Investigating Language Teachers ' Sojourn Experiences : Perspectives on Culture

The more-connectedness of the world has raised a need to have a successful communication across cultural background. As a consequence, intercultural communicative competence (ICC) plays a more pivotal role. One of the means to proliferate ICC is through living abroad, or can be called as doing a sojourn. This qualitative study aims to explore language teachers' sojourn experiences during their two-semester assisting language classes in U.S. universities. Specically, this study focuses on how their sojourn experiences may affect their perspectives toward their own culture and culture other than their own. There are 19 English language teachers of 12 different nationalities who voluntarily participated in the present study. In analyzing the data, Byram's model of ICC (1997) was utilized to make sense of their experiences. The data was analyzed using NVivo11 application. The nding showed that three out of ve aspects in Byram's model of ICC (1997), including intercultural attitudes (savoir être), knowledge (savoirs), and critical cultural awareness (savoirs' engager) emerged in the data. Two aspects, skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre) and skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire) did not emerge in the data.


BACKGROUND
Investigating Language Teachers' Sojourn Experiences: Perspectives on Culture As the world has become more globalized and the affordability to visit other places and countries increases, the ability to interact successfully and effectively with people of various culture and speech communities has become more pivotal.In succeeding these intercultural interactions, intercultural communicative competence (ICC), which entails verbal communication, i.e. language skills (Timpe, 2014), needs to be fostered.Byram (2012) dened ICC as the ability to act between languages and cultures, and to mediate different perspectives between different cultures.In line with this, Bouchard (2017) proposed that individuals mastering ICC are able to navigate among different languages and cultures, and thus, act as linguistic and cultural mediators.It can be concluded that ICC needs to be proliferated to promote successful intercultural encounters.
One of the channels to proliferate ICC is in language classes.Language classes provide opportunities for students to learn not only the target language, but also the socio cultural context in which it is spoken.Byram (2012) advocated the view that intercultural competence can be included as one of the purposes of language teaching as an educational endeavor to embrace deeper understanding of other cultures' value system.Observing the importance of language classes in promoting ICC, language teachers, thus, play a key role in succeeding this goal.
As a consequence, language teachers need to enhance their intercultural competence.One of the chances for language teachers to be more interculturally competent is by living abroad or doing a sojourn.Some studies conrmed this idea.Lee's (2009) empirical study on Hong Kong preservice teachers' 6-week immersion program in New Zealand indicated that upon completion of their sojourn experience, participants' cultural awareness and understanding of the host country was elevated.Yielding a similar result, a narrative study of two Finnish pre-service teachers' language practice periods in Britain conducted by Larzén-Östermark's (2011) pointed that a heightened level of intercultural awareness predominated participants' stories of their intercultural encounters throughout their sojourn.
These potential benets of language teachers' sojourn experiences draw my interest in conducting a study on English teachers' sojourn experiences.There have been many studies conducted on the topic of sojourn and ICC, including focusing on the aspect of sojourn experiences impact on ICC (Lee, 2009;Larzen ́-Östermark, 2011), and on assessing ICC among language learners and teachers (Fantini, 2009;Dervin, 2010).However, not many studies collected the data among English language teacher-sojourners of various nationalities.Looking at perspectives on sojourn experiences of teachers with different nationalities may give insights on how people with various cultural backgrounds may share commonalities on how they perceive their sojourn experiences.As opposed to Sercu's (2006) study of multi-national foreign language teachers across Europe which focuses on their self-concept and teaching practices that can envisage a prole of intercultural foreign language teacher, this study aims to ll the gap by investigating the sojourn experiences of English language teachers with different nationalities.The participants of this study have experienced a teaching assistantship program for two semesters in language classes in the U.S universities.The investigation focused on how they saw their own culture and culture other than their own upon completion of their sojourn experiences.As an additional note, in this article the term 'sojourn experience' is specically used to refer to language teachers' experience of living in the U.S. while doing their teaching assistantship program.
To answer the research question of how language teachers' may perceive their own culture and culture other than their own throughout their sojourn experiences, this paper is organized as follows.The literature on intercultural encounter while living abroad, intercultural competence and the relationship between language and culture is critically reviewed.Afterwards, the methodology of the study will be elaborated.Finally, the research ndings and discussion will be presented.

Language and Culture
Language and culture have a close relationship, of which according to House (2007), Timpe (2014) and Bouchard (2017) one is related with the other.This close relationship is elaborated in Risager's (2007) remark, which stated that as a cultural practice, language embodies various types of meaning within it.In line with this, House (2007) stated that as a means of communication that transfers information as well as connect individuals, language is an important part of culture.As a consequence for this close relationship between language and culture, Soler (2007) argued that language teaching is inseparable from knowledge of the target culture.Resonating a similar view, Celce-Murcia (2007) proposed that language teaching must include cultural and cross-cultural instruction.
Observing the interconnectedness of language teaching and cultural instruction; therefore, language teachers play a pivotal role as gatekeepers to target language and culture.According to Byram, Gribkova and Starkey (2002), to develop intercultural dimension in language classes, teachers should be aware of the aims which include proliferating both intercultural and linguistic competence; preparing learners for intercultural encounters that they may experience; and appreciating and considering other people of other cultures as having unique viewpoints, values and behaviours.Additionally, they mentioned that another aim is to support learners to be able to consider these intercultural encounters to be enriching.Achieving these aims could help language teachers develop intercultural dimension in their classes.
As a consequence, to enable them designing language teaching in which intercultural dimension is incorporated, teachers need to be familiar with the target language and culture.Sercu's (2005) ndings from her survey of language teachers from various European countries revealed that teachers' degree of familiarity and contact with foreign culture correlate with their frequency on addressing cultural topics in their classes.To sum up, teachers need to familiarize themselves with the culture of the target language to enable them building up intercultural dimension in their language teaching.

Intercultural Encounters while Sojourning
Intercultural encounters happened to sojourners have many potential benets.Much research has been conducted to investigate the transformational effects of sojourn on the sojourners (e.g.Jackson, 2008;Lee, 2009;Larzen ́-Östermark, 2011;Gleeson & Tait, 2012).Brown (2009) remarked that exposure to a new culture, including what sojourners have experienced, has transformational potentials.One of these transformational potentials, as conrmed in Jackson's (2008) nding is a heightened intercultural sensitivity among sojourners.In addition, Brown's (2009) empirical study ndings conrmed that intercultural encounters while sojourning could facilitate the development of intercultural competence as well as a shift in selfunderstanding.Another transformational potential is highlighted in Gleeson and Tait's (2012) ndings, which include teacher-sojourners' new perspectives on their pedagogical system gained upon completing their sojourn program.These ndings provide support to the notion that intercultural encounters contribute transformational potentials towards sojourners.
These potentials that intercultural encounters facilitate could consequently develop sojourners' intercultural communicative competence.According to Holmes and O'Neill (2012), intercultural encounters play an important role as a space where sojourners could interact with other cultures through communication with individuals of various backgrounds they meet.Further stated, this interaction could facilitate self-understanding towards sojourners' own and other cultures which as a consequence could trigger the sojourners to critically reect on their intercultural competence.Observing the link between intercultural encounters while sojourning and ICC, therefore, it is especially important for to investigate language teachers', as the gatekeepers for the targeted language and culture, sojourning experiences.
Review of frameworks on both communication studies and language education eld may give wider perspectives on viewing ICC.However, in this article, only two frameworks from the eld of language education, on which this current study is grounded, are reviewed.These two frameworks are Byram's (1997) and Bouchard's (2017) model of ICC.While the former is a seminal work on the eld of ICC, the latter is the most current one.
According to Byram (1997), foreign language teaching aims at enabling learners to use the language they learn to interact with people for whom it is preferred as a 'natural' medium of experience, whether in 'native speakers' context or in lingua franca context.ICC can be a tool to reach this aim.Byram's model is a useful tool to analyze the communicative aspects when individuals encounter foreign culture (Bouchard, 2017).The aspects that contribute to ICC acquisition are summed up in Byram's (1997) model of ICC as follows.
Knowledge (savoirs) of social groups and their products and practices in one's own and in one's interlocutor's country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction Skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre) include to the ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents or events from one's own.
Critical cultural awareness (savoir s'engager) refers to the ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one's own and other cultures and countries.
Skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire) include the ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of realtime communication and interaction.
Intercultural attitudes (savoir être) refers to curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one's own.

Figure 1. Byram's Model of ICC (1997)
A more current model, Bouchard's (2017) model of ICC, is specically designed to be integrated into EFL educational practices in Japanese junior high school level.The model is developed due to observing the need for a specic model which can be applied specically in Japanese EFL school contexts.Whereas, the existing models have been mainly developed based on European and American contexts which may not suit the Japanese school context.The model is built on the fusion of ICC-oriented elements in Japan's Ministry of Education policies and pedagogical components based on Byram's (1997) Bouchard's model of ICC includes three main components: critical thinking, language and culture, and culture components (Bouchard, 2017).The critical thinking components emphasizes on individuals' awareness on various aspects which can promote successful intercultural communication such as of multilingualism and multiculturalism, stereotypes, and the importance of cultivating multiple vision in intercultural citizenship.The second components, language and culture components cover individuals' awareness regarding to language and culture such as awareness of language varieties, cultural diversity, strategies to present one's native culture and inquire about other culture and uncertainty and the importance of risk-taking.The culture components include the awareness of culture as an observable concept in the real world, awareness of various values and awareness of similarities and differences between cultures.
Among various models of ICC, Byram's seminal model of ICC is used as a framework for this current study for several reasons.Firstly, Byram's model of ICC has been the foundation of and referred to by more current models of different contexts (Timpe, 2014).This implies that Byram's model may include basic components of ICC which could be exible and sufciently adaptable for various contexts.The current study includes participants with various cultural backgrounds, and thus an ICC model which consider various contexts, like Byram's, can be an appropriate tool for the data analysis.Some other models like Bouchard's, for example, is specically designed for Japanese contexts.As a result, though more updated, the model may not suit the current study.Second of all, in his model, all of the ve aspects of ICC, i.e. intercultural attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness, are related with each other (Timpe, 2014;Bouchard, 2017)).
This interconnection means that a successful intercultural interaction requires skills that are inseparable of each other.Accordingly, Bouchard (2017) remarked that Byram's model of ICC considers that intercultural speakers should be able to use the target language effectively by being aware of the link between languages and cultural ramications.This element of interconnectedness among aspects in Byram's model of ICC, is important to ensure that participants' sojourn experiences are considered as a unity that contribute towards how they interculturally interact.For these reasons, Byram's model of ICC is used as the framework for data analysis.

METHODOLOGY
The participants of this qualitative research were English teachers sojourners who joined a two-semester (9-10 months) teaching assistantship program in U.S. higher institutions.During the program, with the responsibility of up to 20-working hours, they performed a task as a teaching assistant or a main instructor of their native language classes.In addition to that, they were required to enroll in 2 classes of their interest per semester in the higher institution they were placed.
During April 2015, around 10 months after completing participants' teaching assistantship program, an online questionnaire was distributed via a social media group where potential participants voluntarily took part in the study.Participants were asked to give their opinion in English on two statements, including: 'My teaching assistantship experience affects the way I see my own culture' and 'My teaching assistantship experience affects the way I see culture other than my own in general'.For the nal item of the questionnaire, participants were asked to give additional opinion, if any, on other differences (e.g.career, identity, and perspectives) that their teaching assistantship experience may have made in their life.
In developing this openended questionnaire, feedback from a senior researcher specializing on intercultural communicative communication was taken into account.There were 19 English teachers of 12 different nationalities (Afghan, Brazilian, Egyptian, French, Indian, Indonesian, Israeli, Libyan, Mexican, Russian, Tunisian, and Turkish) who volunteered to take part in this study.
Upon gaining the data, the data was then exported to NVivo11 to be qualitatively analyzed.In making sense of the data, Byram's model of ICC which was explained earlier in this article, including intercultural attitudes (savoir être), knowledge (savoirs), skills of interpreting and relating (savoir comprendre), skills of discovery and interaction (savoir apprendre/faire), and critical cultural awareness (savoir s'engager), was used as the framework of the analysis.The data was themed based on these ve aspects of the ICC model, if relevant.When there are other emerging themes besides the ones listed in Byram's ICC model, a relevant new theme is assigned to the data.To hinder the data interpretation from my personal judgment, in discussing the ndings, relevant extracts are presented.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In intercultural encounters, individuals' cultural backgrounds may interplay in their interaction.According to Byram et al. (2002), when people are talking to each other their social identities are unavoidably part of the social interaction between them.Differences in these social identities may potentially determine how these intercultural encounters may happen.In mediating these cultural differences, ICC can play as a intermediary.As stated by Bouchard (2017), ICC enables individuals to deal with differences by managing one's own value judgment when facing differences.Therefore, it is important to look at different aspects of ICC in order to gain insights on how individuals' intercultural encounters through their sojourn may affect the way they see their culture and other cultures.
As observed from participants' responses, the data revealed that three out of ve aspects of Byram's model of ICC emerged in the data.These three aspects included intercultural attitudes (savoir être), knowledge (savoirs), and critical cultural awareness (savoirs' engager).They emerged in participants' responses on how their sojourn experiences may affect the way they see their own culture and culture other than their own.

Intercultural Attitudes (Savoir être)
One of the themes that emerged from the data was intercultural attitudes.The transformation on intercultural attitudes emerged in participants' responses on how their sojourn experiences may affect the way they see both their own culture and culture other than their own.These intercultural attitudes were reected on how they admitted to be more understanding, appreciative and open-minded, both towards their own culture and other culture they encountered.
There are 16 participants who reported that their encounters with people from different culture had made them more curious and open with differences of other cultures.A Tunisian participant (P.2) mentioned that he had never been exposed to so many cultural differences before, and the exposure that he had then made him become more appreciative of the difference.This exposure made them to be more openminded and understanding of both their own culture and other culture.As an Egyptian participant put it, I became more open minded and more understanding once I had to deal with other cultures.(P.1.b,Egypt) These attitudes reect that there was a degree of openness among the participants.This is in line with Morgan's (1998) research on crosscultural encounter within his involvement in Durham-Paris team that showed the collaboration between team members consisting of various nationalities could facilitate members' process of reassessing any judgments.This then led to potential fruitful intercultural communication gained within the process.In line with this, Muzaini in Brown (2009) stated that sojourners gained openness, exibility and tolerance from their experiences.
Open-mindedness and understanding did emerge not only on how participants perceived other cultures, but also on how they perceived their own culture.Twelve out of 19 participants admitted that their understanding of their own culture widened due to their sojourn experiences.A Mexican participant (P.7) noted that being a Spanish teaching assistant had helped her understand and value her own culture more.This is in line with an Egyptian participant (P.17) who remarked that her sojourn experiences had made her become more appreciative about some aspects of her culture such as hospitality and kindness.The process of understanding their culture and American culture had led them to detach from both cultures.As a result, they were able to critically examine their experiences.The process led them to recognize the similarities as well as the differences among culture.This realization led them to perceive themselves as a part of larger world.
I feel that I have become a part of world citizen.I have met lots of people coming from different cultures and backgrounds.This has made a signicant change[s] in the way I see things.(P.16.b) Their views on seeing themselves as a part of larger community showed a development of stronger relationship with other cultures.Worldmindedness was considered to be one of the benets of being a sojourn according to Brislin in Morgan (1998).Some sojourners may appreciate and embrace both their local and global identities through honing their intercultural communicative competence, growing in self-condence and being a more intercultural self (Jackson, 2012).Additionally, as stated by Byram et al. (2002), it was the hope that language learners who thus become 'intercultural speakers' will be successful not only in communicating information but also in developing a human relationship with people of other languages and cultures.This resonated Brown's (2009) remarks on how the international sojourn has the power to affect a growth in intercultural competence, as well as a shift in selfunderstanding, with long-term implications for personal and professional life.The way sojourners saw themselves as a part of larger world therefore indicates a positive effect of their experiences.

Knowledge (Savoirs)
This aspect of Byram's ICC model involved the knowledge of their own culture as well as other cultures they interact with (Byram et al., 2002).Through the teaching assistantship experience, 15 out of 19 participants learned about value system, ideology as well as traditions and customs of both their own culture as well as other cultures they encounter.Reportedly, they also gained an increased understanding about their own culture.This could owe to their responsibility as language classes teaching assistants in which they were responsible to teach or assist their students to learn about their native language and culture.Additional duties such as organizing a culture table in international festivals had also increased the demand for them to better understand their own culture.Besides, many people, including their students and people they met, tended to ask questions about participants' culture.In order to be able to give a sound explanation, they learned more about their own culture.The excerpts below may illustrate participants' increased knowledge, The whole experience living in the United States and being a staff member at an American University enabled me to understand many aspects of the American culture ranging from Holidays and History, to different conventions that take place within the classroom settings.(P.7.b.) I did not really use to care of my culture before the program.But I had to prepare myself including to enlarge my knowledge about my culture before joining the program because it was my responsibility to introduce it especially to my students.At rst I was kind of being forced to learn more about my culture, but then I realized how rich my country is to have so many cultures that I did not really know before.(P.10.a.)It [the sojourn experience] has helped me to gain a better knowledge about the degree of openness of other cultures and how they can interact with mine.(P.18.b.) Participants' responses showed that they had gained more understanding both of their own culture, and other cultures, especially American culture where they lived in.This nding conrmed Lee's (2009) study on immersion program of English pre-service teachers of Hongkong in New Zealand, which indicated that participants gained a deeper understanding of New Zealand's culture through various activities that the program offered.This conrmed Gao's in Gleeson and Tait (2012) ndings that the participants of his study had become more aware of their cultural background upon the completion of their sojourn experiences.In line with this, Engle and Engle's in Jackson (2008) study revealed that the participants of their study, consisting of American students taking part in a study abroad program in France, admitted to have an increased level of cultural understanding and cross-cultural communication.

Critical Cultural Awareness (Savoirs' Engager)
Out of 19 participants, 8 participants reported that their sojourn experiences provided them with a chance to critically compare their own culture with other cultures.Interestingly, except one Brazilian participant (P.12) who talked about how her sojourn experiences made her realize some aspects of the United States were not as perfect as she had imagined, all other seven participants who showed their critical cultural awareness mainly talked about their own native culture.This might happen due to, as a Turkish participant (P.19) noted, that her role as a teaching assistant gave her a chance to compare her native culture and the host country culture in order that she could explain to her students the differences and similarities between the two culture clearly.She additionally mentioned that in so doing, she developed a 'foreign' perspective to the issue and subsequently questioned many aspects of her native culture that she had taken for granted before her sojourn experiences.Nevertheless, this resonated Holmes and O'Neill (2012) nding that self-evaluation could contribute towards the development of critical cultural awareness.
The process of evaluating and comparing cultures could both positively and negatively affect how the participants view their own culture as well as cultures other than their own.The negative outlook may come from the differences found which leads to the dissatisfaction of one's own culture.On the other hand, the positive outlook may come from the similarities found which became the common ground to feel satised about their own culture, as could be seen in the excerpt below.
Seeing my culture from another cultural perspective made me realize how many good things we have here and even with the differences that somehow may make us different in a bad way (I don't know, like recycling for example) could make me clearly see my culture as something special and unique.(P.12.a,Brazil)It was a beautiful experience, in the sense that now I perceive myself and my own culture in a different light, I'm more critical of my country's educational system now, it's not that it's bad but it's up for improvement.(P.2.a,Tunis)As explained by Brown (2009), this outlook shift in understanding sojourners' own culture could be the result of exposure to diversity and of the geographical and emotional distance from the home environment.
Participants reported that their sojourn experiences affected the way they saw both their own culture and other cultures in terms of critical cultural awareness.This nding was in line with Larzen-Ostermark's (2011) qualitative study on two Finnish students' study abroad program in Scotland and London, which showed that, upon the completion of the program, both participants gained an increased level of cross-cultural awareness by means of informal conversations with both local and other foreigners.Kaikkonen in Larzen-Ostermark (2011) resonated the same idea that intercultural sojourns could call forth critical cultural awareness.Holmes and O'Neill's (2012) nding pointed out that sojourners' interaction with foreign culture they came across in the host country challenged, and broke their stereotyping, and consequently made them reassess their assumptions about other cultures.In short, intercultural encounters that they experienced facilitated the growth of participants' critical cultural awareness.

CONCLUSION
To sum up, the participants reported to perceive that their sojourn experiences of teaching assistantship in the U.S. have helped them to learn more about their own culture as well as other cultures they encountered.Specically, participants' sojourn experiences affected their intercultural attitudes (savoir être), knowledge (savoirs), and critical cultural awareness (savoirs' engager).Additionally, they also learn to be more understanding, more appreciative of their native culture and other cultures they encounter.Moreover, they also found the common ground and focused more on the similarities as opposed to differences they encountered.They also became more critical towards both their own cultures and cultures other than their own.However, interestingly, participants talked more about how they become more critical of their native culture as opposed to other cultures or the host country's culture.Their sojourn experiences also helped them build a global identity as being part of bigger world.Observing these intercultural communicative competence affected by language teachers' sojourn experiences, it is hoped that, as Sercu (2006) put it, could help them explain similarities and differences between culture to their students.
Meanwhile, this study has several limitations.Firstly, the result of this study is not generalizable due to the small number of participants.Secondly, the questionnaire used is as a pilot project, and thus a providing vivid method to triangulate will be a good benet for future studies.Thirdly, while providing the breadth of the insight represented by the different nationalities of the participants of this study, the questionnaire may have lack of in-depth information on the area of the study.Therefore, future research on the same topics may benet indepth data generated through interview.Additionally, further research with a more rigorous methodology and triangulation is needed to give broader and more in-depth understanding on the area of investigation.