Intercultural Preparatory Training for Turkish Erasmus Exchange Students

Abstract

This study aims to introduce the induction program on intercultural awareness prepared for students going abroad with ERASMUS student exchange program. Among the goals of this program, there exist the aims of grasping the importance of communication among different cultures, improving sensitivity towards different behavior patterns and improving understanding towards cultural differences. By taking into consideration the model improved by Grosch and Leenen (1998), in this program it is aimed to base the program not on foreign cultures but the target group of students and their own cultural properties. This program is designed in two modules which are didactic and application. The didactic module is composed of critical incidents with which the general cultural issues without one main cultural focus are studied via presentations and films. The application module includes the studies and simulations to get the participants evaluate their intercultural efficiency. Conducting such a program with ERASMUS exchange students will contribute to the expansion of academic mobility towards intercultural mobility.