Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Volume Number

11

Abstract

The Intercultural Dialogue Partner (IDP) program has been a part of my Intercultural Communication course at two institutions across the last 8 years. While the program has evolved over time, the current version at a college campus in the western United States will be described. The IDP program is the service-learning component of an undergraduate course for about 30 mostly Communication majors. The primary goal of the course is for students to gain an appreciation of intercultural communication and to be able to engage in mindful dialogue across difference. My hope is that the class gives students the skills, knowledge, and opportunities to communicate across difference in ways that are transformative to each of them as a learner and a person. The motivation to initiate and then maintain the IDP program has been to give my students opportunities to enhance their own understanding of, and skill in, intercultural communication through the process of interacting with an Intercultural Dialogue Partner (IDP) and analyzing those interactions based on course concepts. Students get an interactive and meaningful educational opportunity while simultaneously meeting the community partners’ needs for language practice and cultural connection.

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