Charting the development of second language proficiency and intercultural competence in postsecondary education

Abstract Developing proficiency and intercultural competence are goals promoted by the Modern Language Association and widely shared by postsecondary second language programs across the United States. Although the development of proficiency has been studied extensively in this context, comparatively little is known about how intercultural competence develops domestically as part of a broader postsecondary educational experience. To chart the development of proficiency and intercultural competence, 296 students studying seven languages completed the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Interview–computer and the Intercultural Development Inventory. While students’ proficiency increased statistically during their postsecondary studies, their intercultural competence did not. Furthermore, proficiency and intercultural competence were not correlated. In addition, students who studied abroad as part of their educational experience were not statistically different on either measure compared to those who did not. While the last finding is tentative in nature due to a small sample size (26 students who had studied abroad for at least 3 weeks vs. 77 students who did not study abroad, a subset of the students who were toward the end of their language studies at the postsecondary level), these results may have important implications for language instruction and the potential role of study abroad in the educational experience.