Intercultural learning in the context of study abroad a role in second foreign language acquisition

Abstract

This study aims to explore the effects of intercultural learning on SLA (Second/Foreign Language Acquisition) by drawing upon quantitative and qualitative research. It is conducted at a university in the United States to compare the experiences of intercultural learning in which one often communicates with native speakers and negotiates the differences between his or her own culture and the target culture by using English as a shared language among international students coming from Asian countries. The researcher assumes that social and psychological factors such as motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation can reflect the effects of intercultural learning on SLA and that the effects of intercultural learning reflected in those factors can also be predicted by the length of residence. The findings, on the one hand, show that intercultural learning indeed affects students' motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation during their studying abroad. On the other hand, however, the results of the present study find that students' motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation cannot be predicted by the length of their residence. While communication and interaction with native speakers are commonly recognized by students studying abroad in the present study as a good strategy to acquire the target langue and culture, the researcher concludes that the willingness in communication and interaction with native speakers might replace the role of the length of residence in predicting how the variables of motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation are demonstrated under the effects of intercultural learning in the context of study abroad. The more willing to communicate and interact with native speakers students' motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation. Secondly, it is claimed that under the effects of intercultural learning the three variables of motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation are correlated to each other and can be predicted by the frequency of communication and interaction with native speakers. Thirdly, the model further claims that due to the effects of intercultural learning the changes in motivation, attitudes and cross-cultural adaptation can further enable students studying abroad to make a change in their learning modes and thinking systems which lead to SLA. While providing SLA researchers with a new model to draw their attention to the fact that intercultural learning is a trend which the younger generations in the twenty-first century very likely experience and that this kind of learning definitely plays a role in one’s intellectual growth and SLA, the researcher suggests that all the teachers of teaching English as a second or foreign language across the world should rethink a new direction of English teaching by integrating either intercultural learning or culture learning into second or foreign language education