Improving Intercultural Skills: Developing Communicative Flexibility and Tolerance of Ambiguity in the Writing Center

This presentation shares early results of an IRB-approved, cross-institutional study of the developing intercultural skills of writing center tutors and provides guidance on thinking about the implications of such data for a tutor training context. Intercultural communication involves skills such as communication flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity, and empathy. Initial data showed that many tutors need to develop these skills, that tutoring experience alone is likely insufficient for improvement, and that experience may actually decrease communication flexibility by solidifying tutors into a particular role rather than expanding their ability to flexibly apply strategies