Intercultural Learning Factors of French Students Abroad: A Focus on Interpersonal Engagement in Context
Hélène Langinier, Kevin Mac Gabhann, and Babak Mehmanpazir
Ecole de Management de Strasbourg, Humanis, France
Volume 18: 2023, pp. 59-84; ABSTRACT
We seek to understand how business students develop the behavioural component of their intercultural competence in link with their host context during their academic sojourn abroad. We apply a mixed method that uses the results of the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) test (Mendenhall, Stevens, Bird, Oddou & Osland (2012)) on 111 French business school students, tested before and after a year abroad on an international assignment. We then carry out a qualitative analysis of the 32 self-reflective reports of the students who improved or regressed significantly, and also analysed teachers’ field notes during test debriefing sessions. By differentiating learning and contextual factors drawing on Eraut’s (2004) informal learning framework, we clarify the way specific learning factors based on students home educational background enhance self-confidence and commitment, which supports the development of the behavioural dimension of their intercultural competence based on the contextual factors of the study abroad host country.
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