Would you like an Onigiri? : how can we make an integration of language training and intercultural communication training

The purpose of my research has been to establish a basis on which I hope to achieve my long-term goal: to develop and implement an integrated program of language training and ICC training. Knowing that there is still much I need to learn and do to reach this goal, I recognize that there is a difference between theory and practice, and that practice must relate to and derive from theory. Therefore, I have attempted to examine what people in both the academic and practical fields think about the integration of language training and ICC training. Before conducting my own research, however, I knew it would be important for me to review the existing literature which I discuss in Chapter 2. In order to conduct my own research, I decided to divide it between four different groups: theoreticians of both language and ICC training, and practitioners of both disciplines. Fortunately, I was able to select these groups from people in one place: the School for International Training (SIT), which is recognized as one of the leading institutions of language and intercultural study in the world. SIT has two masters’ degree programs: the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and the Master's Program in Intercultural and International Management (PIM). MAT specializes in training people to become language trainers, and PIM trains people to become specialists who work in multicultural environments. Having selected my four research groups at SIT, my next challenge was to devise the ways in which I would tap these individuals for the information I needed to support or refute my hypothesis about the effectiveness of the integration of language and ICC training. I therefore decided I needed to develop a set of useful questions to ask the participants in my study and I needed to develop a way to analyze the results of my inquiry.