Abstract Summary
Taking a mixed-methods approach, this study explores social network formation, intensity and diversity of language contact, and student attitudes in a short-term, island-type study abroad. It concludes that students do not expand their social networks or engage in diverse linguistic interaction. The majority express a desire for greater classroom engagement.
Abstract :
The following paper sets out to explore the relationship between short-term study abroad (SA), intensity and diversity of language contact and student attitudes. It takes an approach which employs a blended method drawing on theories of social networks and space. Social networks refer to who the learners interact with and how often they do so. The concept of space has been influenced by recent work intended to ensure that ‘the specific linguistic and interactive dynamics of the contact situation matter’. (Harwood, 2010, p. 148).
Data were collected by means of an adapted language contact profile questionnaire (Freed, Dewey, Segalowitz, & Halter, 2004) and a series of open-ended questions administered to 18 US students of Russian on a six-week SA programme in Moscow. The programme is what Allen describes as ‘’island’’ (2010, p. 28) type wherein students receive language instruction but remain in L1 groups outside the classroom. Findings show that social networks rarely extend beyond the group and that interaction is overwhelmingly confined to the classroom with teachers occupying a central pivot around which language contact rotates. When interaction occurs outside the classroom it is dominated by superficial exchanges with service personnel resulting in non-intensive contact which is qualitatively uniform. Qualitative findings indicate that students are aware that interacting with native speakers is limited in such a programme and, while some question its validity as an immersion experience, the majority wish to see it enhanced through more intense classroom activity. Thus, students do not expect, or are minimally interested in, an expansion of social networks and diversity of language interaction. Hence, the current study questions the validity of short-term, island-type SAs as a space where ‘’learning which cannot be achieved in the classroom, the very raison d’être of residence abroad’’ (Coleman, 2015, p. 35) occurs.
