Download - Dr Ruth Whittle, University of Birmingham (Dr Sonia Gallucci, Res. Assistant to June 2012)
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Year Abroad Matters
Change Management for students going to a European country and to China / Japan
Dr Ruth Whittle, University of Birmingham(Dr Sonia Gallucci, Res. Assistant to June 2012)
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Motivation for Research• Secondary lit. indicates that year abroad is under-
researched;• the Dept of Modern Languages, Univ of Birmingham has
a growing number of students studying Japanese / Chinese as part of their BAML courses as well as ‘with language courses’:
• Currently: 13 students in Japan / China; in 2012/13 this number will double;
• 9 splitting the year (Germany, France, Spain)• Of these: 1 financial difficulties (not going), 2 medical
difficulties (1 going, 1 not going), (all of these were due to split the year)
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A wide variety of change issues to cope with over the last few years:
• students found it difficult or impossible to settle in Europe after China / Japan;
• students fear that they will ‘lose’ Japanese / Chinese if they go to European destination first;
• depression; aborted year abroad for no tangible reasons (compare: ‘I don’t like it there’ to ‘I have had a very unpleasant experience there’);
• anecdotal evidence: students feel they are just starting to make real progress at the time they leave China / Japan
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Possible consequences
• For students:- Lower academic / language achievement in both languages or one of them;- ‘hole’ in CV with consequences for employability
• For UoB staff and institution- possible attrition;- dealing with complaints / mitigations: workload- NSS ratings
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Without research, one assumes reasons for student difficulties:
Students • cannot normally visit beforehand;• are all ab initio students, i.e. not proficient in
language when leaving;• don’t just learn ‘the language’ but also the script,
in a very different culture;• don’t have the same support from home;• do not normally have a pastoral visit;• have little access to or time for 2nd / 3rd language.
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Need to verify tutors’ assumptions in order to provide ???
• by finding out what student feel about those areas through following cohorts from 2nd year through to final year;
• comparing how students anticipate their coping whilst not yet abroad (e.g. before and following the briefing period in year 2)
• comparing how students feel about their coping and progress in retrospect to expectations in yr 2
• evaluating student diaries kept during their year abroad;• evaluating academic achievement in comparison to
personal satisfaction (or lack thereof)
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Methods
So far: • Online surveys using questions along the
lines suggested by Bavendiek 2004; Coleman 2002 and Klapper/Rees 2011: 14 at the beginning of 2nd year and in FY
• Focus group interviews homing in on deeper understanding of answers at the end of 2nd yr and in FY
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Still to be done:Collecting ethnographic data from the cohort
to go out this September;compare academic outcomes and personal
satisfaction.
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FindingsHealth warning:- the figures we have are not statistically valid;- I have not been able to make any conclusions re
our specific institutional environment other than that our wide variety of language combinations leads to a high number of students each year going to 3 countries (2 semesters + summer course);
- We have generally engaged more students for the surveys than for the focus interview; comparability therefore limited.
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Further points to consider:• Kinginger (2009) confirms that more longitudinal
studies of individual students and cohorts are needed;
• this project contributes to this quest to some extent;
• the results of the project are partly for research, but the visible outcome will be a revision of approaches in preparing students for, following students during and debriefing students after their year abroad and build on this.
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Key survey results: FY (1 or 2 countries)
Expected:- changed perception about living with new
people;- all feel they improved their L2 and feel that
they have better prospects for their final exams and future career;
- all feel more independent;- of those who split the year, several would
not do so again.
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Key survey results: FY (2 countries)
Surprising - Higher increase in insight into new artistic
culture despite shorter sojourn;- group seems more realistic as to
expectations: more resilient, open, thoughtful, reflective than the group not splitting their year.
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Key results: FY focus group (China / Japan)
• Confirms to a large extent the high motivation expressed in surveys;
• having a host family crucial for access to culture and language (see also Allen 2012);
• worry about accommodation not a factor in China / Japan, but a significant stress factor in Spain and for one student in Germany;
• ‘integrated’ courses crucial for meeting local students and listen to and speak L2.
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• Various degrees of disappointment of not having had more contact with Japanese / Chinese people, particularly where there was no host family (majority);
• however, this disappointment was by no means confined to Japan / China;
• students are, to some extent, reflective on why this was and their own responsibility, but to a significant extent they make their environment responsible for this.
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Difficulties can be seen as challenges:
• “I felt like I was just dropped there” (Spain) but: in order to overcome the issue of accommodation and general organisation “I had to speak Spanish 24/7” (03). This student had a positive experience in Japan before going to Spain, reporting that she spoke Japanese nearly all the time (although she also reports not having spoken as much as she had expected!).
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Difficulties can be offputting with lasting effect:
• The same problem with accommodation and little support (in Germany) was commented on by a different student: “they dumped me in it”, “messed me around” (02);
• had not expected Germany to be “hard” (02);• does not want to go back to Germany because her
German is too weak; her info on lack of progress in that language is phrased as if that was the fault of the Germans, who insisted on speaking English to her.
• However: this student also reported that her German experience had “strengthened” her character and she would now survive with less support than before.
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Key findings for 2nd year cohortOct/Nov 2011: beginning of briefing process:- students are in the majority happy to split their
year;- not too sure about living with other people;- confident to increase in maturity,
independence, knowledge and improve their L2 in both the European and the non-European country;
- confident to gain more insight into Chinese / Japanese / European society.
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• There are also significant differences between the survey results of the ‘Chinese’ and the ‘Japanese’ cohort regarding:
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• Acceptance by host society: not sure in Japan or Europe, discrepancy of answers for China but the same students are sure about their acceptance in Europe;
• Expect a reliable social network in Japan but not so much in China;
• Japanese cohort not sure to improve artistic insight but Chinese cohort is sure they will.
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Key findings at the end of the briefing period (April 2012)
• Health warning: the Chinese focus group included 2 students; the Japanese focus group had 4!
• Reasons for choosing a language that would take them half way round the world vary: the Japanese interviewees cited interest in language and culture whereas the Chinese interviewees said that ‘Chinese would be a challenge’ and that the student was too bad at her third language, so Chinese and Spanish remained.
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• feel they will be accepted in host community but are aware that this may be, to a certain extent, the international rather than the local community in Ch/J;
• feel that they will be welcome.• Rely on some stereotypes: Japanese
people are polite and keen to make foreign friends (L: “let’s pretend it’s a fact”)
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• all 4 students of Japanese have made friends with Japanese people this year;
• students of Chinese had this opportunity, too, but they do not report this!
• -- students going to Japan don’t report on fear of technology there, and students going to China don’t mention expectation of living in smog (see FY information)
• all going to Spain dread having to find accommodation;
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The answers to the question about motivation are varied and partly worrying:
• Feeling it’s a daunting prospect to go to J / Ch as a motivating factor;
• Have no choice, have to go there (unlike the European language where, if you study 2 more languages, you have a choice which country you will go to for a semester and which for 3-4 weeks);
• Motivation stalls as it’s the end of term and one won’t be learning any more Japanese/Chinese until one actually gets to the country;
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• one might be less well prepared because of the gap in learning / because other international students might be better prepared (one student); concerned about following courses at Jap. University (all st);
• being less well prepared can also translate into making local friends less easily;
• Motivation to improve language mainly for Ch/J and not so much for the European language: one student thinks his Spanish cannot improve much
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Emotionally• 6 mths ago the prospect of going at all seemed
far away, but time has gone quickly;• some students don’t understand in retrospect
why they did not think about the distance between China/Japan to home when they signed up for the course;
• Great unknown, though appreciate opportunity;• Some students don’t “want the reality of it yet”
(06), particularly if they go to Ch/J in sem 2.
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• despite fear of being homesick and lonely, feeling of “wanting to do stuff there” (Ch/J);
• on the whole (with the exception of accommodation and organisation in Spain) feel that Europe should be easier, mainly because home is accessible / have travelled there or at least in Europe before.
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Conclusions
Review the opportunities and that are available in degree structure; address ‘negative’ choices in material given out to candidates and students;
‘change’ needs to be addressed;students show willingness and ability to reflect: use
this to enhance their learning during y/a; chance to mitigate strong ‘lottery’ feelings.
concept of briefing: self-briefing and risk assessment as an ongoing process driven by the student;
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harness the strengths the students already have but don’t be afraid to address weaknesses.
host families / previous contact with locals one is likely to meet again and ‘integrated courses’ play a key factor for early and more thorough socialisation;
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Further tasks
• To pursue ethnographic project both as research and as support for reflective learning;
• To link findings from this research to academic outcome and career;
• to raise student interest in achieving highly in all the dimensions the study of languages afford – from the start (see British Academy 2012).