The effects of a “conversational partners program” on ESL and university students

Abstract

Fifty‐eight pairs of students, half in an ESL program and half in a university “intercultural communication class, met for 10 weeks in a “conversational Partners Program.” Measures of English proficiency (via Test of English as a Foreign Language [TOEFL]), intercultural communication competence, interest in learning about culturally different others, interest in making friends with culturally different others, number of cross‐cultural acquaintances, number of cross‐cultural friends, and homophily were taken at week 2 and at week 10 to determine the effects of the program. Results indicate that the university subjects view high TOEFL partners as being significantly more communicationally competent at week 10 than low TOEFL counterparts (p = .021), but as a whole all ESL subjects were not perceived to have increased their competence. University subjects rated their ESL partners as more homophilous at week 10 than at week 2 (p = .026). No increases were found in any of the other variables. However, ESL subje...