Helping students achieve objectives
Once you have determined your learning objectives for study abroad, how do you help students achieve them? In her comprehensive literature review on study abroad, one researcher recommends a series of pedagogical practices that are best reserved either for the classroom or for study abroad (see Table 2).
Table 2: Pedagogical practices for classroom and study abroad (Kinginger, 2009)
Pedagogical practices best reserved for the classroom
- Teaching grammar and academic literacy
- Helping students formulate realistic goals for study abroad
- Explaining the domains of communicative competence to students (linguistic, actional, discourse, sociocultural, strategic)
- Linking students to peers in places where they will be going
- Alerting students to local realities and cultural differences
- Practising informal interactions
Pedagogical practices best reserved for study abroad
- Focusing on different language registers, varieties, and formal versus informal language
- Engaging in projects that require interactions with locals (for example, service learning or volunteering)
- Encouraging students to participate in local social networks and events
- Offering opportunities to follow up on learning