Short-term study abroad: Designing an intercultural induction program to prepare prospective language teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACT Short-term study abroad programmes can help prospective language teachers develop intercultural competences, vital when working with socially and linguistically diverse language learners. However, participating in such programmes does not necessarily lead to a more advanced level of interculturality. Induction programmes before mobility periods can help prospective language teachers develop a more advanced intercultural mindset. This article focuses on a curriculum design project for an intercultural induction programme that aims to prepare short-term study abroad candidates from Turkey. The programme’s primary goal, which was informed by three in-depth qualitative studies, was to help candidates reflect on cultural essentialism, ethnocentrism, multiplicity and intersectionality of identities, English as a lingua franca communication, and native/non-native English speaker binary/hierarchy. Guided by a systematic and contextualised curriculum design process and suggestions based in (critical) interculturality literature, this induction programme attempts to offer a critical, reflexive, and experiential preparation period. Such systematic and contextualised preparation efforts can contribute to the growing literature on intercultural preparation and the design of other intercultural induction programmes or refinements of existing programmes.