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Making the most of general education foreign language requirements
Author(s) -
Barski Ewelina,
WilkersonBarker Donna
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/flan.12417
Subject(s) - intercultural competence , curriculum , foreign language , psychology , competence (human resources) , pedagogy , intercultural communication , mathematics education , higher education , cultural competence , intercultural relations , political science , social psychology , law
Given that most postsecondary institutions have recognized the need to prepare interculturally competent undergraduates, this study used the Intercultural Development Inventory to measure the extent to which one group of undergraduate learners demonstrated increased intercultural competence after taking a first‐semester foreign language (FL) course. Drawing on research on the role of culture in the FL curriculum and on intercultural competence development, the findings illustrate that (a) beginner‐level language courses contribute minimally to students’ intercultural competence development, and (b) FL departments need to substantially redesign their beginner‐level curriculum if they hope to contribute in meaningful ways to their institution's intercultural, diversity, global learning, and/or 21st‐century goals. The data suggest that in addition to re‐envisioning the beginner and intermediate FL instructional sequence, universities need more robust FL requirements for general education.