Tornando da uno studio all’estero, gli studenti fanno spesso riferimento all'esperienza usando aggettivi superlativi e potenti: "fantastico", "la migliore", "che cambia la vita". Tuttavia, quando si tratta di parlare con potenziali datori di lavoro, in genere non sono in grado di articolare le conoscenze e le competenze che hanno acquisito, in modi che abbiano rilevanza per il posto di lavoro o che i datori di lavoro possano apprezzare appieno. Questo studio ha valutato l'impatto di una sessione di riflessione facilitata da educatori sulla capacità degli studenti di migliorare la qualità del modo in cui parlano dello sviluppo individuale di competenze all'estero. E’ stato utilizzato un disegno di ricerca con misurazioni ripetute; un sondaggio pre e post sessione ha valutato l’effetto di una sessione di intervento facilitata di un'ora a cui hanno partecipato studenti universitari statunitensi ed europei che avevano studiato all'estero per almeno un semestre accademico; un gruppo di controllo ha completato i due sondaggi a distanza di una settimana senza partecipare alla sessione. In entrambi i sondaggi, è stato chiesto agli studenti di riflettere sulla propria esperienza per identificare le competenze dimostrate all'estero e di fornire un esempio (creando un racconto basato sulla formula STAR). La previsione era che la capacità auto-percepita degli studenti di (1) riflettere e (2) identificare le competenze, e di (3) acquisire fiducia e (4) mostrare preparazione in previsione di colloqui di lavoro sarebbe aumentata post-intervento (sessione). Questi quattro fattori costituiscono la misura di valutazione, basata sulle risposte a quattro dichiarazioni valutate su una scala Likert a 7 passi. Una seconda previsione anticipava un aumento della qualità delle storie dei soggetti post-intervento (usando una rubrica di 5 livelli per la valutazione), a seguito cioè dell’apprendimento di una migliore pratica per rispondere alle domande del colloquio di lavoro (la formula STAR). In linea con le previsioni, i risultati hanno supportato un miglioramento post-intervento della percezione degli studenti rispetto alla propria capacità di riflettere e identificare competenze, sulla propria fiducia e sul livello percepito di preparazione in previsione dei colloqui di lavoro post- laurea. Per il gruppo di controllo non si è osservato alcun cambiamento dalla condizione PRE a quella POST, mentre si è osservato un significativo aumento dei punteggi PRE-POST per il gruppo sperimentale. Nel confronto tra gruppi, non sono state osservate differenze tra il gruppo di controllo e sperimentale pre-intervento (sostenendo così omogeneità tra gruppi). Tuttavia, sono state trovate differenze significative tra i gruppi post-intervento, con un sostanziale aumento dei punteggi di valutazione per il gruppo sperimentale sulle quattro dimensioni della Misura di Valutazione (Assessment Measure) rispetto al gruppo di controllo. I risultati hanno inoltre confermato la seconda ipotesi secondo la quale il gruppo sperimentale avrebbe mostrato un aumento significativo della qualità delle storie a seguito dell'intervento rispetto al gruppo di controllo, il quale ha mostrato una leggera diminuzione dei punteggi dal pre al post sondaggio. Questo studio fornisce evidenza a sostegno degli sforzi di coloro che nell’educazione terziaria gestiscono programmi simili alla sessione di riflessione (intervento) valutata in questa ricerca e che stimolano gli studenti a riflettere sullo sviluppo delle competenze acquisite durante periodi di studio o lavoro all’estero e ad imparare a parlarne in un modo che verrà apprezzato dai potenziali datori di lavoro durante i colloqui. Questo studio evidenzia inoltre il contributo della mobilità studentesca internazionale rispetto all’incremento dell’employability dei partecipanti. / Students returned from studying abroad often refer to the experience in superlatives and powerful adjectives – “awesome” “the greatest”, “life-changing.” However, when it comes to talking with potential employers, they typically cannot articulate the knowledge and skills they gained in ways that have relevance to the workplace, or that employers can fully appreciate. This study assessed the impact of a facilitated reflection session on students’ ability to increase the quality in how they speak about having developed skills abroad. Using a repeated measures design, a pre- and post-session survey was tied to a one-hour facilitated intervention session attended by U.S. and European undergraduates who had studied abroad at least one academic semester; a control group completed the two surveys a week apart without attending a session. In both surveys, students were asked to reflect upon their experience to identify skill(s) demonstrated abroad and to offer an example (by crafting a short story based on the STAR formula). The prediction was that students’ self-perceived ability to (1) reflect upon and (2) identify skills, and to (3) gain confidence and (4) show preparedness in anticipation of job interviews would increase post-intervention. These four factors make up the Assessment Measure, based on the 7- point Likert responses to four statements in the pre- and post-survey. There was a second prediction that there would be in increase in the quality of experimental subjects’ stories at post- intervention (using a 5-level rubric for rating), after having learned a best practice for answering job interview questions (i.e., the STAR formula). The findings supported the predicted increase in the students’ perceived measures of reflecting and identifying skills and of their confidence and preparedness in anticipation of interviewing for jobs upon graduating. Within groups, there was no change in the Control mean from PRE to POST while there was a significant increase for Experiment. Between these two groups, there were no differences observed pre-intervention (thus supporting the homogeneity of groups). Critically, the differences found post-intervention support the significant effect of intervention – with the experiment group’s POST score on the four dimensions of the Assessment Measure greater than the POST score of the control group. The findings supported the second hypothesis as well – that the experiment group would show an increase in the quality of their stories after the intervention compared to the control group (which showed a slight decrease in scores from pre- to post-survey) and resulted in a between-group comparison that was significant. This study provides support for the efforts of those in higher education who conduct programming such as the reflection session (intervention) in this research which prompts students to consider their skill development from studying or interning abroad and to learn to speak about it in ways that employers will value, especially in the interview process. This study also supports the contribution that international student mobility makes in increasing participants’ employability.

Traditionally, in our globally diverse and intertwined society, study abroad has served as a valuable, enriching, and life-changing aspect of college and university offerings and opportunities for students. Today, the lives of post-study abroad students will be defined by the ways they make sense of unexpected major events surrounding the history-changing COVID-19 pandemic and the contemporary protests against racism and social injustice. A large body of research exists on study abroad, culture shock, self-authorship, provocative moments, cross-cultural reentry, and reverse culture shock. A lack of research exists on what ways post-study abroad U.S. students make meaning of their experiences in emerging self-authorship, and research on post-study abroad students and the COVID-19 pandemic is rare. The overarching purpose of this exploratory inquiry was to describe in what ways, if any, that the post-study abroad experience facilitates the development of emerging self-authorship of U.S. college students. Self-authorship provided the theoretical framework for this inquiry. Clarke and Braun’s reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews and journals of two U.S. post-study abroad college students. The findings revealed that the post-study abroad experience facilitated the development of emerging self-authorship of U.S. college students through the themes of pain, partnerships, and perspective, with grief layered among each of these themes. The students eventually accepted their realities of post-study abroad, found meaning, and showed signs of nudging ahead in emerging self-authorship. The implications from this inquiry provided ways for stakeholders to support students through their post-study abroad experiences and support emerging self-authorship.

Die Frage, ob mehr Sprachkontakt automatisch zu mehr Sprachkompetenzen führt, wird und wurde in der Fremdspracherwerbsforschung bereits disziplinübergreifend diskutiert. Viele Pädagogen, Didaktiker und auch Studenten sehen in Auslandsaufenthalten die perfekte Möglichkeit, um in eine Fremdsprache einzutauchen und die fremdsprachlichen Kompetenzen in kurzer Zeit stark zu verbessern. Unter anderem stellen Segalowitz et al. (2004) fest, dass Studenten, die ein Auslandssemester absolvierten, am Ende zwar flüssiger sprachen, jedoch im Gegensatz zu den Kommilitonen, die nicht im Ausland waren, teilweise sogar weniger Kompetenzzuwachs im Bereich des Grammatikwissens vorweisen konnten. Die Aussage, mehr Sprachkontakt führe bei L2-Lernern automatisch zu besseren Sprachkompetenzen in der Zielsprache, ist somit unzulässig verallgemeinernd und trägt mitnichten der Komplexität des Spracherwerbsprozesses Rechnung. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Masterarbeit möchte ich mich deshalb intensiver mit der Frage zum Einfluss des Sprachkontaktes auf die Entwicklung von Sprachkompetenzen beschäftigen.

<p>This project examined the acquisition of third person accusative clitics in Spanish by Chinese-speaking learners. Specifically, it focused on the role of cross-linguistic influence and patterns of language exposure and use in the acquisition of the syntactic and semantic properties constraining the production and intuition of overt and null clitics in Spanish. An elicited production task and an acceptability judgment task were performed on a total of 83 participants divided into four groups. A group of Chinese immigrants in Spain (n = 24), a group of classroom learners in China with study abroad experience (n = 23), and a group of learners without study abroad experience (n = 19) were compared to a group of native speakers of Spanish (n=17). The results showed that, while all the experimental groups showed knowledge of accusative clitics, their knowledge regarding the distribution of overt and null clitics was generally not related to definiteness or syntactic island. However, some participants with higher proficiency or more use of Spanish showed some sensitivity to the syntactic property of null clitics but not definiteness. Proficiency in Spanish had different effects on the immigrants and the classroom learners. Use of Spanish also played different roles between the pure classroom learners and the other two groups with naturalistic exposure. Finally, the results also showed that, while the three groups all showed influence from Chinese, the Spanish and Chinese grammars of the immigrants showed more similarity, compared to the two groups of classroom learners. Based on a proposed path of acquisition, the results were discussed in line with second language acquisition theorizing on feature accessibility and reassembly. Some implications on classroom instruction are also discussed. </p>

Uno de los aspectos valorados más positivamente en la actualidad es el conocimiento de idiomas y de otras culturas, algo a lo que contribuye sin duda una estancia académica en el extranjero (es decir, la experiencia de Study Abroad). En Estados Unidos, el español es la lengua extranjera más estudiada en todos los niveles de la enseñanza, y la gran mayoría de este alumnado elige España como destino preferido de Study Abroad. La veterana organización CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) atrae a muchos alumnos estadounidenses a sus programas semestrales en España. Aproximadamente el 20% de ellos opta por programas que incluyen la modalidad de matrícula directa (Direct Enroll) a través de la que cursan asignaturas en una universidad de acogida en el extranjero impartidas por profesores nativos. A partir de tal contexto, el objetivo de la presente tesis doctoral es de triple envergadura y consiste en (1) conocer el choque académico que puede experimentar este colectivo de alumnado estadounidense a la hora de integrarse en el sistema universitario español, (2) averiguar las percepciones de los coordinadores de CIEE acerca de la incorporación académica de dicho colectivo, así como la medida en que les ofrecen apoyo, y (3) proponer sugerencias para los centros de CIEE (a través de las cuales también puede beneficiarse el alumnado participante) con el fin de disminuir el choque pragmático y posibilitar que la estancia de este colectivo en España sea más provechosa en cuanto a su rendimiento académico. Mediante una metodología cualitativa, hemos encuestado a 95 alumnos de Direct Enroll de CIEE y entrevistado a cinco coordinadores correspondientes a cada una de sus cinco sedes en España. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el choque de cultura académica entre EE. UU. y España es una realidad experimentada por los participantes, pero también un aspecto en el que la preparación proporcionada por CIEE no suele incidir lo suficiente. Demostramos finalmente que conceder mayor atención a las cuestiones concretas que en nuestro trabajo especificamos, tanto dentro de las propias sedes de CIEE como a través de la colaboración con las otras entidades implicadas (las universidades de destino y origen, respectivamente), permitiría un claro beneficio tanto del aumento en el rendimiento académico del alumnado como de la proliferación de esta modalidad dentro del programa de Study Abroad.

Every year thanks to the Erasmus Programme hundreds of students spend a semester studying at a university abroad. In the Czech Republic available data cover only the number of student mobilities and of ECTS credits acquired, or show how the students were satisfied with their studies. The goal of the thesis is to find out whether, or how, the students' intercultural competence increased, how their view on citizenship changed, and how they perceive global citizenship. In the thesis, intercultural competence is measured purely quantitatively using the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire, citizenship is studied by the use of several open questions. Liberal model of citizenship is the most prominent among the students. As for global citizenship, the students' opinions vary. Most often, it was described as an affiliation to the Earth. Intercultural competence has not increased substantially in connection with the studies abroad. If not only academic development, but also increase in intercultural competence and development of responsible (global) citizens is to be achieved by studies abroad, students need to be better prepared for their stay.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study seeks to elucidate the concept of resources at risk as detailed in the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theoretical framework. Risk is the possibility that a communicator’s resources are in jeopardy of change, and this study seeks to explicate how a communicator places his or her resources at risk. An undergraduate spring break study abroad program was selected as the context for this examination, with six students participating in before and after interviews. Results showed that three types of resources at risk were identified, with a fourth type unable to be identified through transcript analysis. This study demonstrates theoretical and practical implications that further the understanding of CMM and its execution. In addition, limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this case study was to explore the factors that influence Black students' decisions to participate in study abroad programs. This study took place at a large, public, Predominantly White Institution in the southeastern United States. Three theories formed a conceptual framework to guide this study, including Critical Race Theory, Theory of Planed Behavior, and Astin's Input-Environment-Output Model. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 Black study abroad alumni, which revealed 6 themes of influential factors in making decisions to participate in study abroad: (a) familiarity, (b) finance, (c) family, (d) faculty, (e) fear, and (f) finish.

<p>This investigation examined the functions of two Spanish discourse markers, <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i>, in the interlanguage of intermediate English-speaking learners of Spanish. <i>Pues</i> is translated in English to ‘so’, ‘then’, ‘cos’, and ‘well’, and <i>bueno</i> is translated in English to ‘well’ and ‘alright’. Discourse markers like <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno </i>provide cohesion in spoken interaction, and despite the lack of attention received in second language research and classrooms, they are important linguistic features for second language users. While several studies have addressed discourse markers by non-native speakers, the present investigation contributed to the scarce body of research on interlanguage discourse marker use in Spanish and to general theoretical discussions about second language discourse marker use and acquisition by considering discourse marker frequency in input and describing the use of <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i> in the interlanguage of Spanish learners. In this investigation, frequency of use, functional range, and functional distribution were analyzed as three distinct facets of discourse marker proficiency.</p> <p>Using a native speaker functional framework established by Travis (2005) for reference, the analyses responded to the following general questions: How do Spanish learners compare to native speakers of Peninsular Spanish in their frequency of use, functional range, and functional distribution of <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i>? How are these three variables among learners affected by a 6-week, language immersion study abroad program? Finally, how do native speakers of Peninsular Spanish and second language learners of Spanish compare in their characteristic patterns of <i>pues</i> and <i>bueno</i> functional use? Using oral interviews of 58 non-native (L2) Spanish speakers at the beginning and end of a program abroad and 14 native speakers (NS) of Spanish from Madrid, all tokens of <i>pues</i> (<i>N</i> = 506) and <i>bueno</i> (<i>N</i> = 273) were analyzed according to the functional framework (Travis, 2005). Analyses revealed infrequent L2 use of <i>pues </i>and <i>bueno</i> with a limited range of functions and distinct functional distribution compared to NS data. Over the program abroad, learners significantly increased their functional range of <i>pues</i>.<i> </i>No other significant differences in learner use over the program were identified. Detailed analysis of the patterns of use of native speakers and learners led to the identification of unique discourse marker uses in the interlanguage of learners. These findings were discussed in light of issues of interlanguage discourse marker use, discourse marker frequency in input, and second language instruction.</p>