Constructing the third culture to build a peaceful world

Abstract

Third culture people are generally more tolerant towards different cultures and people of different backgrounds. They are better able to adapt to new cultures and understand how to behave appropriately in these new environments. Both cultural commonalities and differences can make the third culture enriching and rewarding. The purpose of this study is to see the effects of various activities used in and out of class to construct the third culture by creating awareness among our students in an intercultural communication course. For this purpose, the study was conducted based on the explanatory sequential design. The participants were sophomore and junior students (teacher candidates) in English Language teaching department in Pamukkale University in Turkey. The data were collected through a questionnaire quantitatively and group focused interviews with students and instructors qualitatively. The quantitative data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics. In addition, qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis in terms of emerging codes and themes. Our results indicated that the contribution of intercultural communication course to the development of intercultural sensitivity among students was significant. Both the students and the instructor revealed in the interviews that the activities carried out throughout the semester contributed a lot to increase their awareness towards intercultural communication components and eventually to the development of building a third culture.