Still, Covid 19 has been spreading all over the world, though gradually, traveling and studying abroad have resumed in several countries. In Japan, the government decided to allow companies and universities to send to foreign countries and accept business people and students from foreign countries.
This presentation aims to longitudinally investigate how the experience of the semester-long study abroad affects the improvement of English language competence, intercultural sensitivity, and future careers for Japanese university students by using a mixed study with questionnaires and Text Mining analysis. Especially we investigated how university students were affected by the Covid19 for English proficiency and intercultural competencies before and after the restriction which they could not study abroad.
Before the pandemic, about one hundred students in the second academic year who participated in study abroad programs at eight different universities in three English-speaking countries were asked to answer pre-departure and post-return questionnaires as quantitative research. The results of the questionnaires showed that the students improved their English from A2/B1 levels to B2/C1 levels based on the CEFR. Additionally, they improved their intercultural sensitivity from the stages of Minimization/ Acceptance to Adaptation/ Integration based on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) (Bennett, 2011, 2016)). Second, Text Mining analysis was conducted as qualitative research on the text comments about study abroad experiences written by the same students. They uploaded their comments on the university internet system at different times (prior to departure, three weeks after departure, three weeks prior to return, and after return). In the text analysis, they had the confidence to improve their English by using the words "enjoy" and "develop themselves." As for the final comments after their return, they reflected that they enjoyed their lives in foreign countries and learned about different cultures, but struggled with being involved in the cultural differences, in the Minimization stage. In addition, their study abroad experiences contributed to their career hunting. The mixed study showed the discrepancy in the stage of DMIS between the quantitative studies and the qualitative studies, though we concluded the mixed study would accurately help reflect the impact of the study abroad program.
During the pandemic, the students who couldn't study abroad had several choices: 20 students took an online study abroad program, or ten students concentrated on their studies at a university in Japan. They were asked to answer pre-and post-questionnaires. Their English levels were almost the same as the students who studied abroad in person. On the other hand, the intercultural sensitivity differed, some of them were not improved, and quite a few students improved their intercultural sensitivity, reporting that they could communicate with international students after the online English lessons and conducted some projects to work with each other via ZOOM. The other students who didn't study abroad in person reported that they concentrated on their English and the sub-major subjects such as business administration. The model of mainly three categories' characteristics of the students will be described in the presentation.
