The relationship between multicultural personality, foreign language mastery and time spent abroad for (international) students.
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2022-08-16
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en
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Abstract
This research examines whether there is a relationship between multicultural personality,
foreign language mastery, time spent abroad and student group (Dutch-taught Dutch students,
English-taught Dutch students, international students). In a survey, differences between
student groups were studied to determine whether multicultural personality, measured with
the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), foreign language mastery and time spent
abroad could discriminate between the groups. International students were found to be more
open-minded and reported to be more proficient in English than Dutch-taught Dutch students.
Moreover, international students spent more months abroad than both Dutch groups.
International students were less emotionally stable than Dutch-taught Dutch students and less
flexible than English-taught Dutch students. Moreover, number of foreign languages
correlated with Open-mindedness, total months abroad and number of visited countries. Selfassessed proficiency correlated with Cultural Empathy, Emotional Stability, total months
abroad and number of visited countries. Furthermore, self-assessed proficiency of English
predicted Open-mindedness and Emotional Stability, total months abroad predicted number of
foreign languages, and number of visited countries predicted self-assessed proficiency of
English. Open-mindedness, Flexibility, Social Initiative and total months abroad were to some
extent predictive of differences between the student groups. This study contributes to the
ongoing research into multicultural personality and will help multinational companies in
selecting and training multicultural competent employees.
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