Engagement across the cultural divide: Accommodative communication in the study abroad context

Study abroad contexts can generate apprehension and reluctance to communicate across cultural difference, constraining opportunities for meaningful intercultural engagement. This qualitative study examines how students described intercultural willingness to communicate and intercultural competence during study abroad. Using Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) as an interpretive framework, semi-structured interviews were analyzed thematically, yielding four interrelated themes: intercultural apprehension as it relates to a willingness to communicate, intergroup dynamics, accommodation, and intercultural communication competence. Participants described how apprehension and perceived group boundaries shaped whether interaction felt possible or worthwhile, while accommodation (both behavioral and psychological) helped them remain engaged, manage perceived distance, and navigate uncertainty. They also described intercultural communication competence less as an automatic outcome of exposure and more as something experienced in practice through repeated interaction, reflection, and reciprocal adjustment. This study contributes to intercultural communication and study abroad research by showing how willingness to communicate and participants’ perceived changes in competence are linked to interactional conditions, intergroup interpretations, and accommodative effort, shifting attention from exposure to the communicative processes that make intercultural engagement possible, sustained, and meaningful over time.