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PROJECT 2000 Dr. Susan Knight
Dr. Barbara Schmidt-Rinehart
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Approximately 80,000 American students leave the U.S each year to study in another country. Universities strongly encourage students to study abroad so that they might learn another language, experience another culture, and become global citizens who are able to function better in our ever increasingly inter-dependent world. In the past, in order to validate the importance of study abroad, research has been conducted on various aspects of the experience: language acquisition, the student experience via diaries and introspection, program evaluations, effects of out-of-class contact, and acquisition of sociolinguistic patterns. Study abroad has been examined from the program perspective as well as from the student perspective. What seems to be conspicuously absent, however, is the perspective of the host family. This is surprising because study abroad directors and students alike tout the homestay experience as one of the most important parts of the overseas program. Brecht et al. (1997) support this claim stating, "At their best, such [homestay] programs give the student very rich, first-hand experience in living in the target culture and using their language skills with native speakers in circumstances with direct real-world consequences. In these instances, homestay programs are a powerful augmentation to more formal instruction or immersion experiences the student may undergo during the immersion program." Although considered to be an integral part of the students’ linguistic and cultural development, the homestay piece of the study abroad puzzle has been untapped by researchers. The native perspective can help provide
the cultural and sociolinguistic information so needed in discussions with
students before they travel abroad as well as in culture and civilization
classes. It can provide concrete cultural comparisons that are lacking
in the preparation of teachers and in the professional literature.
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Subjects The investigators will interview host families at study abroad sites
in Mexico and Spain where A.U. and C.M.U. students study. Five families
at each site will be selected in conjunction with the administrator
of the program. Families will include those who have hosted many U.S. students
as well as those who are hosting for the first time. (The inclusion of
first-time families may counter any "desensitization" that may have occurred
within families hosting many American students.) These interviews are not
an evaluation of host families; on the contrary, the families will be the
major resource in the gathering of sociolinguistic information to increase
cultural understanding and to help future U.S. students abroad.
Interviews The interview questions are organized according to the
five categories of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning
(1996): Communication, Cultures, Comparisons, Communities, and Connections.
These questions, developed from study abroad diary studies as well as texts
about cultural differences, will serve as a point of departure in discussions
with the families. It is anticipated that two interview sessions with each
family will be necessary. All interviews will be recorded and the data
will be analyzed by looking for salient or recurring themes. Cross-cultural
comparisons will then be made.
Timeline MEXICO: February 2000
SPAIN: April 2000
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Study Abroad Site Visits MEXICO:
SPAIN:
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