Identifying students’ intercultural communicative competence at the beginning of their placement: towards the enhancement of study abroad programmes

Abstract

A pre-placement questionnaire was completed by a cohort of 30 students participating in the Erasmus exchange programmes from the University of Salamanca, placed in British universities, and by a group of 25 Nottingham Trent University students hosted by diverse Spanish universities. The questionnaire was then analysed with the aim of providing a profile of their intercultural communicative competence (ICC), based on data about their self-perceived motivation and their intercultural awareness, knowledge, attitudes and skills, prior to their stay abroad. Despite the fact that their previous experience abroad, level of language proficiency and home university requirements for the placement differed, both groups shared a positive attitude towards the host country, considered themselves ready to adapt to new cultural environments, regarded misperceptions and solving conflicts as their greater challenge and expressed a willingness to grow personally and professionally. These data will inform a larger research project seeking to identify the factors that promote the acquisition of intercultural competences, as a basis for universities to equip students with tools aimed at overcoming obstacles that may pose an educational challenge for them and hinder the development of their ICC while on placement abroad.