On Enhancement of a Teacher’s Intercultural Competence via a Mobility Term

Fast shifts in the Bologna process leading towards the establishment of a coherent and cohesive European higher education area (EHEA) have initiated many European tertiary institutions to pool their academic resources and cultural traditions together in order to promote the development of integrated study programmes and joint degrees. To meet the challenges of EHEA, eight European teacher training institutions have reshaped the already existing MA teacher training study programmes into a joint one, entitled “European Master for European Teacher Training” (EMETT), and integrated two extra core areas related to Intercultural Studies and Multilingualism to be implemented via a mobility term. The authors of the paper, members of EMETT designers’ group, focus on the teachers’ intercultural communicative competence, necessary for studying and practicing abroad. The target competence enables the mobility participants to cope with their own cultural backgrounds in interaction with the others. This paper juxtaposes the theoretical perspective on an interculturally competent European teacher to be trained via a mobility term with the current student teachers’ attitudes towards the importance of the development of mobile European teachers to be trained and educated for practicing in the international context. The theoretical assumptions are followed by the data analysis of the diagnostic survey carried out by the EMETT design team at eight European universities to learn student teachers’ attitudes towards a study period abroad, highlighting the attitude differences between such sample groups as student teachers of languages vs student teachers of other subjects, East Europeans vs West Europeans, Lithuanians vs representatives of other EU nationalities.


Introduction
The EMETT ("European Master in European Teacher Training") idea of implementing joint teacher training at eight European universities goes in line with the internalisation policy supported by the European HE institutions. The rapid process of internalisation "has become an inevitable phenomenon of globalisation with its definite goals for education systems" (Želvys, 2006, p.140) and "new roles for HE institutions" (Bulajeva, 2005, p.179). The EMETT study programme designed by the team of teachers, administrators and education policy makers, representing Cá Foscari University (Italy), Jagiellonian University (Poland), Institute of Foreign Languages, Vilnius University (Lithuania), School of Education of Aarhus University (Denmark), Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary), University of Nantes (France), Pedagogical University of Tirol (Austria) and the University of Cyprus (Cyprus) is just an example demonstrating the institutional effort to contribute to creating a coherent and cohesive EHEA. As a teacher training study programme, it also targets at developing student teachers' knowledge, abilities and professional awareness indispensable for practicing in the international context. With reference to the rationale of the EMETT study programme the target graduate is intended to be trained as an intercultural and multilingual European professional, mobile, networking on the European scale, presenting the European dimension of teaching, promoting the comparison of different pedagogies, fostering in-depth knowledge of linguistic-cultural-educational aspects of at least two European countries. Further to the four core areas typical of the majority of teacher training programmes (Subject and Subject Didactics, Reflective Practice, Educational Studies, Thesis/ Project Work) two extra core areas complemented the study programme, i.e. Intercultural Studies and Multilinguistic Mastery to be conducted during a mobility term.
From the theoretical perspective, these two core areas add an element of innovation to the already existing teacher training study programmes and strengthen the concept of the European dimension in education. In addition to the above mentioned two core areas, a mobility term offers student teachers a real opportunity to spend a term abroad studying at one of the partner universities, learn about the peculiarities of the education system of the host country and prevailing teaching methods in the partner institution, participate in teaching practice at school(s) and conduct thesis-related research. From the practical perspective the phenomenon of mobility points out the necessity to develop its participants' skills that would transform them from monocultural persons into intercultural or multicultural persons being able to a large extent to cope with their cultural backgrounds in interaction with others (Beneke, 2000, cited in Lázár, 2007, p.9). The latter challenge brings up a number of tasks for both the home and hosting institutions. Both parties involved should take the responsibility for developing mobility participants' competences, intercultural communicative competence (further ICC) above all, necessary for effective and appropriate communication and cooperation.
The aim of this paper is to juxtapose the theoretical assumptions on an interculturally competent mobility participant with the student teachers' attitudes towards the importance of being developed as mobile and interculturally skilled.
To achieve the above aim the following objectives will be accomplished: -a theoretical framework of the necessary competences for mobility participants from a language teacher's point of view presented; -the rationale of the mobility term offered by the joint EMETT study programme described; -the results of the diagnostic survey related to the student teachers' attitudes towards the importance of integration a mobility term into the study programmes and opportunities offered by it discussed.

Research Methodology:
theoretical: analysis of scientific literature dealing with one's competences necessary for intercultural communication; empirical: a diagnostic survey via a structured questionnaire meant for student teachers studying at eight European universities to reveal the respondents' viewpoints on the inclusion of the European/ intercultural dimension into a study programme; statistical: analysis of the data obtained via the model of logistic regression.

Mobility as a Means to Develop One's Intercultural Communicative Competence
The phenomenon of mobility, though quite challenging at first sight since it "creates a new area of interest" (Byram, et al., 2004, p.30), brings up a need of adequate preparation necessary to participants' intercultural competence development, "especially prior to intercultural experiences such as an international work assignment or education abroad" (Deardorff, 2009, p.xiii). The University teachers and students' competences essential for participation in international research programmes and mobility have been in focus of many foreign and Lithuanian scientists (Byram, 1997;Byram, et al., 2004;Phipps, 2004;Gonzalez, 2004;Sercu, et al., 2005;Risager, 2007;Shaules, 2007;Koverienė, 2007;Tričys, 2007;Mažeikis, 2008;Loher, 2008;Zubilina, 2008;Virgailaitė-Mečkauskaitė, 2008;Ruškus, 2008). The mobility for the members of the Lithuanian academic community has not been a new experience: according to the statistical data presented by the Lithuanian Education Exchanges Support Foundation currently responsible for implementing EU Lifelong Learning Programme, since 1998 more than 7,000 Lithuanian students have participated in Erasmus mobility programme and there have been almost 3,000 Erasmus teachers; almost 5,000 persons have been involved in Leonardo da Vinci mobility actions. More than 3,000 foreign Erasmus students have chosen Lithuanian universities for their studies since the year 2000. Although mobility has already become quite a common factor in the students and teachers' academic life, the issues of competences indispensible for studying and teaching/ researching abroad appear to be rather topical.

Intercultural Communicative Competence from the Language Teacher's Point of View
Even though it has been widely debated what subject teachers should take the burden of teaching students to "think interculturally" (Bok, 2006;Deardorff, 2006;Hunter, White & Godbey, 2006) the authors of this paper support the opinion that it is a task and responsibility of a language teacher: "in the last two decades many language teachers, teacher educators and researchers have expressed the belief that the primary aim of second and foreign language acquisition is to enable learners to communicate with people coming from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a multicultural world" (Lázár 2007, p.5).
This opinion is endorsed by the recent documents of the European Council, including "Common European Framework" (CEFR) that promote the goals of student autonomy, education for democratic citizenship and intercultural learning to be taught by foreign language teachers.
The shift in goals of foreign language teaching requires the teachers to develop working methods that will strengthen students' "independence of thought, judgement and action, combined with social skills and responsibility" ( 17). Moreover, the target goals determine paradigm shift "moving from the mastery of languages in isolation from one another to the development of a plurilingual and pluricultural competence in which all languages interrelate and interact" (Little, et al., 2007, p.17).
The teaching of one language crosses the boundaries of other languages, further to it, as K. Risager claims, modern language studies have to break with the traditional national paradigm and start to define a transnational paradigm that "places language teaching in a transnational and global context: language teaching can no longer make do with focusing on the target language and target countries -and on cultures as territorially defined phenomena" (Risager, 2007, p.1).
This applies not only to English, as the most widespread international language, but to any other foreign language that can be used as a lingua franca or a link to interact with others, and, consequently, to mediate between two or more cultures. Byram (2004, p.31) acknowledges the fact that language teachers are mostly valued for the learners' linguistic competence they are able to develop, although the current shift in paradigms make them pose a number of completely new challenges. As Little, et al., claim language teachers are expected to: -help language learners to see themselves as social actors, -help language learners to become agents of their own learning, -develop learners' intercultural communicative competence, -increase language learners' capacity for intercultural communication and cooperation on a lifelong basis (Little et. al., 2007, p.17).
All the four goals highly contributing to the development of interculturally competent mobile citizens equipped with intercultural communicative, linguistic, metacognitive and social competences allow us to infer that the boundaries of teaching a foreign language merge with the boundaries of other sciences. Culture integration into a foreign language lesson encompasses the knowledge of intercultural studies, history, geography, anthropology, social psychology, literature, music, institutions, in addition, the "knowledge of one's own culture can become an aim in foreign language learning" (Byram, 1997, cited in Fenner, 2006, p.41) as well. M. Byram claims that language teaching is a systematic description of movement from one culture to another by using the term of "intercultural competence" (Byram, et al., 2004, p.30). In order to make that "movement" successful the positions of departure and destination have to be clearly drawn. The role of identity in intercultural competence is often considered as core to this concept (Magala, 2005, p.xii cited in Deardorff, 2009, p.xii). C. Schachinger and M. Taylor also argue that the starting point in this challenging conception of intercultural teaching and learning could be our own cultural background and experiences, our roots, our personal reality which shapes us and reminds us where we come from, what we have lived and encountered (Schachinger, Taylor, 2000, p.37). This subject might also integrate the rudiments of Citizenship education with its relationship to education in a national identity (Geof, et al., 2006, p.2) to cover the essence of civic activities "embracing ideological, social and practical dimensions" (Zarate, 2004, p.12-13). The participants of mobility should view themselves as the ambassadors of their own countries, "the knowledge of one's own culture can also become an aim in foreign language learning" (Byram, 1997 cited in Fenner 2006, p.41). Once they are able to understand their own identity and find an answer to C. P. Cavafy's famous phrase "Say who we are? And who aren't we?" it is the sign indicating their readiness for intercultural encounters.
Half a century ago, in 1954, Allport noted that "it is not enough to send someone into another culture for study or work and expect him or her to return interculturally competent" (Deardorff, 2009, p.xiii). Mobility participants are anticipated to employ their ability to learn as 'knowing how, or being disposed, to discover "otherness"'whether the other is another language, another culture, other people or new areas of knowledge" (CEFR, 2001, p.12). The importance of mobility participants' heuristic skills, "the ability to come to terms with new experiences" has been emphasized (CEFR, 2001, p.108). Moreover, Darla Deardorf maintains that building authentic relationships is the key in cultural learning processes when through observing, listening and asking those who are from different backgrounds are expected to teach, to share, to enter into dialogue together about relevant needs and issues (Deardorff, 2009, p.xiii). The process of creating authentic relationships is highly linked with a number of one's personality factors of the existential competence, highlighting respect and trust as the essential ones.
The issues discussed above constitute and contribute directly to the development of the mobile citizens' intercultural communicative competence. Because of its complexity the target competence must be addressed separately.
Analysing A. Fantini's insights about one's abilities to communicate across the language-culture differences the stress lies not only on the participants' ability to make themselves understood (either in their own language or the interlocutors' tongue, or a third language) but on their behaviour and interactional styles. Yet, all threelanguage, behaviours and interactional strategies -are needed for intercultural communication (Fantini,  Effective indicates an outsider's ("etic") point of view of his/ her own performance in the target language-culture while appropriate reflects the insider's ("emic") point of view, i.e. how natives perceive such performance. In order to perform effectively and appropriately, A. Fantini proposes ICC construct consisting of: -various attributes (flexibility, humour, patience, openness, interest, curiosity, empathy, tolerance for ambiguity, suspending judgements); -three interrelated areas (the ability to establish and maintain relationships, to communicate with minimum loss or distortion, to cooperate to accomplish tasks of mutual interest or need); -four dimensions (knowledge, (positive) attitudes, skills and awareness); -target language proficiency; -participants' awareness of the level of their intercultural competence: since ICC is "a longitudinal and ongoing developmental process" (Fantini, 2009, p.459) language learners should be encouraged to follow their progress and reflect on the results achieved in any intercultural encounter.  First of all, multidimensional constructs of an interactant's personality strength have to be disclosed. One's perception of "self" shapes his/ her attitudes towards the rest of the world and affects intercultural communication, respectively. The way a person views the self (self-concept), the level of his willingness to be open to the others (self-disclosure) and the strategies of self-presentation employed (selfmonitoring) with little anxiety in communication are the key factors contributing to effective and appropriate interaction (Jandt, 2009, p.54).
The second key area in intercultural communication is an interactant's communication skills, that encompass his/ her verbal and nonverbal behaviours related to: -message skills (one's ability to understand and use the language and feedback), -behavioural flexibility (one's ability to select an appropriate behaviour in diverse contexts), -interaction management (one's ability to handle the procedural aspects of conversation, e.g., to initiate a conversation), -social skills (one's other-orientation ability to interaction, such as attentiveness and responsiveness) (Jandt, 2009, pp.54-55).
The third area refers to psychological adjustment or one's ability to acclimatise to the new environment and handle the feelings of "culture shock", such as frustration, stress, and alienation in ambiguous situations caused by the new environment.
Finally, the fourth area of intercultural communication focuses on an interactant's cultural awareness, his/ her capacity for intercultural communication. The authors of CEFR interpret it as an expansion of one's general competence, i.e., knowledge, awareness and understanding of the relationship between the "world of origin" and the "world of the target community" (CEFR, 2001, p.103) when the social customs and social system of the host culture are possible to be grasped by the visitor: understanding how a people think and behave is essential for effective communication with them. (Jandt, 2009, p.55) To sum up, paradigm change in foreign language teaching has expanded the role of language teachers. First, the focus from developing learners' linguistic competence was shifted to language communicative competence (Canale and Swain, 1980); the latter was followed by ICC integration in the conception of second and foreign language curriculum (Lázár, et al., 2007, p.25). To translate the message into practice, teachers of foreign languages are seen as educators of active citizens who are able to define their own identity and, having crossed the boundaries of the home country employ the strategies to discover "otherness", build authentic relations with the local people, and communicate with them effectively and appropriately. The development of a person's intercultural communicative competence is a life-long process and any intercultural encounter matters and contributes to his/ her personal development.

Rationale of the EMETT Intercultural Concept
The EMETT study programme designed by the team of teacher trainers from eight European universities is meant for teachers of all the subjects. Despite the fact that language teachers are seen as the target persons to teach and assist the others to acquire certain levels of intercultural communicative competence, the designers of the EMETT study programme support the opinion that every teacher independently of their subject specialisation should be intercultural and multilingual European professionals.
From the EMETT team's perspective a four-semester length study programme should encompass a term of mobility. The minimum period of one semester spent in at least one partner institution will stimulate interest in the European dimension of teaching, promote knowledge of languages and cultures in the EU, encourage the mobility participants to compare and analyse different methodological and teaching approaches. It will foster in-depth knowledge of the cultural and educational characteristics of at least two countries, through improved command of an additional European language, and possibly competence in a third foreign language as a cultural choice. A period abroad also provides the mobility participants with a real opportunity to master their intercultural communicative competence. The aims the EMETT designers target at are expected to be achieved via three domains. The first one, Subject domain, will enhance the participants' subject knowledge and subject didactics cross-culturally. During the stay abroad student teachers will be provided with the opportunity to develop their research competences in teaching issues and cooperative competences in educational research. The vision of the European domain is linked with the knowledge of EU official documents on education, comparative insights into European educational systems and information on teaching profession and school practices in European countries.
The Intercultural domain relates the mobility participants' activities to their mastering intercultural competence via getting acquainted with the culture of the host country and learning the language of the host country (L2), reflecting on cultural similarities and differences and developing the ability to express one's own cultural standpoint. The EMETT designers also attributed developing critical thinking about cultural stereotypes and developing tolerance and empathy towards different cultures to the key factors for intercultural education.

Diagnostic Survey Data and Discussion
To learn the student teachers' expectations concerning the implementation of the aims raised for a mobility term by the designers of the EMETT a diagnostic survey was conducted. The respondents of the survey, BA and MA students of the already existing teacher training study programmes at all the eight teacher training institutions (University of Cá Foscari, Jagiellonian University, Vilnius University, School of Education of Aarhus University, Eötvös Loránd University, University of Nantes, Pedagogical University of Tirol, University of Cyprus) were asked to express their agreement or disagreement with the propositions related to the education of an intercultural and multilingual student teacher via a mobility term. A structured questionnaire comprised 14 questions connected with the subjects of the three domains discussed. Further there were two more questions added to find out the respondents' opinion on the mobility issue. Since the student teachers were of two types, in-service and of initial teacher training, we considered it important to split their answers separately.
The sixteen target questions will be called dependent variables in the analysis description.

Sample Description
The participants of the survey (n=587) were student teachers studying different subjects (see Table 1) at the eight European universities. The sample distribution per country and per gender is shown in the table below:  The structure of the student teachers' sample in each target country indicates a larger representation of women. This fact could be related to the analysis of Table 2 presenting the distribution of the sample according to the subject specialisation. There one can find that the student teachers of languages, culture and literature prevail over (59.3 %) the rest. Furthermore, it is known that language, culture and literature students are generally students of English, though the question to specify the language studied was not included into the questionnaire.

Statistical Method and Analysis
Our sample contains 526 1 observations, each observation consists of 16 2 dependent variables (answers to the questionnaire target questions on the 6 point Likert's scale) and 6 independent variables (see Table 2). The list of dependent variables is presented in Table 6 (see appendix). We simplify the model by recoding each dependent variable Y as 1 if the respondent's answer was positive (i.e., 4, 5, 1 Insignificant minority of the cases with "no opinion" represented by 0 were excluded from the analysis, thus the sample size became n=526.    There are many techniques to analyse the influence of independent variables on the dependent ones. We use logistic regression to describe the probability of a positive answer by fitting data to the logit function defined as Our aim is to find the variables which significantly influence the probability of a positive answer (Čekanavičius, 2002, p.183). More specifically, is it more likely to obtain a positive answer to all or some of the 16 questions if a student is from Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Poland, Hungary) (Model 1)? Is it more likely to obtain a positive answer to all or some of the 16 questions if a student is from Lithuania (Model 2)? Our special interest is to test the hypothesis that the students whose major is Language(s), culture and literature (coded as LANG) are more inclined to support the idea of a mobility term and its offered opportunities within the three domains.
We shall analyse one case in detail, the rest will be summarized in Table. 3. We start with a full Model 1 where Y is a dichotomized answer to the first question: We remove the insignificant terms and re-estimate the model until it contains only the terms significant at 5 % level: This final model should be interpreted as follows: the probability of a positive answer responds only to the changes in teaching practice levels. It does not depend on the major of the student, thus, the students of Language(s), culture and literature do not show a more positive attitude towards the knowledge of subject didactics cross-culturally.
Now we split the students into two groups depending on whether they are from Lithuania or any other country (Model 2). The final model means that the probability of a positive answer to Question 1 marginally (with the 10 % significance) depends on gender (p-value is 0.0764); the negative sign of -0.3667 means that the probability of a positive answer is less significant for male students) and also depends on teaching practice. It is important to us that the probability does not depend on LANG. In Table 6 (see appendix) we present brief information about the p-values of the term LANG only. The symbol "-" means that the variable is not significant in the final model, shows 10 % significance, * 5 % significance, ** 1 % significance, and *** stands for high 0.1 % significance. Every cell contains two symbols, the first is for LANG and the second (in parentheses) for EAST in Model 1 or LITH in Model 2. For example, the third row in Model 1, namely, + * (+ ***), means that the probability that students of Language(s), culture and literature will respond to Question 3 positively is significantly (this is shown by *) greater (shown by +) than that of the rest students, ceteris paribus, and that the probability is very significantly (indicated by ***) greater (shown by +) for the students from Eastern Europe, ceteris paribus.
In Model 1, the students whose major is Language(s), culture and literature are more likely to answer positively to 11 out of 16 target questions. In Model 2 we get exactly the same numbers. Being an Eastern European, increases the probability of a positive answer in 3 out of 16 cases, ceteris paribus. Interestingly, being a Lithuanian student changes the probability of a positive answer in 5 cases out of 16 but in 2 cases (No. 6 and 14) the probability diminishes.
The vision of mobility expressed by student teachers of languages from Eastern Europe is interpreted, first of all, as an opportunity to learn the language of the host country. A knowledge of a European language, possibly less-widely spoken, is seen as a means of facilitating communication and interaction among Europeans. Further to it, the respondents from Eastern Europe are likely to get acquainted with the culture of the host country and reflect on cultural similarities and differences. Ability to stress things in common and grasp cultural differences accepting and valuing them is considered the key issue in developing one's cultural awareness. It could be stated that student teachers from Eastern Europe "meet the needs of multilingual and multicultural Europe appreciably developing the ability of Europeans to communicate with each other across linguistic and cultural boundaries" (CEFR, 2001, p.2).
The phenomenon of geomobility in the EMETT study programme is seen as the key tool for networking on the European scale, enhancing the Subject knowledge, comparing different pedagogies, confronting with the cultural differences, detecting one's own ethnocentrism and developing tolerance and empathy towards new, unusual or even strange otherness. Removing frontiers by understanding is considered to be the global responsibility of everyone. Teachers, as educators of the future generations, must be the first to develop this sense of responsibility. However, the Lithuanian respondents' answers indicate a very limited student teachers' concept of geomobility. The Lithuanian language student teachers, especially in-service teachers, interpret mobility as a simple matter of going abroad for subject knowledge enhancement.

Concluding Remarks
In the process of establishing a coherent and cohesive European higher education area mobility is considered to be the central component of the initial and continuing teacher education programmes. It is expected to strengthen the concept of the European dimension in education, offer its participants a real opportunity to spend a term abroad studying at one of the partner universities, learn about the peculiarities of the education system of the host country and prevailing teaching methods in the partner institution, participate in teaching practice at school(s) and conduct thesis-related research.
From the practical perspective the phenomenon of mobility points out the necessity to develop its participants' intercultural communicative competence that would transform them from monocultural persons into intercultural or multicultural ones being able to cope with their cultural backgrounds in interaction with others. The developed structural components of the mobility participants' intercultural communicative competence would enhance their ability to discover "otherness -whether the other is another language, another culture, other people or new areas of knowledge" (CEFR, 2001, p.12).
The EMETT joint study programme, designed by the team of teacher trainers from the eight European universities present their vision of a mobility term. A semester abroad at one of the partner institution targets at covering three domains: Subject domain to enhance the participants' subject knowledge and subject didactics cross-culturally; the European domain to develop the participants' insights into European educational systems and information on teaching profession and school practices in European countries; the Intercultural domain to master student teachers' intercultural communicative competence via getting acquainted with the culture of the host country and learning the language of the host country (L2), reflecting on cultural similarities and differences and developing the ability to express one's own cultural standpoint. The EMETT designers also attributed developing critical thinking about cultural stereotypes and developing tolerance and empathy towards different cultures to the key factors for intercultural education.
The decisions made by the education policy makers, university strategists, study programme designers do not always correspond with the needs and expectations of the main agents of the study process, students. The data of the diagnostic survey revealed that the theoretical framework of a mobility term offered by the EMETT team differs from the student teachers' expectations towards the concept of mobility. The applied model of logistic regression indicated that the probability of a positive answer of language teachers from Eastern Europe has been greater towards their expectations to learn the language and to get acquainted with the culture of the host country, thus enhance one's reflection on similarities and differences between the native and host countries. While the Lithuanian language teachers interpret the opportunities offered by mobility as a chance to go abroad and enhance their subject knowledge. The language teachers do not relate the phenomenon of mobility with an opportunity to become interculturally competent. The picture of a language teacher created by the Lithuanian respondents turns out to be very limited and traditional. It does not correspond with the 21 st century teacher who needs to think globally and be able to "build up bridges between worlds and be the vanguard of cultural understanding" (Moron, 2001, p.iii).