Language and Intercultural Learning Center

The Intercultural Development Inventory®, or IDI®, is a widely used and effective cross-culturally valid assessment for building intercultural competence. This tool is newly available to the Valparaiso University campus through the Language and Intercultural Learning Center. Since March 2024, over 30 Valpo faculty and staff have taken the IDI assessment, and roughly 80 students have participated across four courses in Fall 2024, including two sections of VUE 101. 

As LINC supports the Valpo community through:

• Facilitating impactful opportunities supporting the intercultural development of Valpo students, faculty, and staff (see below),
• Providing engaging resources and spaces for individual reflection about intercultural development,
• Promoting campus conversations and healthy dialogue about intercultural topics, and
• Maintaining our traditional support for language students including tutoring, student-led language groups, and language-focused programming

Specific intercultural learning opportunities include:

• An intercultural inventory called the IDI, an online assessment that measures intercultural competence. Now available to campus through the center, the Intercultural Development Inventory serves as a new vehicle for individual development and as a springboard to advance campus conversations surrounding intercultural practices.
• Short term discussion and learning groups specific to faculty and staff. Last fall, LINC launched Podcast Parlor which continues this year, along with seasonal reading groups. Also coming in Fall 2025 is a new group for faculty and staff who have completed the IDI assessment and want to further their intercultural competence within a community of practice.
• Programming with an intercultural focus, such as the Matters of Language Conversation Series, and other ways of engaging students with intercultural topics. Engaging displays are integrated into the LINC’s space, prompting small moments of individual reflection that aim lead to informal conversation and healthy dialogue.
• Campus collaborations on special programs such as the December celebration Las Posadas.

LINC does not replace or replicate the excellent offerings that various campus units already provide. Rather, the center partners and collaborates with other offices and academic units to promote conversation and encourage reflective practices surrounding intercultural competence. Explore our plans for this year, including new campus connections. Click the yellow bullet above to read more.