This study explores the effects of participation in short-term summer study abroad (SA) programmes in Spain on second language (L2) learners' attitudes towards Spanish. Both quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that participants' international experience improved their attitudes with regard to L2 learning. More importantly, participant…

Culturally competent teachers are in high demand as the English learner (EL), culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) student population increases in the U.S. However, the teaching force continues to be predominantly female, White, and monolingual, inexperienced in dealing with diverse populations. Typically, teacher preparation to teach ELs…

This study investigates first-year undergraduates when starting their studies in a highly internationalised public university settled in a multicultural and multilingual European city. It focuses on to what extent individual differences as regards plurilingualism and previous intercultural experience are related to a higher or lower degree of…

Based on discussions of cultural empathy in intercultural communication and counselling and multicultural psychology, this paper presents a model and a measure of cultural empathy suited for a broad range intercultural interactions -- the Intercultural Empathy Index (IEI). We examined the IEI's psychometric properties via two studies involving…

People who learn a foreign language hold various mental images about the target language country, its culture and society. These images are recognised as a valuable source of information for developing the cultural component of a foreign language programme. However, explorations of mental images of Korea held by students enrolled in Korean…

Demographic changes continue to challenge educators across the United States. Currently, five million English language learners (ELL) attend the country's public schools, and immigrant populations are expected to increase by 85% by 2060. Despite teacher education programmes offering English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses to prepare…

This mixed-methods study explores whether undergraduates in a multilingual, multicultural university -- and more specifically in a multi-dimensionally internationalised classroom -- manifest transcultural competence when starting university studies. The article precisely focuses on the role of intercultural friendships and personal and family…

While in recent years, the introduction of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) courses has been increasing in Taiwanese and Vietnamese universities, use of EMI courses is still in an early phase, and their effectiveness remains under-explored in both territories. This study aims to develop an EMI effectiveness scale and apply…

As part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese government, cognizant of the fact that establishing strong people-to-people bonds locally, regionally, and internationally will be key to the initiative's success and that languages will play a pivotal role in facilitating this, has called for the diversification of language programmes…

Given the widened access to Chinese higher education, a large proportion of students studying at Chinese colleges come from rural lower-class families and encounter different challenges in English language learning. By using Bourdieu's social theoretical lenses, this case study explores how the interplay of capital, habitus and social fields…

Regular and sustained contact with speakers of other languages might offer members of multilingual societies opportunities to develop cultural awareness through interactions with diverse individuals. This study examines how the language awareness of individuals in a highly multilingual setting can act as a resource to support their learning about…

Despite growing attention paid to the language ideologies of teachers as actors in bilingualism or multilingualism studies, little research has examined whether and how power dynamics between majority and minority languages play a role in the promulgation of a majority language to ethnic minority learners of that majority language. This paper…

This paper explores eight Kazakhstani postgraduate students' reflections of their international educational experiences in the UK after their immediate re-entry into Kazakhstan. Special focus was on their language identity development after their one-year stay in the UK. It was informed by Benson et al.'s ([2013]. "Second Language Identity in…

In the context of the exponential growth of multicultural campuses worldwide and the consequent need for students to engage in intercultural interaction, this article reports on parts of the findings of a study examining the relationships between learners' backgrounds (language and intercultural experiences) and their intercultural views and…

This study investigates the linguistic landscape of eight culturally-responsive, translingual picture storybooks written by bilingual Arabic-English teacher candidates for young emergent bilingual children. Drawing on linguistic content analysis methodology, the study analyses the cross-linguistic challenges teacher candidates faced in creating…