How do International Trainee Teachers and Mentors Respond to Cross-cultural Mentoring Relationships?

Forty-one percent of the trainee teachers who trained to teach modern foreign languages (MFL) at the University of Worcester between September 2008 and June 2011 were international trainee teachers who spoke English as an additional language. International trainee teachers and home trainee teachers do not usually share the same mother tongue or the same culture. A small-scale research project was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods to consider international trainee teacher and mentor attitudes to cross-cultural mentoring relationships. The study found that it was critically important to facilitate communication between mentor and trainee teachers in order to support the development of cross-cultural mentoring relationships, to help avoid misunderstandings and to enable trainee teachers to meet their potential.