Learning activities for use with the Interculture Project Database: Students' Accounts of Residence Abroad.

Contents

Searching the Database: Introduction  	2
Search by Expectation 	4
Search for Advice 	7
Fictional Diary 	9
Intercultural Incidents 	10
Academic Activities 	11
Reflection on experience 	12

Activities developed by and (c) the Interculture Project, Lancaster University

Searching the Database: Introduction 

Allowing students time to simply search the database for issues of interest to them is a valuable learning activity in its own right.  It offers the chance for outgoing students to develop their expectations about the variety of experiences the period of residence abroad can offer.  It can be a valuable resource for students currently abroad, offering information about how others have dealt with the issues they are currently dealing with.  And it can offer returnees the opportunity to reflect on their experiences in comparison to those of a large number of other students. 

The ICP SARA database holds a set of diaries, interviews and focus groups which can be accessed using this search form.  Diaries were written while students were abroad, and interviews and focus groups were conducted after their return.  The form offers two main search options which can be selected either alone or together.

What sort of students would you like to read about? allows the reader to select accounts sorted by students' age and gender, and / or by the activity they were involved in, and / or by the country they were visiting.  

What intercultural issue(s) would you like to read about? allows the reader to select accounts by topic.  Search options are available for twelve main topics, with drop-down menus used to select the options associated with each. 
  
•	How did I meet people? relates to contacts with other people.  The drop-down menu covers issues such as meeting people, maintaining relationships with people, contacts with British people and contacts with host culture members.  
•	What were they like? is about host culture member's attitudes and behaviour, as perceived by the students in the database: were they friendly? helpful? tolerant? patient? interested? respectful? 
•	What was the culture like? deals with the different aspects of the host culture which were commented on by students, covering amongst other things dress, eating and drinking, attitudes to time, religion and gender. 
•	How did I react? generates results relating to students' own responses to the situation: their expectations, their reports of achievement and acculturation, and their emotional responses, both positive (enjoyment, confidence, independence) and negative (stress level, frustration, depression).  
•	How did I spend my time? relates to the various leisure activities that students engaged in. 
•	What was the place like and how did I get around? includes descriptions of the areas where students lived, accounts of how students travelled to and from the location, and accounts of their use of transport facilities whilst there. 
•	How did I talk to people? deals with linguistic and communication issues: what students reported about their linguistic capabilities and experiences in reading and writing, listening and speaking; how they coped with the specific features of the language such as dialect or different terms of address; and how they used different technologies of communication such as the telephone and e-mail.  
•	What were the health issues? describes students' experiences of health and illness, dealings with the medical profession, safety and security. 
•	Where did I live? relates to accommodation: finding it, changing it, and different types. 
•	How did I sort out the paperwork? covers students' experiences of bureaucracy: funding, banking, immigration and the like. 
•	What was the work like? describes students' placement experiences, either at work, at university or as a foreign language assistant.  
•	Where was I? generates students' accounts where they have been talking specifically about a given country.. 

The database can also be searched by keyword, which can be particularly useful for students searching for accounts relating to given towns or regions.

These searches can all be combined.  So if, for example, a student is going to Germany as an assistant and wants to read about what similar students said or wrote about teaching conditions, they would select 'Country: Germany', 'Activity: Foreign language assistant', and 'What was the work like: Teaching placement'.  Or if a student was investigating attitudes towards minority groups as reported by students in France and Germany, the search would include ticking the Germany and France check boxes and selecting 'Minority groups' on the 'What was the culture like?' menu.  

The option 'All or Any' is by default set at All, returning searches which match all the search criteria, but can also be set to Any, returning searches matching any of the criteria in order of relevance. 

The search generates a list of the first few words of extracts which match your search criteria.  Click on the extract to read it in full.  If the extract is short, or you want to see more of the document it came from, click on ‘This text in context’ to see the 10 text units surrounding it.  If you want to read the diary, interview or focus group through from the beginning, click on ‘Beginning of sequence’ and then on ‘This text in context’.

(Note: Some of the focus groups include contributions from students who have not yet given us permission to use their data on the Web.  Where this is the case, their interventions have been substituted with the words "[consent withheld]".)

Search by Expectation 
Structuring students' searches of the database in terms of the expectations they have about going abroad has many benefits.  It enables students to share any concerns they may have with peers and tutors.  It asks them to reflect explicitly on their existing knowledge and expectations about the particular contexts in which they will be living and working, helping them to become more aware of what these expectations are.  The variety of responses about different topics in the database can challenge the idea that any particular set of expectations is 'right' or 'wrong', and can prepare students for the wide variety of intercultural experiences that may lie ahead.  Finally, the idea can be introduced that the quality of their experiences abroad may be affected by the expectations which they bring to that experience.
General expectations
1.  Working in pairs or small groups, students are asked to discuss their expectations about residence abroad, taking  notes under the following headings: 
  
•	What do I expect from my period of residence abroad?  
•	What am I most looking forward to?  
•	What are my main worries and concerns? 
•	How am I going to meet people? 
•	Do I have any expectations about what people will be like? 
•	What aspects of the culture do I think will be similar to or different from what I am used to? 
•	How do I think I am going to respond to these differences? 
•	How am I going to spend my time? 
•	How am I going to communicate with people?  Do I expect to find communication easy or difficult? 

2.  Using the database as a resource, students are asked to find out whether their expectations are justified, by searching the database to find out whether other students' reports match their expectations. 
3.  Students feed back their findings in group discussion.  Were their expectations confirmed or challenged?  How have their expectations changed as a result of doing the search?  Were there any surprises in the database? 
4.  Students are asked to address the question: 'How do students' expectations affect their experiences abroad?', by doing searches which combine 'expectations' (under the 'How did I react?' menu) with other options on the database.  This can be done in class or as a homework assignment.  Responses are fed back to the group in discussion. 
Expectations about placement
The database includes interviews, diaries and focus groups from students who went abroad as foreign language assistants, on work placements and as university students. It can therefore be used as a resource for finding out about some of the common experiences of people who are doing the same type of placement as outgoing students. (A small amount of data from students on other types of placement, such as au pair work and voluntary work, is also available by selecting the 'other' category under 'Activity of residence abroad'.) 
1.  Working in pairs or small groups, students are asked to discuss and make notes on their expectations about the activity they will be doing whilst abroad. 
General
•	What do you expect to be the roles and responsibilities involved in being an [assistant / worker / student]? 
•	What do you think the advantages and disadvantages of going abroad as an [assistant / worker / student] are? 
•	What do you think might be good ways for [assistants / workers / students] to meet people? 
Foreign language assistants
•	What will your role be in the school?  What sort of relationships do you expect to have with staff? 
•	What sort of relationships do you expect to have with your students?  What potential difficulties might arise in relationships with students?  How could these be resolved?  What difficulties do you think foreign language assistants might experience with classroom discipline, and what are good ways to resolve these difficulties? 
•	What are you planning to take with you as teaching materials?  What do you think might be good materials?  What topics do you think students might find interesting? 
•	How will you spend your time when you are not teaching? 
University students
•	What do you expect the student lifestyle in the host country to be like?  Will it be similar to what you are experiencing now?  If not, what differences do you expect? 
•	What relationships do you expect to have with staff at the university?  What do you expect the workload to be like? 
•	Where do you think you will live, and how will you find accommodation? 
•	Who do you think you will spend most of your time with? 
•	How do you plan to meet host culture members, either within or outside the university? 
Work placements
•	What will your role and responsibilities be at work? 
•	What sort of relationships do you expect to have with colleagues?  What factors might contribute to having a positive or negative relationship with colleagues? 
•	What do you think you will find challenging in the work situation? 
•	How will you meet people outside work? 

2.  Using the options at the top of the search form, students select data only from students who were working in the country to which they are going, and doing the same activity.  They then search the database to find out whether their expectations are confirmed or not. 
Discussion of the results can be stimulated with questions such as the following: 
  
•	Was there anything surprising or unexpected about the information you found? 
•	Have your expectations changed as a result of doing these searches? 
•	What would you recommend as being good preparation for being an [assistant / worker / student], after reading the data in the database? 
Outcomes
The information generated by doing these searches can be presented in various different forms. 
Advice leaflet: Produce an advice leaflet, based on this research, to be given to students like yourselves going abroad.  This can be a collaborative activity done in small groups or in the group as a whole.  (See also the search for advice activity for more information on this.) 
Letter to yourself:  Write a letter to yourself, giving yourself advice about the placement, that you can look back on at the start of your time away.  (Departments could also arrange to have these sent to students in the first couple of weeks of their time abroad.) 
Presentation: Make a presentation to the group about the expectations that you now have about your period of residence abroad, and how these have changed through working with the database. 
Interview with returnees: Use the information that you have generated to write questions for an interview or focus group with people who have just returned from being [assistants / workers / students].  (Returnees can prepare for this by doing the reflection on experience exercise.) 
Essay: Write an essay relating to one or all of the questions you investigated.

Search for Advice 
Using the database as a resource which students can draw on for advice about their intercultural experiences introduces the idea that the students themselves can take some responsibility for the success or otherwise of their time away, and can help them to start to develop explicit strategies for intercultural experience.  The production of 'advice leaflets' offers students a resource which they can take away with them and use for later reference.  This activity also familiarises students with using the database as a resource for advice which can also be used while they are away, as they encounter new and challenging issues.  The variety of different experiences on the database demonstrates the limitations of any single piece of advice, and the need to adapt to circumstances while they are out there.  Finally, working with returnees can enrich the static information presented on the database with live interaction. 
1.  Students discuss the concept of what a 'successful intercultural experience' might consist of.  What are their own criteria for successful interactions?  When have they experienced successful and unsuccessful intercultural interactions, either abroad or in their home country?  What sorts of strategies have they adopted to try and ensure successful interactions, and what strategies have they used to repair unsuccessful interactions? 
2.  Students are given the task of preparing a leaflet entitled "How to Have a Successful Intercultural Experience", and use the database as the main research tool for the production of this leaflet. 
Students are divided into groups, each of which searches the database to explore a specific topic which will form a heading in the leaflet.  For example, a general list of topics related to the way the search form is arranged runs as follows:: 
•	Meeting people 
•	Relating to host culture members 
•	Aspects of society 
•	Coping with your feelings 
•	Finding things to do 
•	Language and communication 
•	Accommodation and administration 
•	The work environment 
Each group synthesises their research into a few paragraphs and / or a set of bullet points, which they present to the group as a whole. 
3.  The group discusses how they experienced researching the leaflet.  
•	What difficulties did they encounter? 
•	Had they thought about strategies for having a successful intercultural experience before?  Had their ideas about what might be a good strategy changed at all?  Had they generated any new ideas which hadn't occurred to them before?  
•	What had they learnt from the database?  
•	What are the benefits of giving students advice before they go away, and what are the limitations?  
•	Do they think the database would continue to be a useful source for advice when they are away?  What other resources are there available to them which they can draw on for advice? 
4.  The advice generated by each group is brought together to form a single leaflet, which is then reproduced and distributed to the group as a whole. 
Adapting the activity
There are various ways of running this activity, depending on the context, time available and resources. 
The activities can be made country-specific or general, depending on the make-up of the group.  
Depending on your particular circumstances, a more focused list of topics could also be produced.  For instance, a leaflet could be produced relating to strategies for succeeding in a given work placement, as an assistant or as a university student.  Or in a teaching situation focusing on language, a leaflet could be produced relating to strategies for successful intercultural communication. 
If returnees and outgoing students are brought together for this activity, the returnees can comment on the advice generated by working with the database.  Do they agree with the advice or not?  What sorts of successful and unsuccessful intercultural experiences did they undergo, and how did they deal with them?  What sort of advice did they wish they had been given before they went away?  What advice were they given which was misleading? 
Similar questions can be addressed from a slightly different perspective if home students and overseas students work together on the activity.  What strategies have overseas students found to be successful and unsuccessful in intercultural encounter in Britain?

Fictional Diary 
Asking students to produce creative writing pieces based on the database can help them to develop skills of putting themselves in someone else's position, and imagining what experiences they might have.  This activity combines reflection on the self with research about others' experiences.  By drawing on their previous knowledge about their responses, they are helped to see their previous experience as a resource which they might draw on during the period of residence abroad.  It can be used with students who are going to be asked to keep a diary of their time away. 
1.  Students are asked to reflect on experiences which they have had in the past which bear similarities to their period of residence abroad.  For example, coming to university is an experience in which students need to learn to integrate into a different culture, and may involve leaving home.  What did they find easy or difficult about that experience?  What strategies were successful and unsuccessful?  What does this teach them about the way they respond to intercultural experiences?  Can they detect patterns of similarity in their response to events? 
2.  Students are introduced to the diaries in the database.  (The diaries can be read in their entirety by searching under any topic; selecting an entry from a diary; jumping to 'beginning of sequence'; and reading through, either one text unit at a time or by using 'This text in context'.)  They are given time to read through a few diaries.  What changes do students write about?  Are their responses to situations different at different times?  What factors influence the ways in which they respond to events? 
3.  Students write fictional diary entries, drawing on the information in the database and what they have discovered through reflecting on their usual patterns of response.  These can be for different times in their stay: 
on arrival 
two weeks after arriving 
three months after arriving 
just before going home.
Or they can write about events or emotional responses that might occur during their stay, such as: 
feeling homesick
feeling euphoric
meeting someone new
feeling lonely
trying a new activity
having an argument
having problems communicating
making linguistic progress

4.  Students share their entries.  Have they written about similar or different issues?  Do they think they would find it useful to keep a diary while away?  What are the advantages of writing about their experience?  What have they learned about how they respond to events?

Intercultural Incidents 
'Critical incidents' have been used for a long time in intercultural education and training.  Instead of offering a finite set of incidents to work with, the SARA database can be used as a resource on the basis of which students generate intercultural incidents which can be exploited in various ways.  This can open a space for discussion of the multiple possible interpretations of incidents which students report as being problematic.  Students can be introduced to the idea that reflection on problematic incidents can both offer new interpretations, and help them to develop strategies for repair. 
1.  Students are introduced to the concept of the 'intercultural incident'.  This is an incident which involves people from different cultures and is experienced as being problematic in some way.  The reasons for the problems are not expressed in the incident, which is written without causal explanations.  Examples of intercultural incidents produced by the project can be found on the ICP website.
2.  Students are split into pairs or groups and asked to find extracts of the data which can be used as the basis for writing new intercultural incidents.  Each group can be given a different topic to research.  These topics could be related to the structure of the database.  For example, searching under the 'What was the culture like? Aspects of society' head in the database generates data on dress, greeting, eating and drinking, time, hygiene, minority groups, religion, gender relations, family, politics, shopping and humour, each of which could be the theme for one or more intercultural incidents.  Each pair or group then writes an incident, based on extracts from the database. 
3.  These incidents can then be exploited in various ways. 
Discussion of the incident.  What interpretation of the incident could account for the problems?  How could they have been avoided?  How was the incident interpreted by the student(s) involved?  How was it interpreted by the host culture member(s) involved?  What other interpretations are possible? 
Dramatisation of the incident.  Students act out the incident, one taking on the role of the student involved, others the role of the host culture member(s), and others the role of a neutral observer.  Each then puts forward their interpretation of the situation, discussing the reasons for the difficulties experienced, ways in which these difficulties could have been avoided, and ways to  
Work with host culture members.  In a situation where students can work together with representatives from the host culture, they can discuss their interpretations of the incident.  How would the host culture members have interpreted the interaction?  Are there disagreements between host culture members?  What can they suggest as strategies for repair in a similar situation?  How could the problems have been avoided? 
Work with returnees.  Returnees can offer their own perspective on the interpretations of the incident.  They can also share their experiences of similar incidents, strategies for repair and the longer-term effects (if any) of such incidents on their relationships. 
Rewriting the incidents.  Students rewrite the incidents from the point of view and in the voice of the different agents concerned: the student, the host culture member. 

Academic Activities 
The database can be used as a resource for the production of more typically academic activities, such as essays and presentations.  These stimulate prolonged reflection on a specific topic, and develop students' research and synthesis skills.  This type of activity complements the more active, discussion-based classroom activities.  It can be particularly useful in a setting in which traditional forms of assessment are required. 
Students are given a selection of essay topics which can be researched using the database.  For example: 
•	How do students' expectations about the country to which they are going affect their interactions when they arrive? 
•	What successful strategies for meeting people and maintaining relationships have been reported by students living in the same context as you? 
•	Compare some of the positive and negative intercultural experiences reported in the database.  What factors appear to lead to positive or negative experiences? 
•	What factors do students report as causing difficulties in linguistic communication, and how do they overcome these? 
•	What stereotypes do students have about the host culture?  What effects do these stereotypes appear to have on their experiences? 
These can be addressed in written form and / or as a presentation to the group.  It should be stressed that there are no 'right' answers to these questions.  Essays and presentations should draw on the database for evidence, but students are not being asked to produce definitive answers, rather to demonstrate that they have researched the database and reflected on the responses which they have found in it. 
Outgoing students can write essays based purely on researching the database.  Returnee students can write more personal accounts which bring together researching the database with analysis of their own experiences, perhaps using the reflection on experience exercise as a lead-in.

Reflection on experience 
Teaching intercultural awareness does not stop when students go away.  Activities which help them to reflect on their experiences and what they have learnt from their time away are an essential part of integrating their intercultural learning.  Returnees can also be a valuable resource for preparation.  The activity below is designed to help students to reflect on their memories of their experiences in the light of other students' accounts, and through situating their own experience in terms of the variety to challenge any simple stereotypes they may have developed while away.
1.  Returnees reflect on their experiences alone.  If students kept diaries while away, these could be used as a starting-point for their reflection.  Questions such as those below can be used as a stimulus for reflection: 
•	What was your most significant moment? 
•	What was your most difficult moment? 
•	What expectations did you have that were fulfilled? 
•	What expectations did you have that were not fulfilled? 
•	What surprised you the most about the host culture? 
•	What were the most important things you learnt? 
•	Were there any significant turning points during your time away? 
•	What do you wish you had known before you went? 
•	What would you have done differently? 
•	Who did you learn most from? 
•	What relationships were successful?  What relationships were unsuccessful?  Why? 
•	What would you tell someone else who is going away? 
•	What was positive about your time away?  What was negative? 
•	Have you changed as a person?  In what way?  Are these positive or negative changes? 
•	What experiences taught you most about yourself?  What experiences taught you most about interacting in the host culture? 
2.  Students share their responses in pairs or small groups.  (It is important to stress at this point that students should only share those responses that they feel comfortable sharing.)  Did they all have similar answers or different ones?  What are the common factors in their experiences? 
3.  Students select one or more of the experiences they identified above as significant for them: for example, an experience they feel they handled well or badly, an experience that they feel taught them a lot about the host culture, an experience which has left them with unresolved questions.  They search the database to find out whether others had similar experiences.  Did other students respond in similar ways to similar incidents?  If not, what other potential responses are there to similar experiences? 
Follow-ups
Interview by outgoing students.  This exercise can be used as a lead-in to activities bringing together outgoing students and returnees, for example having outgoing students interview returnees, or having returnees give presentations on their experiences for outgoing students.  (Outgoing students can prepare for this by doing the search by expectation exercise.)  
Advice leaflet.  Returnees can be asked to produce an advice leaflet for outgoing students.  If outgoing students are also producing advice leaflets based on the database, the two can be compared. 
Essays.  Returnees can be asked to write analytic essays reflecting on their experiences.  These could be collated and used as a resource for outgoing students.