一位國中生的第一次出國遊學經驗：個案研究語言學習者之個人概念改變與挑戰 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文. 指導教授：招靜琪博士 Advisor: Dr. Chin-Chi Chao. 一位國中生的第一次出國遊學經驗：. 政治大. 個案研究語言學習者之個人概念改變與挑戰. 立. Taking the Very First Overseas Study Trip: A Case Study on a. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Junior High EFL Learner’s Identity Change and Challenges. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：吳怡萱撰 Name: Yi-Hsuan Wu 中華民國一百零二年一月 January, 2013.

(2) Taking the Very First Overseas Study Trip: A Case Study on a Junior High EFL Learner’s Identity Change and Challenges. A Master Thesis Presented to Department of English, National Chengchi University. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 er. io. sit. y. Nat. n. Partial Fulfillment a In iv l C of Requirements for the Degreen of h e nofgArts Master chi U. by Yi-Hsuan Wu January, 2013.

(3) Acknowledgements. I am very grateful to many people that have contributed in direct or indirect ways to this thesis. First, I would like to express my indebtedness to my supervisor, Dr. Chin-Chi Chao, for giving me inspiring guidance and support throughout my research for this work. Her valuable advice and insightful comment lead me to finish this thesis step by step.. 政治大. Second, I would like to thank Professor Chen-Kuan Chen and Chieh-Yue Yeh for. 立. their comments on the thesis. Many thanks are also owed to for their assistance and. ‧ 國. 學. patience.. ‧. In addition, my gratitude is also extended to Jenny, my participant, for spending much time reporting her reflections and sharing her learning experiences with me.. sit. y. Nat. io. al. er. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my parents and my husband. They provide the. n. educational and emotional foundation without which this thesis would have never been possible.. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(4) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTs. Acknowledgements ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii Chinese Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------viii English Abstract -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ix Chapter One: Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Background and Motivation------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Purpose and Research Questions of the Study---------------------------------------------- 3. 政治大. Significance of the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. 立. Chapter Two: Literature Review ---------------------------------------------------------------- 7. ‧ 國. 學. Benefits of SA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Product-oriented Research on Linguistic and Cultural Outcomes in Study. ‧. Abroad Contexts -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. y. Nat. io. sit. Process-oriented Research on the Process of Learning in Study Abroad Context. n. al. er. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. i n U. v. The Study Abroad Studies in Taiwan -------------------------------------------------10. Ch. engchi. Critical Issues that Study Abroad Participants should Face ----------------------- 11 Identity and Imagined Community in Study Abroad Context ---------------------------12 The Language-identity Connection ---------------------------------------------------12 Definition of Identity --------------------------------------------------------------------12 Imagined Communities and Imagined Identities ------------------------------------16 Investments and Identities --------------------------------------------------------------18 Language Learners’ Identities, Imagined Communities, and Investments in Study Abroad Context ------------------------------------------------------------------19 Identities, Imagined Communities and Power ---------------------------------------22 v.

(6) The Need for Further Studies in Taiwanese Language Learners’ Study Abroad Experiences ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 23 Chapter Three: Methodology ------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Participant and Context ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Criteria of Choosing the participant -------------------------------------------------- 25 The participant --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 The context ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 Data Collection -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27. 政治大 Diaries ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29 立. Semi-structured Interviews ------------------------------------------------------------ 28. Documentation--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30. ‧ 國. 學. Procedures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30. ‧. Data Analysis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32. sit. y. Nat. Chapter Four: Results ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37. io. er. Before the Trip --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Jenny’s Family Background and Previous English Learning Experiences at. al. n. v i n Ch School ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------38 engchi U Jenny’s Goals towards English Learning and Attitudes towards the Culture of. the U.S. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 What Kind of Language Learner does Jenny Consider Herself ------------------ 44 The Impact of the Significant Others ------------------------------------------------- 45 During the Short-term Study Trip ----------------------------------------------------------- 49 Challenges Jenny Faced and her Responses ----------------------------------------- 50 Jenny’s English Learning Experiences and Critical Events in the U.S. --------- 55 The Impact of the Significant Others during the Trip ------------------------------ 57 Three Months after the Short-term SA Experience --------------------------------------- 59 vi.

(7) The Changes of her Opinions toward the Two Uncomfortable Events in the U.S. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------60 The Changes of her English Learning Activities ------------------------------------61 The Changes of her Attitude toward the Task of English Learning and herself as an English Learner -----------------------------------------------------------------------62 The Changes of the Role the Country America Plays in her Life and her Attitude toward her Imagined American Community ------------------------------64 Obstacles of Learning a Foreign Language in an EFL Environment -------------65. 政治大 Challenges --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------69 立. Chapter Five: Discussion -------------------------------------------------------------------------69. Struggles to Build up Relations with Members of her Host Family--------------70. ‧ 國. 學. Struggles to Resolve the Conflicts in School Context ------------------------------72. ‧. Struggles to Deal with Difficulties when Interacting with Target Language. sit. y. Nat. Speakers -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------75. io. er. Identity Change --------------------------------------------------------------------------------77 Identity as How a Person Understands His or Her Relationship to the World --77. al. n. v i n C h and Revised Identity The Constantly Challenged and Imagined Community --78 engchi U Identification with the Imagined Community ---------------------------------------84 Language Learning as Opportunities for the Future and the Construction of Future-self --------------------------------------------------------------------------------87 Language Learner’s Resistance or Non-participation in Study Abroad Context ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------90 The Reality Check in Study Abroad Context ----------------------------------------91 Significant Others during her Learning Process-------------------------------------92 Chapter Six: Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------95 Summary of the Findings ---------------------------------------------------------------------95 vii.

(8) Pedagogical Implications--------------------------------------------------------------------- 96 Limitations of the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 99 Suggestions for Future Research ---------------------------------------------------------- 100 Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 100 References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 101 Appendixes ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 106 Appendix A: Questions for the Pre-SA Interview -------------------------------------- 106 Appendix B: Questions for the Post-SA Interview ------------------------------------- 107. 政治大. Appendix C: Questions for the Follow-up Interview ---------------------------------- 108. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. viii. i n U. v.

(9) LIST OF FIGURES/TABLES. Table 1 An overall picture of the procedures of data collection-----------------------32. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. ix. i n U. v.

(10) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班. 碩士論文題要論文名稱: 一位國中生的第一次出國遊學經驗：個案研究語言學習者之個人概念改變與挑戰指導教授: 招靜琪博士研究生:吳怡萱論文提要內容:. 政治大. 出國讀書一向被視為外語學習者培養外語能力的好方法。本研究旨在透過記錄一. 立. 位名為 Jenny 的國中生至美國的短期遊學經驗，以探究短期遊學對外語學習者的學. ‧ 國. 學. 習歷程及個人概念改變的影響。. 本研究方法採用質性研究，研究工具為日記、文件、及半結構式訪談，Jenny. ‧. 的英語學習經驗被分成三大部分：遊學前經驗、遊學中經驗、及遊學結束三個月後. y. Nat. sit. 的經驗。透過分析這些資料，本研究討論了以下幾點：Jenny 在外國環境遇到的困難. n. al. er. io. 與挑戰、她不斷改變的想像社群及個人概念、及短期遊學對 Jenny 對英語學習及個人身為英語學習者的看法與影響。. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究結果顯示 Jenny 遇到的困難包括(1)和寄宿家庭成員建立關係。(2)在學校情境遇到衝突。(3)和以英語為母語的本地人相處過程中的困難。這過程中， Jenny 的個人概念及想像社群也一直受到挑戰與修正，引發她對自己的個人概念及自己身為語言學習者更深層的了解。除此之外，短期遊學後，Jenny 對自己身為台灣人有了新的觀點，對自己國家的信念也加強了。最後，依據本研究結果，對於出國學習計畫設計者、教育學者、及英語教師進一步提供相關建議，以期能使出國遊學者的旅程更加豐富且有幫助。. viii.

(11) Abstract. Study abroad (SA) has been regarded as a great way to help learners develop foreign language proficiency. The major purpose of this study is to explore how short-term SA experience can affect the learning trajectory and the identity (re)construction of a Taiwanese junior high school student called Jenny through investigating her short-term study trip to the U.S. A qualitative method was adopted in this case study. Data were collected through. 政治大 experiences were explored立 longitudinally by categorizing them into three main phases:. diaries, documentation, and three semi-structured interviews. Jenny's English learning. ‧ 國. 學. the pre-SA experience, the during-SA experience, and the three-month-later post-SA experience. By analyzing the data collected, the difficulties and challenges that Jenny. ‧. encountered in the foreign context, her changing imagined communities and identity, and. sit. y. Nat. the impact this short-term SA experience had on her perspectives on English leaning and. n. al. er. io. herself as an English learner were discussed.. i n U. v. It was found that Jenny encountered some difficulties during the trip and she. Ch. engchi. struggled to (1) build up relations with members of her host family, (2) resolve the conflicts in school context, and (3) deal with the difficulties when interacting with target language speakers. Moreover, just as Norton’s(2011) definition of identity provided, Jenny's identity and her identification with her imagined American community had been constantly challenged and revised during the trip, leading to the deeper realization of her identity and herself as a language learner. Other than that, after the trip Jenny's commitment toward her native country was strengthened because she cultivated a new perspective toward her identity as a Taiwanese and redefined her relationship with her vernacular world. ix.

(12) Finally, pedagogical implications and suggestions derived from the discussions were proposed for SA program designers, language educators, and English teachers to make the SA trips more fruitful and beneficial for language learners.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. x. i n U. v.

(13) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background and Motivation There has been an increasing interest in study abroad (SA) because students, parents, and policy makers believe that SA is an ideal way for language learners to be immersed in the target language and culture and therefore can help develop foreign. 政治大 learners now choose to take a study-abroad program, either for an academic-year long or 立 language proficiency (Brecht, Davidson & Ginsberg, 1993). More and more language. for a short-term period. For example, the amount of the U.S. students taking part in SA. ‧ 國. 學. has risen to more than double over the past decade (Institute of International Education,. ‧. 2010). In recent years, the number of language learners in Taiwan participating in study. sit. y. Nat. tours has also grown rapidly (Jang, 2006). We may, therefore, reasonably conclude that. io. essential for second language acquisition (SLA).. al. er. SA is prevalent among second or foreign language learners and is gradually regarded as. n. v i n C hto investigate whatUSA can bring to language learners. Much research has been done engchi. Though an agreement has not been reached, some studies have shown that SA may bring. language learners the advantages of linguistic gains (Matsumura, 2001; Yager, 1998) and cultural/crosscultural learning (Allen & Herron 2003; Bacon 2002; Siegal 1995). Among the studies into SA learners’ linguistic outcomes, different focuses were addressed such as oral skills (Freed 1995; Lafford 1995; Segalowitz & Freed 2004), listening comprehension skills (Cubillos, Chieffo & Fan, 2008), or some specific linguistic or structural gains like phonological memory abilities (Lord, 2006). As for culture-related learning, research found some cultural and pragmatic development after the SA experience (Bacon 2002; Siegal 1995). These linguistic and cultural benefits brought by 1.

(14) SA suggest the merit of SA. In addition to the studies focusing on the outcomes of SA by employing quantitative methods, there is also a growing body of research employing such qualitative methods (Allen, 2010; Miller &Ginsberg, 1995; Polanyi, 1995; Siegal, 1995) as retrospective diaries, interviews, field notes, or ethnographies to gain an in-depth understanding of the process of SA. Among those studies, language learners’ identities and imagined communities were recurrent themes and were regarded as two of the key focuses in the SA research (Kinginger, 2004; Norton, 2000, 2001).. 政治大 intricate and especially crucial in the SA context. Norton defined identity as “how a 立. The concepts of identity and imagined community with its sociocultural nature are. person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured. ‧ 國. 學. across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future”. ‧. (Norton, 2000, p.5). In this view, a language learner’s identity is changing due to his. sit. y. Nat. constant negotiation and renegotiation over a sense of self in relation to the larger social. io. er. world as well as the reorganization of that relationship in multiple dimensions of their lives. As for imagined community, it refers to “groups of people, not immediately tangible. al. n. v i n C hthrough the powerUof imagination” (Kanno & and accessible, with whom we connect engchi. Norton, 2003, p.241). It is through language learners’ imagined communities that they can associate themselves with not just the current communities but the communities they hope to belong to in the future. Such affiliations through the power of imagination will create imagined identities, orienting language learners’ actions and therefore affecting their learning trajectories. By studying language learners’ identities and imagined communities, the process of SA and how individual learner is integrated into the larger social context can be understood. Though much research has been done on SA, most of them addressed the SA programs with a longer term, that is, the year-long or semester-long SA programs. 2.

(15) Though it is a common belief that the longer time of immersion in the target language context leads to more language acquisition, sometimes the long-term stay in SA context is impossible due to some economic considerations. Then, to examine the effects that a short-term SA trip, lasting less than two weeks, have is important. To reach a deeper understanding of learners' experiences within such a short-term time, employing the qualitative methods to investigate the processes that learners experience is wanted. The prior qualitative studies (e.g., Kline, 1993; Pellegrino, 1998; Polanyi, 1995; Siegal, 1995; Wilkinson, 1998) all noted the diversity, complexity, and exquisiteness of SA and called. 政治大 of individual variation in linguistic description if it is to be applied to practical language 立. for more in-depth qualitative investigation. Freed (1995) also emphasized the importance. problems. However, in Taiwan, an EFL context, there is little research documenting what. ‧ 國. 學. Taiwanese language learners encountered in the foreign context during SA, what. ‧. difficulties or challenges they had to face, how their imagined communities and identities. sit. y. Nat. change, and what support system the government or language educators needed to. io. n. al. er. provide. Hence, more research addressing this issue is needed.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Purpose and Research Questions of the Study The purpose of the present study is to explore how short-term SA experience can affect the learning trajectory and the identity (re)construction of a Taiwanese junior high school student called Jenny through investigating her short-term study trip to the U.S. By analyzing the data collected from the diaries kept by Jenny and interviews between the researcher and the participant, the difficulties or challenges the language learner encounters in the foreign context, her changing imagined communities and identity, and how the short-term SA experience affect her perspectives on English leaning and herself as an English learner are documented, analyzed, and discussed. This study does not intend 3.

(16) to provide a generalizable account or to predict experiences but to document and depict the complexities of this particular Taiwanese EFL learner’s experiences as a whole. The detailed documents and analysis of the participant’s complex learning process in the foreign context in this study are expected to provide some insights for pedagogical use. The research questions are stated as follows: How do Jenny’s experiences before, during, and after her first short-term study trip to the U.S. reveal potential challenges and identity change? a. Before Jenny’s trip to the states, what kind of language learning experience. 政治大 have? What kind of language learner doid she consider herself? 立. (i.e., historical account of significant others and critical events) did she. b. During her trip to the states, what challenges, critical events, and significant. ‧ 國. 學. others did she encounter?. ‧. c. Three months after Jenny’s trip, how did she perceive herself as a language. sit. y. Nat. learner and how did she think about the trip, its relationship to her current. io. n. al. er. English learning activities and the task of English learning?. Ch. engchi. Significance of the Study. i n U. v. Unlike most previous SA studies that mainly addressed the outcomes of SA by employing quantitative methods, this study adopts a process-oriented approach, exploring the issue of SA from a qualitative case study perspective that intends to provide in-depth and holistic information of the process that a language learner experienced in SA context. This should lead to a fuller understanding of the SA experience and help identify the potential challenges that language learners may encounter when studying in a foreign context. In addition, by focusing on language learners’ identity as well as imagined community (re)construction, this study can potentially contribute to our knowledge of the 4.

(17) two complex constructs, especially how to apply them in a SA context. Finally, now that short-term study trip is often a choice for linguistic improvement or cultural learning among EFL or ESL learners, especially in Taiwan, investigating the process of the SA experience can help identify what can be brought to language learners. The results of the study therefore can provide some insightful suggestions for what support system the government and language educators should provide for SA language learners during the process of second language acquisition (SLA).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 5. i n U. v.

(18) CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW. To provide a preliminary framework for understanding the SA experience in the present case, related ideas and theories in the literature are reviewed. This chapter is divided into two main sections: First, a brief review of the benefits of SA and second, the discussion of two concepts: identity and imagined community. In the SA section, a further division. 政治大. of product-oriented approach and process-oriented approach to address learners’ SA. 立. experiences are presented separately, followed by SA studies in Taiwan and critical issues. ‧ 國. 學. that SA participants should face. As for the second section, discussion moves from the connection between language and identity, the definition of identity, to the notions of. ‧. imagined community and investment, and finally the interaction between identity,. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. context.. sit. imagined community, their other extensional notions and language learning in SA. Ch. eBenefits n g cofhSAi. i n U. v. Product-oriented Research on Linguistic and Cultural Outcomes in Study Abroad Contexts Much research has provided the benefits of study abroad, mainly focusing on the linguistic gains and cultural/cross-cultural learning. Many researchers have discussed the linguistic gains which SA brought by doing experiments in different contexts with different focuses. Some of them focused on the overall improvement in listening (Cubillos et al., 2008) or oral proficiency (Freed 1995, Lafford 1995, Segalowitz & Freed 2004), while others focused on the specific linguistic or structural gains. For example, 7.

(19) Lord’s (2006) and Simões’ (1996) studies showed that phonetic or phonological development can be improved through SA. Vocabulary can also be enriched after SA (Dewey, 2004, 2007). There are also other studies discussing what variables such as gender, pre-program motivation, intercultural sensitivity, or relationship with the host family are related to language learners’ linguistic gains (Brecht et al., 1993; Martinsen 2008). Researchers have also looked at improvements in areas related to culture such as cultural sensitivity (Bacon, 2002; Martinsen, 2011; Wilkinson, 1998), cross-cultural skills. 政治大 Martinsen (2011) found a small but significant increase in participants’ cultural 立. (Laubscher, 1994) or cultural knowledge (Carlson, Burn, Useem, & Yachimowicz, 1990).. sensitivity and stated that the most important key factor of this improvement is their. ‧ 國. 學. interaction with native speakers. Allen, Dristas and Mills (2006) showed that SA. ‧. participants faced some, though not as much as they had imagined, sociocultural. sit. y. Nat. challenges when studying abroad. Owing to those challenges, the SA participants. io. er. re-evaluated their cultural identities and moved toward a more hybrid understanding of identity. Moreover, certain cross-cultural skills (Laubscher, 1994) and cultural knowledge. al. n. v i n (Carlson et al., 1990) are claimed toC be gained after SA. These h e n g c h i U studies above have provided valuable insight into the merits of taking a SA program.. Most of the studies addressing the linguistic or cultural gains have employed quantitative methods. Such proficiency instruments as Oral Proficiency Interview (Brecht et al., 1993; Freed, Segalowitz & Dewey, 2004; Liu, 2011; Segalowitz & Freed, 2004), the Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (Berg, Connor-Linton & Paige, 2009) or other self-made tests (Allen & Horron, 2003; Lord, 2006; Martinsen, 2008) were used to measure learners’ linguistic outcomes. To understand learners’ gains of cultural or crosscultural knowledge, questionnaires and surveys like Inventory of Cross-Cultural Sensitivity (Martinsen, 2011) and the Intercultural Development Inventory (Berg, et. al., 8.

(20) 2009) were employed. All these studies intended to prove the increases in language or cultural skills after SA with positive evidence. Process-oriented Research on the Process of Learning in Study Abroad Context Though a great deal of quantitative research has claimed the effectiveness of SA in terms of linguistic gains and cultural learning, there were some researchers challenging the automatic creation of cultural or sociocultural gains (Wilkinson, 1998; Yager, 1998). They criticized the product-oriented approach for neglecting the process and questioned if. 政治大 and the whole processes of learners’ language-learning journey. Wilkinson (1998) pointed 立 focusing on the measurable advances will be sufficient for understanding SA experiences. out that analyzing the overall outcomes exclusively may overlook the intense experience. ‧ 國. 學. each individual has and the ramifications that is most influential and long-lasting for. ‧. individual learning. Polanyi (1995), after analyzing the personal stories of SA participants,. sit. y. Nat. also made the similar conclusion that using those standardized tests to measure learners’. io. er. language ability produced devastating effects because it neglected the actual stories happened during the process. Furthermore, the study abroad experience is highly varied. al. n. v i n across individuals and contexts C (Kinginger & Farrell, U h e n g c h i 2004; Kinginger, 2008; Pellegrino, 2005). Therefore, employing quantitative methods may not be sufficient for a fuller understanding of language learners' SA experiences. Because of the above-mentioned concerns, a body of research has shifted its focus from the overall outcomes to a closer examination of the process of SA (Allen, 2010; Miller &Ginsberg, 1995; Polanyi, 1995; Siegal, 1995). In these studies, autobiographies, field diaries and retrospection interviews were employed to gain a deeper understanding of the actual process of SA. These techniques for data collection ask learners to report the events that happened and their reactions to the events during the process of SA. Some studies analyzed students’ perceptions of the target language and language learning in SA 9.

(21) contexts in order to gain a deep understanding of what SA brings to students (Brecht & Robinson, 1995; Miller & Ginsberg, 1995; Wilkinson, 1998). Through the detailed analysis of qualitative data researchers can gain more than a surface-level understanding of the phenomenon and therefore a fuller understanding of the personal experiences in SA context is possible (Pellegrino, 1997). In addition to their process-oriented essence, qualitative studies tended to treat participants as diverse people, not the “one” standard learner that might be the representation of all the student population (Polanyi, 1995). Polanyi (1995) calls upon our. 政治大 The impersonal “one” which “needs to know” or “learns a language” is 立. attention to consider who the “one” is:. the issue. Who “one” is is a factor of one’s native talent for language. ‧ 國. 學. learning, one’s educational background and motivation but it is also a. ‧. product of one’s gender, one’s class, one’s race, one’s sexual orientation,. sit. y. Nat. one’s health and degree of abledness. Ultimately, every language learner. io. that individual. (p.287). er. is alone with a unique experiences, an experience tailored to, by and for. al. n. v i n C h from this approach It is clear that researchers orienting tried to understand language engchi U. learners' learning through incorporating personal histories and organizing lived experiences related to language learning.. The Study Abroad Studies in Taiwan In Taiwan, the government, educators, and parents are always concerning about how to improve students’ English proficiency. Different forms of SA such as study tours or short-term visits are introduced and adopted as supplementary of formal English learning. However, studies investigating the outcomes of participating in SA programs are 10.

(22) still limited. Jang (2004) studied 140 students participating in SA trips and found that students’ language proficiency and English learning attitudes were enhanced after SA. Lin (2002) and Tzeng (2006) investigated 33 and 12 students taking part in study-tour programs separately and drew similar conclusions that study tours could increase students’ cultural capital and cultivate their multiple intelligences. Chen's (2012) study also reported that study tours provide more opportunities to use the target language, chances for deeper cultural understanding, and an enhancement of learner motivation. However, despite the previously addressed outcomes and effects that SA trips brought to. 政治大 rarely discussed. Also, what kinds of challenges or difficulties that Taiwanese SA 立. Taiwanese learners, the real processes that happened to them in the foreign contexts are. participants face in the SA context are limitedly known.. Nat. sit. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Critical Issues that Study Abroad Participants should Face. io. er. One important component of a SA trip is home-stays where SA participants stay. It is believed that home-stay provides more opportunities for target language interaction. al. n. v i n C h Indeed, many students (Schmidt-Rinehart & Knight, 2004). hold a positive attitude engchi U toward their home-stay experiences (Ingram, 2005; Paige, Cohen, Kappler, Chi, &. Lassegard, 2006) and some would like to recommend it to others (Schmidt-Rinehart & Knight, 2004). However, previous studies also provided the evidence that just putting learners in the home-stay context does not necessarily create opportunities for cultural awareness or linguistic gains (Rivers, 1998; Segalowitz &Freed, 2004; Wilkinson, 1998). That is, for some reasons, SA learners may not actively practice language with the host-family members. Moreover, some complaints about the uncomfortable treatment of the home-stays and learners’ uncomfortable feelings in home-stay were recorded in Wilkinson’s (1998) study. Hence, home-stay environment does play a significant role in 11.

(23) determining the success of a SA experience. Identity and Imagined Community in Study Abroad Context. The Language-identity Connection The basic connection between language learning and identity is obvious because language learning is so complex a process that many factors can affect and be affected by the process. Djité (2006) argued that “language and identity are ultimately inseparable”. 政治大 acquisition, and that language acquisition likewise plays a significant role in re-forming 立 (p.3). Diamond (2010) also noted that “identity plays a significant role in language. an individual’s identity” (p.3). Due to the tight connection between identity and language. ‧ 國. 學. learning, it is dangerous to omit the impact of identity when scrutinizing the language. ‧. learning process. Therefore, this study adopts the “identity approach” (Norton &. sit. n. al. er. io Definition of Identity. y. Nat. McKinney, 2011) to the discussion of SLA in SA context.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. There are quite a few terms such as “self”, “person”, and “self-concept” that carry somewhat similar meanings to the notion of “identity” here, revealing its complex nature. After long-term discussion, definition, rejection, and redefinition of this concept in SLA from different perspectives, traditions, and theories, its meaning become richer. To look at the notion of “identity” from a broad view, Owens (2003) regarded self as “a process and organization born of self-reflection” while identity as “a tool (or in some cases perhaps a stratagem) by which individuals or groups categorize themselves and present themselves to the world” (p. 206). From this argument, it is clear that identity has something to do with an individual’s relation to others as well as the social world. 12.

(24) Owen (2003) adds that identity offers “categories people use to specify who they are and to locate themselves relative to other people. In this sense, identity implies both a distinctiveness from others (I am not like them or a “not-me”) and a sameness with others (I am like them or a “me-too”)” (p. 207). Djité (2006) offered a similar perspective on identity by saying that identity is “the everyday word for people’s sense of who they are. It is both about sameness with others and uniqueness of the self”(p.6). For Djité, it is the individual identity that gives us a uniqueness of self. Hence, identity, as way to distinguish ourselves from others, is defined within the larger social context. Pavlenko. 政治大. and Lantolf (2000) also emphasize the social meaning of “person”, which may be the alternative term for identity.. 立. The current study adopts the poststructural perspective of identity because when. ‧ 國. 學. discussing identity and SLA, it is a commonly adopted approach (Block, 2007), Norton's. ‧. identity approach, especially. Poststructuralists viewed language learning as a complex. sit. y. Nat. social practice in which meanings are created and relationships are defined, negotiated,. io. er. and resisted. During the process, the changing relationships of power influence the ways in which we understand ourselves and others (Bakhtin, 1981; Bourdieu, 1977; West,. al. n. v i n 1992). West (1992) argued that C identity has somethingU h e n g c h i to do with desire; that is, it is. about how human beings construct their desire for recognition, association, and protection over time and in space. Due to the unequal distribution of material resources in society, it is the privileged that have the access to the resources that can articulate their desires. Hence, these various kinds of desires are closely linked with the distribution of material resources in society, and an individual's identity is partly defined by his social and economic relations. Bourdieu (1977) foregrounded the relations of power by focusing on the relationship between identity and symbolic power. He contended that the relationship between interlocutors are often unequally structured because of the symbolic power relations. 13.

(25) Weedon (1987) provided that “Language is the place where actual and possible forms of social organization and their likely social and political consequences are defined and contested. Yet it is also the place where our sense of selves our subjectivity, is constructed” (p.21). In other words, our identity, our sense of selves, are constructed by language. Working within a feminist postructuralistic tradition, Weedon (1987) conceptualized social identity, what she called “subjectivity”, by integrating language, individual experience and social power to arrive at the definition that subjectivity is “the conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, her sense of herself. 政治大 characteristics of subjectivity: (a) the multiple nature of subjectivity; (b) subjectivity as a 立. and her ways of understanding her relation to the world” (p. 32). There are three defining. site of struggle, and (c) subjectivity as changing over time. First, contrary to humanists'. ‧ 國. 學. depiction of identity as “unitary and fixed,” poststructuralistists view individual as diverse,. ‧. multiple, dynamic and contradictory. Therefore, subjectivity is multiple in nature. Second,. sit. y. Nat. individual takes up different subject positions, each entails different relations of power.. io. er. Sometimes the positions are in conflict with others, leading to the struggle of subjectivity. And finally Weedon argued that “the political significance of decentering the subject and. al. n. v i n C h is that it opens abandoning the belief in essential subjectivity up subjectivity to change” engchi U. (p.33). Due to this changing characteristic of human subjectivity, educators can exert their influence during the process and therefore educational change is possible. In all, the above discussion all point to the central argument: identities are viewed as diverse, multiple, and changing over time and space. Among the many researchers that have endeavored to address identity and SLA, Norton, drawing upon Weedon, has done a lot to connect the identity and second language acquisition. In her introduction to the special-topic issue of the TESOL Quarterly on Language and Identity, Norton raised five characteristics of identity after reviewing and analyzing five articles by Morgan, Duff and Uchida, Thesen, Schecter and 14.

(26) Bayley, and Leung, Harris, and Rampton in the issue in 1997. Those characteristics are the consistent conceptions of identity shared by the five studies. 1.. Identity is complex, contradictory, and multifaceted. The researchers all reject any simplistic notions of identity.. 2.. Identity is dynamic across time and space.. 3.. Identity constructs and is constructed by language.. 4.. Identity construction must be understood with respect to larger social processes, marked by relations of power that can be wither coercive or. 政治大 The importance of the social status and power relations during learners' second 立 collaborative.. language acquisition and participation are also highlighted by Norton (2000). Her. ‧ 國. 學. contention is parallel to the idea by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) that. ‧. identity, occurring and operating within specific community of practice, is constructed. sit. y. Nat. within the larger social structures. Similarly, Morita (2004) also used the community of. io. er. practice concept to address the relationship between second language learning and learner identity and concluded that learners experienced negotiation of roles and identities during. al. n. v i n C h shaped and are SLA and such identities and membership shaped by their class engchi U participation.. Lave and Wenger's (1991) situated learning, serving as the theoretical foundation to Norton's identity approach of SLA, noted the view of learning as a kind of social participation in communities of practice. That is to say, when a learner learns, instead of just acquiring a set of rules, he is constantly changing his participation in communities of practice. That leads us to the argument that learning is situated in local community of practices. Within Lave and Wenger's community of practice framework, Wenger (1991) further proposed that learning is a process of incremental participation in a community of practice, what he call legitimate peripheral participation. During the process of 15.

(27) participation of practices, the old-timers (often the native speakers) help the newcomers (often the language learners) increase their experience and participation of the community practices, guiding them to gradually move from peripheral participation of the community of practice to achieve full-participation. Though the old-timers may have different influence on the newcomers, resulting in different degrees of participation of individual, it is through the participation in the practices an individual learns to become a certain kind of person and therefore his identity is constructed. The issue of language learner identity surfaces especially in the SA context because. 政治大 environment (Siegal, 1995; Wilkinson, 1998). Drawing upon Weedon, Norton defined 立. language learners often have difficulties developing a comfortable position in that new. identity as “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that. ‧ 國. 學. relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person understands. ‧. possibilities for the future” (2000, p.5). In other words, an individual’s identity is. sit. y. Nat. constructed from the constantly changing relationship between the individual learner and. io. er. the larger social world. Due to its changing nature, language learning is situated in a specific sociocultural context within a particular time and in a particular place. Hence, we. al. n. v i n C hidentity is multipleUand dynamic because it is may conclude that a language learner’s engchi constantly reorganized and renegotiated.. Imagined Communities and Imagined Identities An extension of interest in the concept of identity is language learners' identification with their “imagined communities” that they desire to belong to. The term “imagined communities” was first introduced by Anderson (1991) and then extended to educational settings. Anderson (1991) proposed that what we called nations are indeed imagined communities, “because the members of even the smallest nation will never 16.

(28) know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (p. 6). According to Anderson, through imagination one creates a common identity and consciousness that bond him with his nation and the people under the name of nation regardless time and space. Due to this sense of bonding, a community is formed and national identity is created. Later, Wenger (1998) expanded the notion of imagined community to educational settings and developed fuller theories of imagination and learning. He hypothesized that people identify through three modes of belongings: engagement, imagination, and. 政治大 negotiation of meaning. Such kind of belonging is a local participation “bounded” within 立 alignment. “Engagement” refers to the active involvement in mutual processes of. a specific time and space. As for the second mode “imagination”, people use it to create. ‧ 國. 學. images of the world and see connections through time and space by extrapolating from. ‧. their own experience. However, imagination does not necessarily lead to a coordination. sit. y. Nat. of action; hence, the last mode “alignment” addresses the extent to which we coordinate. io. er. our energies and activities in order to fit within broader structures and contribute to broader enterprises. As Wenger notes,. al. n. v i n Ch My use of the concept of imagination refers to a process of expanding our engchi U self by transcending our time and space and creating new images of the. world and ourselves. Imagination in this sense is looking at an apple seed and seeing a tree (p. 176). According to Wenger, imagination is a process of including other meanings, other possibilities, and other perspectives in our identities and new ways of understanding one’s relation to the world. Therefore, imagination serves not only educational but also identitary functions. Later, Norton (2000) conducted a research of immigrant women learning English in Canada and proposed that when a learner starts learning a language, he may invest in his imagined communities that transcend the four walls of the classroom. 17.

(29) Drawing on Wenger’s work, Norton proposed the construct ‘imagined community’ as the groups of people, intangible or not immediately accessible, with whom an individual connect and affiliate through the power of imagination (Norton, 2001; Kanno & Norton, 2003; Norton & McKinney, 2011). That is, every individual learner has certain imagined affiliations with certain groups of people and it is through the affiliations with the communities one’s imagined identity is created and revealed. Therefore, imagined communities can help us understand not only the process of language learning, especially in SA context, but also the construction of learners’ identities.. 立. Investments and Identities. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Another concept that is important to the understanding of second language learner. ‧. identity is “investment”. Investment, developed by Norton, signals a “socially and. y. Nat. historically constructed relationship of learners to the target language, and their often. er. io. sit. ambivalent desire to learn and practice it” (Norton & McKinney, 2011, p.75). Distinct from motivation, which is a quantification of a learner's commitment to learning the target. al. n. v i n C h relationship between language, investment depicts the changing the learner and the target engchi U language. It is supposed that when a learner invests in language learning, in her mind she imagines a community that she wants to participate in and during the process she constantly constructs or reconstructs her identity, her imagined community and her relations to the social world. Therefore, investment can be best understood within the context of imagined community and identity. Drawing on Bourdieu (1977), Norton noted that when a learner invests in second language learning, he does so because he knows that he will acquire a wider range of. symbolic and material resources, to increase the value of 'cultural capital.' Cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977) is the knowledge and modes of thought that characterize 18.

(30) different classes and groups in relation to specific sets of social forms, with differential exchange values. In additional to the cultural capital, also, he hopes to get rewarding returns that can give him access to the privileges of target language speakers and be associated with that imagined community no matter it is the present community or the community in the future. Therefore, an investment in the target language is also an investment in learner’s own identity. Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) also stated that the degree or extent of investment can be key of becoming a proficient or fluent language learner, indicating its importance in language learning. McKay and Wong (1996), linking. 政治大 favor specific coping strategies, these strategies also appear related to the overall picture 立 investment and identity to coping strategy, argued that “Whereas individual students. of a learner’s identities and of the strength and type of his/her investment in learning the. ‧ 國. 學. target language” (p. 604). Thus, a conclusion may be drawn that the sense of identity. ‧. (re)construction and the imagined future community membership drive learners to invest. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. in language learning.. i n U. v. Language Learners’ Identities, Imagined Communities, and Investments in Study Abroad. Ch. engchi. Context When addressing the relationship between participation of community of practice and identity, Wenger (1998) used the notions of “participation” and “nonparticipation”. Learners’ identities are definded through not only their participation but their non-participation of community of practices as well. As Wenger (1998) contends, We not only produce our identities through the practices we engage in, but we also define ourselves through practices we do not engage in. Our identities are constituted not only by what we are but also by what we are 19.

(31) not. To the extent that we can come in contact with other ways of being, what we are not can even become a larger part of how we define ourselves (p. 164). That is to say, learners’ identities are produced through the choices of their participation and non-participation in the socially situated processes. Some learners’ non-participation in class during their SA periods can be caused by the mismatch between language learners’ imagined communities and the teachers or schools’ objectives, further resulting in their lack of investment in language learning or. 政治大 and Felicia, both escaped from their language courses, revealing their lack of investment 立 class. In Norton’s (2000, 2001) work, two highly-motivated adult immigrants, Katarina. in the language practices because of the clash between their imagined communities and. ‧ 國. 學. their teachers' visions of their identities. Katarina had been a teacher in Poland for quite a. ‧. few years before she went to Canada and she took pride in her highly respectable. y. Nat. professional. Therefore, her imagined community was a community of professionals. She. er. io. sit. denied her language class participation due to her L2 teacher’s comment that her English was not good enough to take the computer class, which was intellectually challenging and. al. n. v i n C community. could give her access to her imagined the language teacher merely h e n g cThat hi U. regarded Katarina as a newcomer, an immigrant, and a language learner rather than a member of the professional community upset Katarina. To guard the integrality of her identity as a professional in her imagined community, she chose to withdraw from the class. Similar story also happened to Felicia (Norton, 2000, 2001). Felicia escaped from her language classroom because after the activity of introducing their countries, the teacher omitted her native country Peru in her summary of today's class. Her reaction to this neglect was very fierce because she identified herself as a wealthy Peruvian, instead of an immigrant. Her teacher's failure to acknowledge her identity and imagined 20.

(32) community led to her nonparticipation in that course. Hence, though Katarina and Felicia were both highly-motivated language learners because of their immigration to Canada, the mismatch between Katarina’s and Felicia’s imagined communities and their teachers’ visions of their identities led to their lack of investment in language learning and therefore their “nonparticipation” in class. Accordingly, a conclusion may be made that an individual’s relation to and experience in the classroom community of practice and his imagined community may inhibit his participation. Such participation and non-participation of a class can transcend the factors in the classroom to be affected by a. 政治大 to the conclusion: language learners’ affiliations with their imagined communities can 立. learner's imagined community as well as his imagined connections with it. That leads us. affect learners’ dispositions toward language learning, their investment in it, and therefore. ‧ 國. 學. their learning trajectories.. ‧. On the other hand, language learners’ investment or persistence in language. sit. y. Nat. learning can be inspired by their imagined communities. In Kanno’s (2000, 2003) work, a. io. er. Japanese teenager named Rui tried to preserve his mother tongue regardless his long-term stay in English-speaking countries because he believed that keeping Japanese provides. al. n. v i n C h that he has long U him the access to his imagined Japan identified himself with. Likewise, engchi. in Kinginger’s (2004) case study, her participant, Alice, had cultivated a romantic image of the imagined communities of French language users. Due to her affiliations and identification with the French community, she had great investment in French learning, overcoming significant personal, social, and material obstacles during her learning process and persisted in her learning of French. Imagined communities are also multiple in nature, leading to language learner’s hybrid identities. Norton and Kamal (2003) investigated a group of Pakistan students involved in a global community education project to explore what students hoped for the future based on their educational experiences. The result showed that they hoped to 21.

(33) master English to take part in the activities in the global community and at the same time their vernacular languages could coexist with the global language. That is, they identified with both the English-dominated global community and their vernacular communities. Such multiple imagined communities produced hybrid identities.. Identities, Imagined Communities and Power Identities as well as imagined communities are also related to ideologies and. 政治大 nature of language learning. Norton and McKinney (2001) especially calls upon our 立. power. Many poststructuralists have suggested the implication of power relations in the. attention to the power relations in their identity approach. Consequently, identity, rather. ‧ 國. 學. than a compilation of variables, is sets of relationship that are socially and historically. ‧. constructed within particular relations of power and such relations have a direct influence. sit. y. Nat. on language learning. Students in Norton and Kamal’s (2003) study expected themselves. io. er. to be skillful in English, the global language which entails more power, so as to gain more access to opportunities for a better future. Immigrant parents in Canada, viewing. al. n. v i n C h in language education multilingualism as capital and investment as assurance of a engchi U. relatively privileged position, imagined communities, the Canadian English-French bilingual community, they hoped their children grew up to participate in and made educational decisions for them (Dagenais, 2003). Kanno’s (2003) research of the bilingual schools in Japan demonstrated how different schools construct different imagined communities for their students and how the least privileged bilingual students are socialized into the least privileged imagined communities, thus a kind of social reproduction. Martina and Eva, being regarded as 'immigrants', were placed in the subject position, leading to their silence when interacting with their colleges in workplace (Norton, 2000). The embedded power in the social relations greatly influences their 22.

(34) investment and their interaction with others. Similarly, Kinginger (2004) and Polanyi (1995) found that female SA participants were placed in an unprivileged position due to their limited access to social networks that would most enhance their foreign language learning and therefore make their learning more challenging. To sum up, learning a language in a foreign context involves a process of identity (re)construction and imagined community affiliation and during the process certain kind of social power and ideology had a great influence on the construction of learner identity.. 政治大. The Need for Further Studies in Taiwanese Language Learners’ Study Abroad. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Experiences. ‧. English learning has become a public frenzy in Taiwan. It is believed that mastery. sit. y. Nat. of English is the shortcut to not only becoming a member of the global community but. io. er. also achieving personal future success. With this belief in mind, both parents and the government make a great deal of efforts to promote English education. The government. al. n. v i n C hcurriculum and topUpriority in the overall educational has set English learning as the core engchi system. One obvious example is that the English education has been extended from. seventh grade to third grade in elementary school since 2005. Many local governments even begin the English classes as early as the first year of elementary school. The number of English classes also rose, moving from one class per week to two classes per week in elementary school. The government’s hard-work of promoting English education is clearly seen. On the other hand, parents have tried every means to provide the best possible resources for their children’s English learning. Numerous of language schools, English learning centers, and cram schools are found on the streets to address parents' “English anxiety”. Besides, various kinds of English learning programs or activities are 23.

(35) there for parents to choose and short-term SA tours are among them. By sending children to a target language context, parents believe that their children can have a full interaction with the target language native speakers in the natural settings so that language acquisition can be achieved unconsciously. However, so far little attention in research has been paid to the processes and experiences during Taiwanese language learners’ time in the foreign context. What difficulties they encounter, what challenges they have to face, and in what way their experiences in the foreign context cause their identity (re)construction are little known and rarely documented. Addressing this gap in research,. 政治大 experiences in the U.S. and derive useful insights into what support can be given to SA 立. this study intends to investigate one Taiwanese student’s short-term study trip. language learners.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 24. i n U. v.

(36) CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY. This study employs a qualitative case study approach designed within an “exploratory-interpretive” paradigm defined by Nunan (1992) as one “which utilizes a non-experimental method, yields qualitative data, and provides an interpretive analysis of that data” (p.4). The instruments adopted are semi-structured interviews, diaries and. 政治大. documentation. The aims are to probe into the research questions qualitatively with a. 立. thick and holistic description of the individual learner’s English learning experiences and. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. io. y. sit. Nat. Participant and Context. al. er. perspectives.. n. Criteria of Choosing the participant. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The present study is designed to investigate how one language learner’s experiences before, during, and after her first short-term SA trip to the U.S., focusing on challenges and identity (re)construction. To reach a deeper understanding of this topic, the participant, Jenny, is selected for the following reasons (pseudonym is used here). First, she was chosen as the school representative of this study-trip program. That is to say, she won herself the chance to do her first trip abroad, which happened to be the focus of this study. Second, she had been placed in an environment that was helpful in and friendly to English learning since little, and hence she had plenty of experiences of English learning before this SA trip. Moreover, she is an active English learner who is eager to not only 25.

(37) learn more and but also learn more effectively. She is willing to reflect on her learning and share her thoughts and developments with the researcher. For the above reasons, Jenny was invited to be the participant of the study.. The participant This section provides background information about Jenny, the participant. Jenny’s parents work as engineers in HsinChu Science Park, which are often regarded as high-pay. 政治大 education from as early as kindergarten. At the time of data collection, Jenny was a 立. positions. This family background gives her a so-called “head start” of foreign language. second-year student at the junior high school where the researcher worked as a teacher. I. ‧ 國. 學. met Jenny in the screening interview for the Short-Term Exchange Visit Program, which. ‧. is a kind of short-term SA program held by the HsinChu Bureau of Education. Her. sit. y. Nat. positive attitude and calm expression in the interview clearly revealed her confidence in. io. er. English speaking and her aspiration for participating in the program.. Jenny was enthusiastic about this short-term visit to the U.S. Her mother informed. al. n. v i n her of this program in HsinChu CityCwhen she was still inU h e n g c h i the elementary school. After. that, in order to win the chance, she started to do some preparation for the screening test including reading many English novels and trying to memorize a large amount of vocabulary. Competing with the other 20 applicants, Jenny got the highest score at the reading and listening sections of the test and her oral skills in the screening interview outperformed other candidates. Her excellent performance impressed all the teachers and finally she was successfully selected as the school representative of this short-term exchange visit program. This trip was her first time abroad, so she really looked forward to it before the trip. 26.

(38) The context The Short-Term Exchange Visit Program was an extension of the language learning programs sponsored by the HsinChu Bureau of Education. It was designed to broaden students’ horizons as well as to enhance their English learning through a 12-day cultural visit in Cupertino, California. In this group, there were 23 high school students (from both junior high and senior high schools in HsinChu) in total, each of whom was selected as the only one school representative for this English learning program. They left for. 政治大 program attended high school classes in Cupertino with their host brothers or sisters in the 立 Cupertino, California for the cultural visit in October, 2011. The participants of the. morning to experience the learning environment in the U.S. In the afternoon, they could. ‧ 國. 學. stay with their host brothers or sisters to take part in some extra-curriculum activities such. ‧. as sports. Some cultural lessons or visits were also arranged in the afternoon. At night. sit. y. Nat. they would spend time with their host families. This program aimed to provide students. io. er. with extended experience with the American language and culture which many Taiwanese students as EFL learners did not have the opportunities to be exposed to.. n. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Data Collection To explore how Jenny’s experiences before, during, and after her short-term study trip to the U.S. reveal challenges involved in the process and her identity change, three main data collection methods, semi-structured interviews, diaries, and documentation were adopted. Informal conversations with Jenny’s mother were also documented. It is hoped that through utilizing these instruments, a picture of participant identity and her learning process can be co-constructed. 27.

(39) Semi-structured Interviews Since interview is regarded as one of the major sources of case study information (Yin, 2003), three one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of Jenny’s experiences. Semi-structured interview is a kind of interview that gives the interviewee a degree of power and control while the interviewer has a great deal of flexibility and a “privileged access to other people’s lives” (Nunan, 1992, p.150). The three interviews (pre-SA, post-SA and follow-up) all lasted for. 政治大 semi-structured interviews with a pre-designed but highly flexible set of questions to 立 around one hour and were captured by a recorder. The researcher conducted the. probe into the research topic in depth. The interview questions (see Appendixes) were. ‧ 國. 學. developed and synthesized from the literature. Besides those specified in Appendixes,. ‧. many more follow-up questions were also asked to have the participant clarify or. sit. y. Nat. elaborate on certain details. When something worthy of discussing emerged in the first or. io. er. second interview, the researcher would make sure to address the issue in the next interview. During the data-collection process, new themes and issues that emerged were. al. n. v i n also discussed with the participant. C The three interviews were h e n g c h i U designed to capture the dynamic nature of the interaction between learner identity and language learning;. therefore, some of the similar questions were repeated to capture if any changes had happened. The first interview, i.e., the pre-SA interview, was conducted in July, 2010. Questions related to the participant’s prior English learning experiences, her images of Cupertino, California, the people, and the culture of the U.S., and her expectations of this upcoming visit were asked. The pre-visit interview questions are included in Appendix A. The second interview, i.e., the post-SA interview, was conducted immediately (no more than one week) after the participant returned from the U.S. in November, 2011. This 28.

(40) interview invited the participant to elaborate on her experiences and feelings in the foreign context. The researcher discussed with her what she wrote in her diaries and invited her to reflect on her experiences. By conducting the post-SA interview, the researcher attempted to understand what challenges she encountered in the foreign context and how the challenges affected her perceptions of her identity, English learning, and her imagined American community. The data from the post- SA interview were also used to compare and contrast with those from the pre- SA interview and diaries. The questions for the post- SA interview are attached in Appendix B. To achieve a deeper. 政治大 bring the photos she took during the trip to tell stories in the post-visit interview. The data 立 understanding of her experiences and perceptions, the researcher also asked Jenny to. gathered from the photo-mediated story-telling sessions were used for data-triangulation.. ‧ 國. 學. The third interview, the follow-up interview, was conducted in February, 2012,. ‧. three months after the participant came back to Taiwan. In this interview, the main issues. sit. y. Nat. explored was the changes of her view toward the task of English learning and how she. io. er. identifies herself as an English learner. Her images of the place, the people, and the culture of America and how those images differ from her previous impression were also. al. n. v i n the focus of this interview. The C questions in the third interview are listed in Appendix C. hengchi U Besides interviews with Jenny, informal conversations with Jenny’s mother were. also arranged to gather information from her parents' perspective for later dada-triangulation. This was to ensure trustworthiness of this study.. Diaries Dairies were kept by Jenny every day during her time in the U.S., providing a fuller understanding of the experience and her perspectives on those events that happened during SA. According to Bailey and Ochsner (1983), a diary study is “an account of a 29.

(41) second language experience as recorded in a first-person journal” (p.189). It is introspective in nature and can be used as the source of information about learners’ beliefs and feelings (Bailey 1980; Polanyi 1995). With introspection or retrospection, Jenny documented the events and her interpretations of the events during her time abroad. As for the language used in the diary (and interviews), due to the participant’s basic-level English proficiency and her shared L1 with the researcher, the choice of Mandarin is justifiable (Pavlenko, 2007), although the participant was given the choice to write either in English or Chinese as long as she could fully express herself. Jenny, as an active. 政治大 English writing. Through the diaries the researcher can understand Jenny's experiences in 立 learner, eventually chose English to keep her diary because she is eager to improve her. the U.S. from the insider’s point of view.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Documentation. y. Nat. er. io. sit. In addition to her diaries, Jenny’s photos, travel logs and a collection of her works like homework assignments or reports during the 12-day study tour were collected.. al. n. v i n C hto help Jenny recallUevery interesting anedote that Photos taken during the trip were used engchi. happened and to have a glimpse of her interaction with host family members, schoolmates, and other native speakers. Some official documents such as the program objectives, class schedule, and curriculum descriptions were also included and documented for data analysis and triangulation. It is believed that these existing documents could shed lights on the research topic. Procedures The data collection for this study lasted for eight months, from July 2011 to February 2012. In July, 2011, three months before the participant’s trip, the first interview 30.

(42) was conducted. This interview aimed for the participant’s prior English learning experiences, her images of English native speakers, and her expectations of this upcoming visit. In the end of October 2011, the participant left for her 12-day study visit to the U.S. During the trip abroad, diaries documenting Jenny’s experiences, thoughts, and reactions to events were kept in written form. Other documentation like Jenny’s photos, her assignments or reports and all the official documents related to this study tour were collected as well. After Jenny returned, the diary and documentation data were collected. Right after (no more than a week) the participant returned from the trip in November,. 政治大 challenges or difficulties she encountered were the focus of this interview. In February 立 2011, the second interview was conducted. Her experiences in the U.S., especially the. 2012, three months after the trip, a follow-up interview was conducted. In this interview,. ‧ 國. 學. questions concerning changes of her attitude or views toward English learning, her. ‧. identity, and her impression of American culture were asked. Finally, all the data from the. sit. y. Nat. diaries, three interviews, and documentation were gathered for further analysis. The. io. n. al. er. overall picture of the procedures of data collection in this study is visualized in Table1.. Ch. engchi. 31. i n U. v.

(43) Table 1. An overall picture of the procedures of data collection Time. Activity. Focus. July, 2011. Pre-SA interview. prior English learning experiences. Oct.-Nov., 2011. Participant diaries. the 12-day visit. Nov., 2011. Post-SA interview. 1. collection of the diary and all the related documentation 2. elaborate her experiences and reactions in the foreign contex. Feb., 2012. Follow-up. 立. interview. ‧ 國. English learning and herself as an English learner. 學. Data-analysis. ‧. Feb.,2012~. 治 of her views toward the 政 changes 大abroad, the task of experiences. sit. y. Nat. Coder checking. io. n. al. er. Member checking. Ch. engchi. Data Analysis. i n U. v. The data in the present study was analyzed in the so-called “classic ethnographic style”; in other words, it relied heavily on “the identification and categorization of key themes, perspectives and events, working towards an account that embraces adequate description and interpretation, which may include amongst other things extracts from fieldnotes, narrative vignettes and samples of talk” (Richard, 2003, p. 14-15). The actual data analysis procedure is presented here. First, the three semi-structured interviews were transcribed and analyzed. During the analysis, the researcher first tried to reconstruct the 32.

(44) participant’s experiences using her diaries, the interview data, and the documentation collected. Then the researcher categorized her experiences and perceptions based on emerging themes related to the research questions. A colleague with TESOL background was invited to code the raw data with the researcher to ensure trustworthiness of the study. First, the colleague and the researcher coded the data from the interviews and participant diaries separately. Then we compared and triangulated the classifications. For those inconsistent data classification, they discussed until the agreement was reached. For example, when coding the incident of Jenny’s accent being regarded as “cute”, the two. 政治大 how to classify it. After discussion, when all the agreements were reached, all the themes 立. coders had different opinions about whether it carried a positive or negative meaning and. derived from the pre-SA interview, post-SA interview, follow-up interview, diaries and. ‧ 國. 學. photo story-telling sessions were all examined and triangulated again. Just as what. ‧. Richards (2003) suggested to obtain data “from different time, space or person. sit. y. Nat. perspectives” (p. 251), besides triangulation of methods, triangulation of perspectives. io. the study.. er. (perspectives from Jenny and her mother) was also conducted to add trustworthiness to. al. n. v i n C h that “reflexive U Cho and Trent (2006) suggested member checking seeks to engchi. illuminate a better representation of the lived experience of the participants being studied” (p.322). During the process of data-analyzing and writing-up of this thesis, the participant was also invited to participate in an ongoing conversation with the researcher. That is, the researcher rephrased or elaborated the participant’ statements back to her for confirmation in order to make her points clear. Through this member checking process, the participant contributed directly to the analysis (Kinberger, 2004; Pvlenko, 2007) and ensured the analysis as appropriate and accurate as possible. Besides, all the data from diaries and interviews were coded based on the three defining characteristics of identity in Norton (2000). Norton’s definition of identity has 33.