The Ecology of Study Abroad for Language Learning: Synthesis and Interdisciplinary Insights

Abstract

This report presents a review of study abroad research conducted from an ecological perspective (Kramsch, 2003; Leather & van Dam, 2003;van Lier, 2004) and identifies areas of inquiry that are lacking compared to second language acquisition and other fields (i.e., linguistics, psychology). It identifies value-based views as a high-priority area of interest and draws on frameworks in other fields to outline how language learning research could effectively describe the moral ecology of study abroad for language learning.

The Moral Ecology of Unstructured Speaking on Study Abroad: Finding Speaking Opportunities

“…An important theoretical connection for this research is to the "negotiation of difference" (Block, 2007;Kinginger, 2010), a concept which is particularly salient for study abroad participants who are often in close proximity to people from vastly different backgrounds and cultures than their own. As explained by Bird et al (2021) Something similar could be said about the participants in this program in regard to moral phenomena. This study reconceptualizes "differences" as moral tensions that also need resolution, and future discussions of the differences that participants encounter while abroad should keep in mind that the problems they face may in some instances be better understood in terms of the moral forces with which participants are grappling.…”

“…Building on the pre-understanding of values and language learning presented by Bird et al (2021), the analysis for this study uses the analytic framework proposed by Yanchar and Slife (2017). Their framework defines a practice as a moral ecology, which can be described by examining its constituent parts and their relationships.…”

“…In preparation for a similar discussion in the broader field of psychology, Brinkmann (2004, p. 58) cautioned: … granted that moral properties are an irreducible part of the human world … we must be particularly careful in first understanding this moral dimension, since moral properties very easily drop out of consideration, or become reduced to something they are not, when investigated with the tools of current psychological methodology. Bird et al (2021) outlined one way to understand the value-based or "moral dimension" of language learning by synthesizing insights from value-based approaches to language (Hodges, 2015) and learning (Yanchar, 2016). The three primary claims synthesized from these approaches are that (1) language learning has intrinsic goods, (2) participation in language learning requires balancing contextual demands to effectively realize these goods, and (3) the way someone balances these demands and goods constitutes taking a position relative to other possible positions.…”

Interrogating Racialized Discourses in Educator-Focused Study Abroad: An Ecological Approach

“…In the context of study abroad, Badwan and Simpson (2019) used an ecological orientation to examine the role of mobility in the value of linguistic repertoires, while Kashiwa and Benson (2018) explored the integrated relationship of in-class and out-of-class learning among study abroad participants. Bird et al's (2021) comprehensive review of study abroad research from an ecological perspective described the role of these frameworks in analyzing the interactions of abroad and prior environments, perceived affordances in the study abroad environment, and the negotiation of difference, among other themes. Yet despite the frameworks' usage in these contexts, and despite the existence of similar ecological frameworks to explore non discourse--oriented race and racialization topics (e.g., Friend et al, 2011;Ung et al, 2012), ecological linguistic frameworks have not been used in analyzing racialized discourse per se.…”

“…Yet despite the frameworks' usage in these contexts, and despite the existence of similar ecological frameworks to explore non discourse--oriented race and racialization topics (e.g., Friend et al, 2011;Ung et al, 2012), ecological linguistic frameworks have not been used in analyzing racialized discourse per se. Indeed, Bird et al (2021) note that research exploring "valuebased views" and the "moral ecology of study abroad" are high priorities for the field. Bird et al state that "[f]uture research could deeply explore the tensions and balances that sojourners maintain while abroad, providing insights relating to the negotiation of difference and sojourner identity" (p. 29).…”