Design

What are some of the issues surrounding interactions with locals in short-term study abroad?

There is an assumption that students in study abroad will have an abundance of opportunities to practise the target language. However, it is surprisingly easy to limit interactions with locals, or avoid them altogether, even in immersive contexts. For example, teachers in our research study told us of students who travelled halfway around the world only to spend most of their time chatting with family and friends through their “electronic umbilical cord” (Knight & Schmidt-Rinehart, 2002). 

In addition, since students who participate in short-term study abroad may enrol in the trip with friends, travel together as a group, and frequently reunite as a group for discussions and learning activities, they may have only superficial or inadequate interactions in the target language (Allen, 2010). For example, the most common superficial interactions students face while abroad, such as ordering in a restaurant or greeting a sales clerk, can all be done with limited, formulaic language use. Even when students have opportunities for more in-depth interactions in the target language, our own research found that affective barriers play a significant role in preventing students from interacting with locals (Fischer & Viens, in press). The fear of sounding ridiculous or saying something embarrassing may keep students from making the kind of mistakes that help them learn.

Finally, students and teachers often assume that locals will welcome them and want to take them under their wing. However, as Coleman (2015) points out, there is in fact little incentive for locals to connect with newcomers who have limited speaking ability and are staying only for a short, predetermined time. Furthermore, as one of the participants in our research study observed, locals may prefer to speak to newcomers in the newcomers’ language (particularly if this is English) since it gives them an opportunity to practise (Fischer & Viens, in press). Therefore, developing an effective study abroad program structure and curriculum and providing students with onsite facilitation are key to ensuring that your students will successfully engage with locals in an immersion context (Plews et al., 2010).