scholarly journals Relationship of Foreign Language Proficiency to Study Abroad Outcomes and Inputs

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Savicki
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Even though we might expect foreign language proficiency to have an effect on intercultural competence and other study abroad outcomes, the research findings are uncertain. Part of the inconsistency between expectation and research findings with regard to the impact of language proficiency may lie in the different methodologies of language proficiency assessment. The current study seeks to address two related issues. The first is to examine the relationship between three different measures of language proficiency. The second is to discover the relationship between these measures and study abroad outcomes and inputs. Different measures of language proficiency may be useful for different purposes, and the potential predictive connection to outcomes and inputs may be instructive in designing and implementing study abroad programs. 

scholarly journals Evaluating the appropriateness and consequences of test use

2011 ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Yi-Ching Pan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Test Validity ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Junior Colleges ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Valid Test ◽  
Test Use ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper addresses the issue of whether it is appropriate for universities or junior colleges to set foreign language proficiency requirements for graduation and offers a historical review of the relationship of test validity and test use. Examples of how to evaluate the appropriateness and consequences of test use are presented in order to discover what factors must be taken into account that contributes to the decision-making process. Finally, a model that specifies what evidence needs to be collected in support of a valid test decision is offered to help make decisions of test use more convincing and accordingly more beneficial to those individuals and groups who are affected by the tests.

Without Crossing a Border: Exploring the Impact of Shifting Study Abroad Online on Students’ Learning and Intercultural Competence Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingjie Liu ◽  
Thomas Shirley
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Curriculum Redesign ◽  
Online Format ◽  
The Impact

While all higher education was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, study abroad programs were uniquely challenged by the associated restrictions and limitations. This case study integrates a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogy approach and virtual reality (VR) technologies into the curriculum redesign process to transform a business study abroad course into an online format. Using VR technology, U.S. students and their international partners in Germany, Brazil, and India created and shared cultural exchange virtual tours. The redesigned online study abroad course engaged students in active learning activities and cultivated students’ intercultural competence development.

The effectiveness of game-based learning on English as a foreign language proficiency: A meta-analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-89
Author(s):  
K.T. Kudarova ◽  
◽  
G.S. Bimasheva ◽  
Sh.G. Iskakova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
Mathematical Methods ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
The Impact

This study was aimed to synthesize data on the impact of game-based learning on English as a foreign language learning outcome. To achieve the goal, a search for relevant studies was performed via Google Scholar electronic database, followed by the results extraction and their meta-analysis using Meta-Essentials statistical software. Since most of the relevant publications utilized the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) to assess the intervention effectiveness, only those studies that used TOEIC or a TOEIC-derived test were included in the present meta-analysis to unify the performance scale. The final analysis included four experimental interventions involving 148 individuals. According to the results, the combined effect (Hedges g = 0.56) of game-based learning on post-test TOEIC scores exceeds controls, but the difference is not statistically significant. Thus, concerning the study sample, it has to be said that there appears to be no positive impact of gamification on English language acquisition. The findings should be interpreted with caution due to the risk of heterogeneity between the included studies (I2 = 33.81%) and their low number. Nevertheless, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current meta-analysis is one of the few studies to date that employ mathematical methods to obtain a combined effect of gamified learning on English as a foreign language proficiency.

scholarly journals Relationship of Psychological Contract and Employees' Job Engagement (An Investigation of the Millennium Generation and the Impacts of Various Generations)

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Behnam Heshmati ◽  
Saied Mohamad Musavi Jed
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Contract ◽  
Psychological Contracts ◽  
Job Engagement ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Psychological Contract Fulfillment ◽  
Strong Relation ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The current paper was administered with the aim of examining the relationship between the psychological contract fulfillment and the employees' job engagement at the Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj Branch (Investigation of the millennium generation and the impact of various generations). For this purpose, all the employeesof this university were examined as the statistical universe. This study, methodologically speaking, is a descriptive research of correlation type, of applied nature in terms of goal, and of survey information in terms of collection manner while temporally it is latitude-periodic. To measure the fundamental concepts of the research, the Rousseau Psychological Questionnaire (including 9 questions) and the Wiley and et al's Job Engagement (in 12 questions) were applied. The questionnaires' reliability in form of Cronbach's alpha was calculated as 0/953 for the psychological contract and 0/872 for ye job engagement. The final findings in the SPSS software suggest the existence of a significant relationship between the psychological contract and its dimensions (officials' thoughts, officials' obligations and act upon the promises made by the officials) with the employees' job engagement of the Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj Branch. The results from the research findings indicate that there is a lack of relation between psychological contracts and job engagement and the millennium generation and various generations. In the analysis of the multiple regression results, the variable of officials' obligation among other dimensions of the variable of the psychological contract has the highest level of influence on the employees' job engagement while there is no strong relation between the various generations and the millennium generation with the psychological contract and job engagement.

scholarly journals Development and Validation of the Wesleyan Intercultural Competence Scale (WICS): A Tool for Measuring the Impact of Study Abroad Experiences

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Stemler ◽  
Toshie Imada ◽  
Carolyn Sorkin
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
External Validation ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Competence Scale ◽  
Study Abroad Program ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

One of the most frequently cited aims of higher education institutions is to help students develop intercultural competence. Study abroad programs are a primary vehicle for helping to achieve this goal; however, it has been difficult to quantify their impact as most existing measures of intercultural competence rely on subjective self-report methods that are easy to fake and that suffer from ceiling effects when attempting to measure change over time. Building on Bennett’s (1986) developmental theory, the current paper describes a new test–the Wesleyan Intercultural Competence Scale (WICS)–that uses a situational judgment testing approach to measure the development of intercultural competence within the context of a study-abroad experience. A total of 97 study-abroad students from Wesleyan took the WICSalong with eight external validation measures and a background questionnaire. Thirty participants took the test at two time points–once at the beginning of a study-abroad program and once at the end. The results indicate that the WICShad strong evidence in support of its content, construct, and criterion-related validity. In addition, the WICSwas capable of detecting changes in the development of intercultural competence over time in a way that none of the other validation measures were. The substantive findings revealed that the amount of time spent speaking the local language and the number of different situations experienced were strong predictors of the development of intercultural competence. Implications and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals The impact of interactive game resources on enhancing students’ terminological competence and foreign language proficiency

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-163
Author(s):  
Irina Sergeevna Zlobina ◽  
◽  
Natalya Vladimirovna Rezepova ◽  
Natalya Anatolevna Sergeeva ◽  
Nadezda Veniaminovna Utkina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Interactive Game ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
The Impact

THE IMPACT OF STUDENT BLOGS ON THEIR PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCIES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Khoroshilova ◽  
Ekaterina Kostina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Social Competences ◽  
The Impact

In digital era technology is constantly reshaping our future and creates new demands for educators to bridge the gap between old school methodology and digitally-oriented professional landscape. Digital natives, who are flooding our universities at the moment, can’t imagine their lives without mobile phones and social networks. The question that naturally arises is why not to use these ICT advances in and out of the classroom in order to enhance learners’ outcomes in both hard and soft skills? The paper presents the study which evaluates the impact of tertiary-level student blogs in English on the development of their professional and social competences from the students’ perspective. The research questions were: 1) to investigate the students’ experience with running an educational blog; 2) to evaluate the impact of a student educational blog in Public Speaking Course on students’ foreign language proficiency level perceived by language learners themselves; 3) to assess the students’ beliefs and evaluations of the development of their soft skills due to the blogging technology interwoven into the academic process in Public Speaking Course at the university. The method employed in the current research was a questionnaire study to find out learners’ opinions about the impact of students’ blogs on their professional and social competences. The experiment was conducted at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University (Russia) in which two study groups participated with the total of 32 students. The participants as part of their Public Speaking course had to run a multi-media educational blog in the English language as a portfolio of their progress in this discipline. The questionnaire included demographic questions and research questions. Research questions addressed the respondents’ experience with blogs, their attitudes to blogging, and the perceived impact of blogging technology on their foreign language proficiency level and soft skills. The results of the study showed that most participants were interested in having more experience with both professional and personal blogs in the future and gave high ranking to the impact of such blogs on their foreign language acquisition. The research confirmed our hypothesis that students’ multimedia blogs in the target language would have a positive impact on students’ professional as well as social competences and would enhance their motivation and participation rates.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document