Assessing the Effects of Short-Term Culture and Language Immersion Program: A Hong Kong Case

Abstract

<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The current study examines the effects of a four-week short-term culture and language immersion program. The Program involves four key curricular components and covered three phases: the pre-trip planning and preparations, implementation of the Program, and the post-trip debriefings. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">D</span><span style="font-size: medium;">ata were collected prior to, during, and after the students’ taking their four-week immersion program. A 360-degree assessment of the Program was employed to evaluate its effectiveness. The assessment involves </span><span style="font-size: medium;">triangulation of </span><span style="font-size: medium;">quantitative and qualitative data. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Two statistical measurements (Analysis and Variance and Pearson Correlation Coefficient tests) were employed to assess the Program effectiveness. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">The results show that the for-week short-term culture and language immersion program achieved all its learning objectives.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">By all measures, the students experienced increased confidence in using English, demonstrated a greater awareness of culture, were able to identify and explain cultural differences between Hong Kong and the host culture, and learned to apply language learning strategies and to begin to develop intercultural communication skills.</span></span></p>

An empirical study on using virtual reality for enhancing the youth's intercultural sensitivity in Hong Kong

“…Previous studies have found that in general, the more an individual has been exposed to the intercultural environment, the more likely the individual will be able to gain intercultural competence (Hayden & Wong, 1997;Waterson & Hayden, 1999). Besides short-term sojourn programmes, which are designed to enhance students' intercultural competences by getting the students immersed in foreign cultures (Du-Babcock, 2016;Jackson, 2006;Jackson, 2009), many of the local schools have started providing intercultural sensitivity training courses to the students in the classroom setting. Although the city-wide initiative to break the monocultural nature of Hong Kong education is a great step forward, according to our field investigation, students often find the traditional ways of learning in the classroom environment unattractive while teachers question the effectiveness of such courses.…”