This article reports an action research project carried out with a group of 24 undergraduate students in a private university in Ibagué, Colombia. The study aimed to characterize the development of university students' sociocultural skills, to analyze their perceptions and to examine the teacher's procedures and possible implications required to…

This contribution gives an account of the results of an action research in which a task-based plurilingual programme was implemented with postgraduate students of Foreign Languages and International Business. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining questionnaire, interview and observation data, we sought to explore the degree to which the…

This article presents an interpersonal methodology designed to increase the cultural awareness of counselor candidates. This methodology was implemented through a sequence of activities, which was part of a multicultural course in the counseling credential program in a university located in Southern California. The goal was to enrich future…

This article discusses the nature of Chinese students' transnational experiences and its impact on their identities within and beyond national and cultural boundaries. The discussion is located in the theoretical framework of transnationalism and explores in detail the ways in which students adapt, change and develop, both in the host country of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceived challenges of attempting to integrate topics related to social and cultural issues into the coursework in graduate programs in Instructional Design and Technology (IDT). Design/methodology/approach: An open-ended online survey instrument was developed for this study for three reasons.…

First-generation Bangladeshi grandparents in the UK have consciously taken on the role of maintaining the linguistic and cultural identity of their grandchildren. Through their life experiences, they have built up "funds of knowledge" and skills that they are able to use to promote learning using strategies that are personalised and…

The purpose of this study is to examine English as a second language (ESL) teachers' sensitivity to their students' social-cultural backgrounds and the kind of constraints they face as they translate sociocultural perspectives into practice. Through both quantitative (questionnaire surveys) and qualitative (interviews) analysis, the study reports…

The present research investigated the effects of an interdisciplinary program on Chinese music and culture, based on a sociocultural approach to multicultural music education. The program was introduced to 250 fifth- and sixth-grade children in three schools in New York, USA. Reports and questionnaires were collected from the teachers, students,…

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic (Taylor et al., 2003; UNAIDS/UNICEF/WHO, 2000; Eaton, Flishera and Arob, 2002; Prat, et al., 2000). Nigeria is one of the most afflicted sub-Saharan nations (UNAIDS, 2002). Rivers State, a major industrial area of Nigeria and the nerve center of the oil industry, represents a…

A study assessed the awareness of English-as-a-Foreign- Language (EFL) learners concerning a set of English lexical items referring to racial or ethnic heritage, and examined how this awareness might predict the learner's linguistic behavior. Subjects were 40 university students of varying linguistic background enrolled in beginning and advanced…

This study explores the concept of deep-structure sociocultural transfer and its impact on second language learning. It reviews three case studies of Chinese students in the United States, describing how the students allowed their native sociocultural values and beliefs to dominate their communications with Americans, even though they had resided…