ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the Semester Abroad Program at the United States Military Academy at West Point. It reports on the modifications introduced to the program based on student feedback reporting initial fear and discomfort of being in an unfamiliar country as factors hindering their ability to communicate upon arrival. It details a pre-departure 15-lesson modular course, Functional Everyday Russian, that was developed and offered to cadets. Using a task-based approach, the course familiarizes students with the basic everyday situations and customs of the Russian-speaking community. Many of these situations are only minimally covered in core Russian courses and include conversations with officials, host families, local peers, adults, and teachers, and include practice in solving the typical problems cadets encounter abroad. Before and after the course, participants completed a modified Willingness to Communicate (WTC) survey (McCroskey & Richmond, 2013) and the Intercultural Development Inventory (Hammer et al., 2003). T-test and effect size data suggest a statistically significant increase in willingness to communicate as a result of taking the course. However, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) suggests this increase might be minimal when compared to that of a larger population. Findings also identify several variables that particularly affect WTC – e.g., listening comprehension, vocabulary, and learner expectations.
