Researching whole people and whole lives
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James A. Coleman
Abstract
In tracing the author’s own emerging insights into study abroad, this chapter contextualizes key aspects of the phenomenon. It queries widely accepted approaches and instruments, and asks whether, in attempting to achieve significant generalizations, we have sometimes distorted reality by narrowing our definitions and our measures, and by leaving crucial information unconsidered or even unstated. The chapter challenges the legitimacy of the expression “the study abroad context”, arguing that both contextual and individual variation contribute, together with social networks, to the essential fluidity and complexity of the study abroad experience. Elements of a recent long-term study illustrate a more comprehensive perspective.
Abstract
In tracing the author’s own emerging insights into study abroad, this chapter contextualizes key aspects of the phenomenon. It queries widely accepted approaches and instruments, and asks whether, in attempting to achieve significant generalizations, we have sometimes distorted reality by narrowing our definitions and our measures, and by leaving crucial information unconsidered or even unstated. The chapter challenges the legitimacy of the expression “the study abroad context”, arguing that both contextual and individual variation contribute, together with social networks, to the essential fluidity and complexity of the study abroad experience. Elements of a recent long-term study illustrate a more comprehensive perspective.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgement ix
-
Part I. Orientation
- Introduction 3
- Researching whole people and whole lives 17
-
Part II. Qualitative and case studies
- Self-regulatory strategies of foreign language learners 47
- “Opening up to the world”? 75
- Politics of identification in the use of lingua francas in student mobility to Finland and France 101
- An American in Paris 127
- Exploring the potential of high school homestays as a context for local engagement and negotiation of difference 155
- The transformation of “a frog in the well” 179
-
Part III. Pragmatics and identity
- “I joke you don’t” 207
- Getting over the hedge 239
- Identity and honorifics use in Korean study abroad 269
- A corpus-based study of vague language use by learners of Spanish in a study abroad context 299
- Afterword 333
- Name index 337
- Subject index 343
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgement ix
-
Part I. Orientation
- Introduction 3
- Researching whole people and whole lives 17
-
Part II. Qualitative and case studies
- Self-regulatory strategies of foreign language learners 47
- “Opening up to the world”? 75
- Politics of identification in the use of lingua francas in student mobility to Finland and France 101
- An American in Paris 127
- Exploring the potential of high school homestays as a context for local engagement and negotiation of difference 155
- The transformation of “a frog in the well” 179
-
Part III. Pragmatics and identity
- “I joke you don’t” 207
- Getting over the hedge 239
- Identity and honorifics use in Korean study abroad 269
- A corpus-based study of vague language use by learners of Spanish in a study abroad context 299
- Afterword 333
- Name index 337
- Subject index 343
