The Moral Ecology of Unstructured Speaking on Study Abroad: Finding Speaking Opportunities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v36i1.810Keywords:
Hermeneutic phenomenology, language acquisition, moral realism, study abroadAbstract
This report describes the moral phenomena that students in an intensive Arabic study abroad program encountered as they tried to find speaking opportunities for themselves outside of institutional arrangements. The ways that participants went about speaking activities were accompanied by tensions that they had to deal with throughout the program. They found themselves obliged to consider values such as decisiveness, independence, and fairness as they tried to become better conversationalists, cultural insiders, and friends with the people they met. Additional research using the same analytic framework could reveal deeply practical insights for the benefit of language learners and practitioners.
Abstract in Arabic
يصف هذا التقرير تجارب طلاب في برنامج مكثف لدراسة اللغة العربية بالخارج وخصوصاً الظواهر الأخلاقية التي واجهوها في محاولة إيجاد فرص طبيعية للتحدث. تغلبوا على توترات طول البرنامج نتيجةً لطرقهم في أنشطتهم التحدثية. كانوا ملزمين بإعتبار قيم مثل الحسم والاستقلال والإنصاف لكي يصبحوا متحدثين أفضل ومطلعين على الثقافة وأصدقاء الأشخاص الذين ألتقوهم. يمكن البحث الإضافي في نفس المنهج أن يكشف رؤى عملية عميقة لمتعلمي اللغات والمهنيين.
Downloads
References
Barkhuizen, G. (2017). Investigating multilingual identity in study abroad contexts: A short story analysis approach. System, 71, 102 – 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.09.014
Bird, M. T. (2021). Ecological perspectives on study abroad for language learning [Doctoral dissertation, Brigham Young University]. http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12050
Bird, M. T., & Belnap, R. K. (2018). Lessons from 25 years of experimenting with Arabic study abroad: Programme evaluation, culture, location, and curriculum. Second Language Study Abroad: Programming, Pedagogy, and Participant Engagement, 49-82.
Bird, M. T., Rich, P. J., & Yanchar, S. C. (2021). The ecology of study abroad for language learning: Synthesis and interdisciplinary insights. L2 Journal, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.5070/L213151128
Block, D. (2007). The rise of identity in SLA research, post Firth and Wagner (1997). The Modern Language Journal, 91, 863-876. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00674.x
Berg, M. V., Connor-Linton, J., & Paige, R. M. (2009). The Georgetown consortium project: Interventions for student learning abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 18(1), 1-75. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v18i1.25
Brown, L. (2014). An activity-theoretic study of agency and identity in the study abroad experiences of a lesbian nontraditional learner of Korean. Applied Linguistics, 37(6), 808-827. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amu075
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative research. Sage Publications Ltd.
Diao, W. (2017). Between the standard and non-standard: Accent and identity among transnational Mandarin speakers studying abroad in China. System, 71, 87 – 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2017.09.013
Dreyfus, H. L. (1992). What computers still can’t do: A critique of artificial reason. MIT Press.
Dreyfus, H. L. (2014). Skillful coping: Essays on the phenomenology of everyday perception and action. Oxford University Press.
Gong, S. P., & Yanchar, S. C. (2019). Question asking and the common good: a hermeneutic investigation of student questioning in moral configurations of classroom Practice. Qualitative Research in Education, 8(3), 248-275. https://doi.org/10.17583/qre.2019.3947
Guignon, C. B. (1983). Heidegger and the problem of knowledge. Hackett Publishing Co.
Hatab, L. (2000). Ethics and finitude: Heideggerian contributions to moral philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. Harper & Row. (original work published in 1927).
Heidegger, M. (1971). Poetry, language, thought. Harper Collins.
Hickman, J. R. (2019). Culture and hermeneutic moral realism. Hermeneutic moral realism in psychology: Theory and practice, 51-67. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429488795
Hodges, B. H. (2015). Language as a values-realizing activity: Caring, acting, and perceiving. Zygon, 50, 711-735. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12196
Jackson, J. (2011). Mutuality, engagement, and agency: Negotiating identity on stays abroad. Identity formation in globalizing contexts: Language learning in the new millennium, 127 – 145. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110267280
Kinginger, C. (2010). American students abroad: Negotiation of difference? Language Teaching, 43(2), 216. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444808005703
Kinginger, C. (2015). Language socialization in the homestay: American high school students in China. In R. Mitchell, N. Tracy-Ventura, K. McManus. (Eds.), Social interaction, identity and language learning during residence abroad (53–74). European Second Language Association
Kinginger, C. (2016). Echoes of postfeminism in American students’ narratives of study abroad in France. L2 Journal, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.5070/L28228835
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (Vol. 75). Sage.
MacIntyre, A. (1985). After virtue (2nd ed. with postscript). Duckworth. (Original work published 1981)
McDonald, J. K., & Michela, E. (2019). The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy. Design Studies, 62 (c), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2019.02.001
Mercer, S. (2012). The complexity of learner agency. Apples-Journal of Applied Language Studies.
Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783090563
Norris, J. M. (2016). Language program evaluation. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), 169-189. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12307
Plews, J. L. (2015). Intercultural identity-alignment in second language study abroad, or the more-or-less Canadians. Social interaction, identity and language learning during residence abroad, 281-304.
Seo, S., & Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2005). A hermeneutical study of older Korean graduate students’ experiences in American higher education: From Confucianism to western educational values. Journal of Studies in International Education, 9(2), 164-187. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315305274695
Slife, B. D., & Yanchar, S. (Eds.). (2019). Hermeneutic moral realism in psychology: Theory and practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429488795
Steffensen, S., & Kramsch, C. (2017). The ecology of second language acquisition and socialization. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02255-0_2
Tan, D., & Kinginger, C. (2013). Exploring the potential of high school homestays as a context for local engagement and negotiation of difference. Social and cultural aspects of language learning in study abroad, 155-177.
Taylor, C. (1985). Human agency and language: Philosophical papers (vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Harvard University Press.
Van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Boston/Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
Xiao, J. (2014). Learner agency in language learning: The story of a distance learner of EFL in China. Distance Education, 35(1), 4-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2014.891429
Yanchar, S. C. (2016). Identity, interpretation, and the moral ecology of learning. Theory & Psychology, 26(4), 496-515. https://doi.org/10.1177/095935431665194
Yanchar, S. C., & Gong, S. P. (2019). Inquiry into moral configurations. In Hermeneutic Moral Realism in Psychology (pp. 116-127). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429488795
Yanchar, S. C., & Gong, S. P. (2020). Moral Complexities of Student Question-Asking in Classroom Practice. Phenomenology & Practice, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.29173/pandpr29442
Yanchar, S. C., & Slife, B. D. (2017). Theorizing inquiry in the moral space of practice. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 14(2), 146-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2016.1264517
Yanchar, S. C., Spackman, J. S., & Faulconer, J. E. (2013). Learning as embodied familiarization. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 33(4), 216. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031012
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Matthew Bird, Stephen C. Yanchar, Jennifer Bown
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
