Tag: study abroad
-
New Article: Reimagining Study Abroad
I’m excited to announce that I have a new article out with Tracy Quan and Wenhao Diao, “Returning to Normal?: Reimagining Study Abroad and Langauae Learning for a Sustainable and Equitable Future”. It is in a special issue of the L2 Journal, “Study Abroad During COVID and Beyond”. The L2 Journal is open access, so you should be able to read the entire issue online!
-
Translingual Approaches in World Language Education: Perspectives from Arabic Learning Contexts
A couple of weeks ago, I co-organized a colloquium with Khaled Al Masaeed at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference titled “Translingual Approaches in World Language Education: Perspectives from Arabic Learning Contexts”. Although I have attended the AAAL conference most years since 2007, and it is probably my favorite conference, there are usually only 1-3 presentations focused on Arabic. So, to have an entire colloquium focused on Arabic was a dream come true!
-
Language Ideologies in the Wild: Language Learning as a Hobby
Following up on my recent language ideologies in the wild series, in this post I’m back with a collection of examples focused on the ideology of language learning as a fun hobby. As these unrelated examples demonstrate, this is a fairly common language ideology, and while I am all for hobbies, it’s worth highlighting the role of this ideology in marginalizing language learning in the U.S. (and probably most anglophone countries).
-
Language Learning in Study Abroad: The Multilingual Turn
Next month marks the release of Language Learning in Study Abroad: The Multilingual Turn, a book I am very excited to see in print!. I’m a co-editor, along with Wenhao Diao, and thought it would be fun to write a post highlighting how this book came about, as well as the chapters themselves and the insights they provide into language learning during study abroad.
-
Ideologies of Study Abroad: Professional Preparation
Last Spring, I started a series on ideologies of study abroad (my current research project!)and you can read previous posts on study abroad as tourism, language immersion, and personal transformation. In this post, I’ll be tackling another common ideology, that of study abroad as professional preparation. Under this ideology, study abroad results in specific skills that translate to advantages in the modern workplace. Examples of this ideology are common in promotional materials for study abroad, such as the image below taken from the U.S. Department of State’s study abroad website (note also the highgrounded and foregrounded students, as in images for the ideology of personal transformation).
-
November Updates: Daycare, Book, Article, Award!
November is traditionally the crunch month in the academic calendar, marking the almost end of a long semester (Weeks 11-15 of 17 at my institution). Everyone is tired, stressful assignments are coming up, we’re behind and there’s less time to catch up, it’s getting cold. This year, of course, we also have pandemic anxiety and fatigue, and with case counts rising sharply, New Mexico entered a full lockdown on November 16. Not to mention the weeks of election anxiety and transition stalling*. At the same time, November also brought several bright points in my academic career, so I thought I’d share those here!
-
Ideologies of Study Abroad: Personal Transformation
It’s time for a new post on ideologies of study abroad! This series started last Spring, with a post on study abroad as tourism, and continued in September with one on study abroad as language immersion. In this post, I’ll be taking on study abroad as personal transformation, another commonly perceived outcome of study abroad.
-
Ideologies of Study Abroad: Language Immersion
In the Spring, I started a new blog series on ideologies of study abroad with a post on study abroad as tourism. It’s time for the second post, and this time I’ll be focusing on one of the most prevalent and pernicious ideologies of study abroad as it relates to language teaching, that of study abroad as language immersion.
-
Reframing Monolingual Ideologies in the Language Classroom
Wednesday is the one day I teach in person this semester, and this past Wednesday was the first time I’d been to my office on campus since March. I was excited to discover the 2019 volume of the American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Foreign Language Programs (AAUSC) in my mailbox! The editors are Beatrice Dupuy and Kristen Michelson, and the collection is called “Pathways to Paradigm Change: Critical Examinations of Prevailing Discourse and Ideologies in Second Language Education”. As you might imagine if you regularly read this blog, this is exactly the shift in second language education I think our field needs! I’m excited to read all of the chapters in this book, and today I’ll be highlighting my own contribution, which I’m excited to see in print.
-
Black Scholars in Study Abroad and Language Teaching
My blog is normally on break for the summer, but I’m coming off this break temporarily to share some of the brilliant work by Black scholars that is central to my research and teaching. The protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd have led to a stronger interest in understanding systemic racism among White people, and I have been asked for recommendations due to my focus on identity (including race) and language learning. So without further ado, here are some Black scholars whose work is central to my projects on study abroad and language teaching.