Language and Study Abroad Across the Curriculum: An Analysis of Course Development

Abstract

Preparing undergraduates and training faculty to succeed in a global society requires colleges to infuse international and intercultural dimensions into the curriculum. A Title VI grant funded the development and pilot of six Integrated Intensive Courses Abroad (IICA). These courses incorporate discipline‐specific content studies with foreign language and ground them in a study abroad experience. Content and language instructors were paired and cross‐trained in each other's discipline to enable them to design and teach these interdisciplinary courses. This article outlines the purpose, development, essential resources, and preliminary outcomes of integrating UCAs into a college curriculum. Results from a postcourse survey suggest that the IICA model improved students' language proficiency and understanding of the content discipline beyond what would have been expected in a traditional course.

Enhancing Language Learning in Study Abroad

“…Although the integration of study abroad into the language curriculum remains a rare consideration in many institutions of higher learning, there is some indication that this issue is attracting professional attention. Moreno-Lopez, Saenz-de-Tejada, and Smith (2008), for example, described a project designed to integrate foreign language study abroad into the curriculum of a small liberal arts college with a mandate to educate students as global citizens. The project involved designing coherent sequences of courses cotaught by language and discipline specialists and including a service learning experience abroad.…”

A multicultural, multidisciplinary short course to introduce recently graduated engineers to the global nature of professional practice

“…Furthermore, Moreno-Lopez et al (2008) have reported on results of studies that show the benefits on language skills of study abroad, and that these benefits accrue even in short programmes of study abroad, such as the three week IIWE course. Moreno-Lopez et al (2008) and Ravesteijn et al (2006) assert that language skill development should be in context, which supports the decision of IIWE to offer a course for engineers, with engineering-related content, to increase participants' language skills.…”

Student perspectives on international education: an examination into the decline of Japanese studying abroad

“…In the area of foreign language acquisition, the literature suggests that students demonstrate significantly more fluency upon returning from an overseas sojourn (Freed, 1995;Stansfield, 1975), as well as higher proficiency in intercultural communication (Williams, 2005). Research has also indicated that students who do go abroad even for short periods are consistently reported to return with higher levels of confidence and self-efficacy in the foreign language, increased motivation for further study (Ingram, 2005;Moreno-Lopez, Saenz-de-Tejada, & Smith, 2008;Tanaka & Ellis, 2003), are likely to continue their interest and study of the foreign language, and tend to seek further international experiences (Amuzie & Winke, 2009;Ingram, 2005).…”