Joseph Hoff
Interim Dean of International Education, University of Richmond
Title: Using Culture and Language Learning Strategies/programs to ensure a successful sojourn abroad
How do students learn how to learn about culture and strengthen their language skills during the study abroad sojourn? This paper will discuss the need for intervention in the learning of our students before, during and after their sojourn abroad to create spaces for reflection and strategy development. I will highlight resources available to coordinators of study abroad programs that assist students in creating strategies to increase their understanding of “general culture learning skills” as well as language learning strategies. I will showcase methods of implementation, including on-line courses that teach these and other strategies as a way to assist students in their learning while abroad. The presentation will also discuss the Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum program as a way to continue the learning after the students have returned to the United States.
BIO
Joseph Hoff is the Interim Dean of International Education at the University of Richmond. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Development Education from the University of Minnesota and has an M.A. in International Administration from the School for International Training and an M.A. in Spanish from Saint Louis University. He has over 30 years experience in the international education field, previously working as Director of the International Degree and Education Abroad office at Oregon State University, and Assistant Director of the Office of International Programs at Brown University. In addition to having studied abroad in Spain, he taught English on the Japan Exchange and Teaching program in Shizuoka, Japan and completed an internship in Lugano, Switzerland. His research focused on the assessment of teaching culture and language learning strategies to study abroad students in order to maximize the learning during the sojourn experience. He continues to focus on the efficacy of teaching culture learning strategies to advance global learning at an institutional level as well as the individual level.