Intercultural Learning for Community and Belonging

The educational goal for this project was to increase course content that explicitly addresses and assesses intercultural competence in language courses as a way to develop globally competent citizens (UMD Mission Statement) and enhance student belonging at UMD. The focus for this pilot program was primarily on the World Languages and Cultures Living Learning Community, with expansion into select classes in German Studies and Spanish Studies.

In Lang 1000 World Cultures, Cuisines, and Cinemas, we developed reflective activities to help students notice and articulate the role of food in their, and other, communities and cultures. Intercultural competence was assessed in their final reflections using AAC&U rubrics and all students met expectations for growth in intercultural competence. Although the complexity of the Living Learning Community made targeted assessment difficult, and participation in our surveys was limited, respondents reported meaningful opportunities to engage with students and cultures different from their own.

Faculty from German Studies and Spanish Studies attended the Intercultural Competence Conference organized by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy (CERCLL) at the University of Arizona. This conference helped to articulate areas of focus for intercultural learning, languages, and belonging.

In SPAN 3070 (Advanced Spanish Conversation), several assignments allowed students to explore systemic issues embedded in the Spanish language such as racism, dialect and accent analysis, etc. These assignments foster critical thinking and empathy.

In German Studies, we made the idea of a multilingual language learning community explicit, embedded guided reflection activities to increase noticing, awareness and curiosity of students’ own culture and German cultures, and brought in more multi-modal tools to help students imagine themselves as part of a global community.