Developing intercultural competence through a linked course model curriculum: mainstream and L2-specific first year writing

Institutions of higher education in the United States continue to witness a dramatic shift in the spectrum of diversity in their student populations. Multiple variables of difference that mixed student demographics bring to university campuses make internationalization work necessary both inside and outside the classroom. Internationalization of higher education is a collaborative responsibility academic and nonacademic programs should share to facilitate the integration of various student populations within the broader culture of the university. However, there are few, if any, models for internationalizing introductory courses required of a large percentage of the student body, such as first-year writing (FYW). In this article, the authors propose and argue for an intercultural competence–oriented approach to internationalizing writing programs through a linked course model curriculum that pairs international and domestic students in separate second language–specific and mainstream FYW classes. The linked course model curriculum develops and assesses students' intercultural learning and writing skills as core learning outcomes. This article presents the curricular design and interventions, the research design of the study conducted across three semesters of curriculum implementation, and the reflective writing results from the pilot semester to communicate the preliminary effectiveness of this curricular model.