DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCY: STUDY ABROAD EXPERIENCE

Internationalization of Higher education in Kazakhstan promotes its main instrument as academic mobility. While sending students abroad we should clear understand why we send our students, what are our expectations, what knowledge we want them to pursue. However, it is conspicuous that when sending students abroad the universities target the students for the successful integration into the academic education, no attention paid to the intercultural competence development. Consequently, the student when going abroad to study discover cultural, emotional, psychological and behavioral hurdles that make him an expert in international education. Intercultural learning is not an easy process that students required to obtain before, during, and after a study abroad experience, no matter how long the sojourn is. Living or being in the host culture does not automatically produce interculturality. Many internationalization models ignore this fact; administrators are often engaged in increasing the numbers of exchange students, largely do not paying attention to the barriers that may hinder the learning process (e.g., high levels of ethnocentricism, low tolerance for ambiguity, culture shock). In this age of increased global interconnection, it is vital for interculturalists, applied linguists, and study abroad researchers to find out the most productive ways to encourage students towards higher levels of intercultural sensitivity and sociopragmatic awareness both at home and abroad. Today, intercultural competence is as important as language competence and one cannot assume that they will develop simultaneously. As educators, we have to empower students to become competent, sensitive global citizens and professionals. Here, we would like to highlight the necessity of students not being prepared to challenges but being aware that the experience he gains will be transformative for him to become a global leader. Observing the literature under the research and the results of the survey conducted prove that it is necessary to formulate the important steps to achieve the goal of the strategy of the preparing the professionals with global mindset. First, it is vitally important to design the operational plan in implementing the strategy, which will contain the detailed analysis of the global market requirements and challenges. Second, it is crucial to devise the pre-test and post-test instruments of study abroad program assessment, as well as the follow-up experimental mode observance (proved by the psychologists it has a positive impact on the outcome). Finally, intercultural competence should be recognized as a student achievement of internationalization, thus the university curricula should contain the instruments (curricula, orientation workshops, case studies and various assessments) to develop intercultural competence. Furthermore, every higher education institution should establish its own strategy oriented to educate global experts contributing in the country and beyond.