Applied Linguistics and Communication Webinar with Dr Peter Neff
When:
—
Venue:
Online
No booking required
Short- and long-term study abroad: The impact on language learners’ intercultural communication, speaking confidence, and sense of L2 self
Join an online public lecture where Dr Peter Neff will be discussing the impact of study abroad programmes on two groups of Japanese learners of English.
The lecture will be followed by a short Q&A.
Study abroad (SA) has recently become an increasingly popular option for language learners who wish to engage in an immersive educational experience while living in a different culture, but not all SA programs are created equal. Length of time can vary significantly, from a few days or weeks up to a year or more spent in the target culture. And while improved foreign language proficiency is ostensibly the foremost goal of such programs, other factors, such as intercultural communication, perceived self-competence using the second/foreign language (L2), and a sense of L2 self, have the potential to undergo significant development while abroad. This lecture will focus on research examining how two groups of Japanese learners of English going abroad for different lengths of time were affected by their international experience across a range of non-linguistic variables. Pre- and post-SA survey data were collected, and results from data analysis indicate that both groups achieved significant benefits through increased L2 speaking confidence as well as a varying effects on their sense of L2 selves over the course of their sojourn, although these improvements were often more pronounced in the long-term group. Moreover, those in the one-year program demonstrated an increase in ethnocentrism whereas the short-term SA participants experienced a decline in this measure.
Join our webinar by clicking on the link below at 6pm on Friday 15th May:
https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/3388df0feab4413b823b491f2ea3951f
Peter Neff, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Global Communications at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He has lived and worked across Japan for the past 20 years, and his research interests include intercultural communicative competence and the effects of study abroad.
Contact name:
Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication