A Social Cognitive Learning Program for Facilitating Intercultural Relations

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental social learning program that has recently become available to help immigrants and international students extend their social skills for quick adjustment to the foreign country. The EXCELL TM (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) program is a practice-focused group program designed to enhance foreigners' confidence and skills in workplace, academic and other interpersonal contexts. The paper reviews the conceptual framework behind the EXCELL TM program and how this leads to the group process for teaching each sociocultural competency. There is a summary of the evidence of the effectiveness of the program when undertakes by immigrants, international students, and mixed groups of overseas-born and local-born students. The evidence drawn from evaluation studies conducted in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, shows that the program enhanced the social interaction skills and social self-efficacy of both overseas – and local-born. The latter finding shows that EXCELL TM also serves well as a general social effectiveness program. The theoretical and practical implication of these findings for facilitating newcomers' cross-cultural adaptation and enhancing cross ethnic relations are discussed.