di un questionario somministrato in Europa dal progetto IEREST (http://ierest-project.eu). Una procedura di analisi dei dati mista e sequenziale ha portato all'identificazione di sei temi: lingua e comunicazione, contatti sociali, questioni pratiche, sviluppo personale, vantaggi accademici, e viaggi. Questo articolo presenta in dettaglio l'analisi dei primi tre temi e mostra che, sebbene la competenza linguistica sia l'aspetto più menzionato, gli studenti attribuiscono particolare importanza allo sviluppo personale (all''apertura') e ai contatti sociali (tra cui le amicizie). All' interno di IEREST, questi risultati sono serviti a sviluppare materiali di educazione interculturale per studenti Erasmus, e ma possono offrire indicazioni utili anche in riferimento ad altri contesti di mobilità studentesca.

Since the turn of the century, higher education policy in China has highlighted the importance of cultivating students’ intercultural competences, particularly in the context of English language teaching. In spite of this, studies show that to this day Chinese ELT classrooms in higher education have rarely taken a cultural turn and teachers’ understanding of interculturalism remains insufficient. This paper reports an action research study on how intercultural awareness was developed in the context of an English reading course at an independent college of a major Chinese university. The study followed a teaching flow that integrates intercultural learning with critical thinking by challenging students to select, analyze, and raise questions about English texts on aspects of Chinese culture. Mapping the outputs of a cohort of 77 second-year undergraduate students onto Baker’s (2012; 2015) model of intercultural awareness, the study shows that a majority of participants demonstrated a level beyond basic awareness. The paper concludes that reading courses can be used to help foster intercultural awareness among Chinese students, and it offers some pedagogical and theoretical reflections on integrating intercultural learning with ELT, and formulates a number of suggestions for further studies.

By and large, culture has been approached from two widely different perspectives in intercultural communication and training, generally known as essentialist and non-essentialist approaches. The chapter argues that a non-essentialist approach to training adopts a dynamic notion of culture and pays attention to the complex and multiple identities of the self and the other. This is realized (1) by considering all factors, in addition to culture, which might impact the interaction; (2) by including the full gamut of human interactions, not merely focusing on difference and problematic interactions; and (3) by putting personal experience at the center and aiming at raising self-awareness, instead of focusing mainly on “the other.” Taking the next step, the chapter argues how even cultural frameworks with origins in essentialist thinking can be applied in non-essentialist trainings as a heuristic device for articulating and jointly examining intercultural experiences. Two case studies of non-essentialist intercultural trainings conducted by the authors are discussed by way of illustration.