Now more than ever before, language learners can autonomously engage with the target culture beyond the classroom through international television shows, online forums, video clips, and study abroad. Still, much of the literature has deemed the target-language dominant speaker (TLDS) as a key source of cultural knowledge, and, thus, the principal…

In recent years, many studies have paid attention to servant leadership in different fields and occasions, yet few studies have paid attention to higher education in Afghanistan. The current explanatory study examined to what extent university teachers use the four principles of servant leadership (empathy, awareness, conceptualization and…

Purpose: The purpose of this current research study is to provide a comprehensive description of an ongoing effort to provide quality experiential professional development through field experiences for educators at the pre-service level, referred to hereafter as teacher candidates (TCs). This practitioner inquiry aimed to determine what the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to serve as a comprehensive review of short-term study abroad (STSA) outcomes to help guide future STSA and study abroad (SA) scholars and practitioners in the further development of the field. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is the first comprehensive and systematic review of all outcomes of STSA…

Along with the inclusion of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) into the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) World Readiness standards, there has been recent interest in the field of Chinese foreign language teaching towards integrating ICC into the course curriculum. However, many Chinese teachers still display…

The significant influence of communication technologies, most evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a fundamental shift in global education. This study investigates the advantages of incorporating a blended learning approach, particularly by integrating Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) into undergraduate programs at a university in…

The decline in foreign language learners in tertiary education is a concern in many countries. While factors influencing students' persistence in second language learning have been explored, there has been limited discussion on the potential of language programmes that develop students' self-formation alongside language learning. This study aimed…

This study examined the results of a post-internship survey and a follow-up survey and interviews with 11 undergraduate students from the University of California in Davis, who worked as volunteers in a ten-week unpaid internship in Japan to examine their perceptions of the challenges and gains of working abroad. The results of the post-internship…

Self-efficacy is the belief in one's own ability to carry out a given task, and has been shown to be a powerful predictor of performance. Although researchers have considered self-efficacy within language learning, it remains a relatively underused and unexplored construct. This longitudinal mixed-method study set out to address this, by…

This case study examines the goals of 13 Japanese graduate students who studied abroad, and situates those goals in the larger context of Japanese society. The study abroad objectives of the Japanese government and some Japanese universities are compared and problematised. The authors conducted three interviews of each study abroad participant…

This paper aims to investigate how the concept of language, culture, identity and difference work together in the implementation of the SA Program for Indonesian students and how important its application for them. Concerning the interrelatedness between the four concepts in the employment of SA program, it is found that there is a chance for…

In 2014, 24 Type B universities were selected as part of the Top Global University Project to act as institutional role models of internationalization in Japan and as gateways for the development of global human resources, that is, globally competent human resources. The increasing pressure to internationalize, perceived as a major solution to…

The initial response to COVID-19 exposed widespread racism and Sinophobia across the world, which contributed to a rethinking of equality and diversity in Higher Education (HE) and beyond. Within Modern Languages, much attention has been placed on decolonising the curriculum. The death of George Floyd in 2020 further contributed to an increased…

This dissertation examined narratives of seven current and former students of a Southwestern university in the United States who participated in short-term study abroad language and culture immersion programs (3 to 4 weeks) in three different locations outside of the United States. The research explored how the short-term study abroad participants…

This article contests the narrative of Chinese international students (internationals for short) as passive and problematic to reveal the complexity and fluidity of their experiences. Simultaneously, it troubles the overly linear approach of stage theory in understanding internationals' adjustment. Following nine first- and nine second-year…