This study explored how a three-week study abroad period and prerequisite five-week training program helped students develop intercultural communicative competencies (ICCs). In August 2018, 81 students participated in three-week study abroad programs at Education First (EF) language school in Saint Julian (Malta); Oxford and Cambridge (UK); Santa Barbara, CA and Boston, MA (U.S.); and Vancouver, BC (Canada). To evaluate the students’ ICCs, pre- and post-ICC surveys were developed by the members of the Research Committee to Promote ICC, a subcommittee of the Japan Association for Global Competency Education. The results from the participants’ pre-1, pre-2, and post-ICC surveys were analyzed to identify group trends and individual changes. As a group, the students developed ICCs through the prerequisite programs and their study abroad experiences, but two students with similar backgrounds, including gender, academic major, and language school (EF Vancouver), had different ICC results compared to those of the group. Therefore, to explore the students’ ICC improvement, future research should analyze both the group and individual results using subordinate data, such as student reports, interviews, TOEIC Listening and Reading scores, and so on.
