Using E-Journals to Assess Students' Language Awareness and Social Identity during Study Abroad

Abstract: This article reports on a study that explored the use of e-journals to understand through students' personal narratives what factors (gender, living situation, classroom dynamic, social network) may have influenced their learning during the study abroad semester. Pretests on language measures were compared with posttest results, and information was gleaned from students' journal entries to assess possible relationships between a student's language gains and the development of his or her social identity during study abroad. In view of the call for more targeted assessment of program goals and learning outcomes by accrediting bodies in higher education, e-journals are proposed as a means of closely following students' progress and the factors that may be affecting their learning in the study abroad context. Key words: Spanish, e-journals, language awareness, social identity, social networks, study abroad Introduction Recent research in second language acquisition (SLA) has highlighted the complex nature of the acquisition of the second language (L2) in the context of study abroad (SA) (Freed, 1995a, 1995b; Freed, Dewey, Segalowitz, & Halter, 2004; Isabelli- Garcia, 2006; Kinginger, 2004, 2008; Lafford, 2004; Magnan, 2007). Whereas Carroll's (1967) seminal study found that ''even brief time spent abroad had a potent effect on a student's language skills'' (p. 131), 40 years later studies are showing that there is substantial variation in individual performance. Some students show minimal language gains after a semester abroad, while others appear to make significant gains even during shorter periods of stay. At the same time the scope of what might be considered ''language gains'' has broadened to include studies on pronunciation, pragmatics, and fluency in a variety of constructs, not solely grammatical accuracy and lexical breadth. In addition, there has been a move away from what is strictly quantitative and experimental to what is qualitative and exploratory in order to determine what sociocultural factors might shed light on the complex nature of language acquisition in the L2 context (Firth & Wagner, 1997). Newer research shows the role of culture and of personal identity in language learning to be paramount in understanding the learner's experience. For these reasons, the design of some recent studies has included learner narratives as a means of elucidating the contextual and individual factors involved in language learning in SA (Isabelli-Garcia, 2006; Kinginger, 2004, 2008). What has become apparent through this recent research is that students who go abroad face greater challenges in becoming fluent and grammatically accurate than did students a generation ago. In those days, SA most often meant spending an academic year in the target country in a homestay with non-English-speaking hosts, enrolling in an advanced study program, and relying entirely on regular mail for communication with home. Primarily language majors studied abroad, and one's purpose was to become fluent in the language and knowledgeable about the target country's civilization and literature. That scenario barely resembles the SA experience of American college students today. In 2006- 2007, only 7.2% of American SA students were language majors compared to 9.3% in 1996-1997, while the total number of SA students increased from 99,448 to 241,791 during the same time frame. Whereas in 1996-1997, 10.7% spent a full academic year abroad, in 2006-2007 only 4.3% did (Bhandari & Chow, 2008, p. 67). Today students often go to the same program as a cohort; travel extensively on the weekends with English-speaking peers; spend substantial time on e-mail, Facebook, and Skype (an Internet phone service); and often entertain parents and friends who come to visit from the States. As Kinginger (2007) found, ''Students' home social networks remain perfectly intact and impervious to influences from the foreign culture'' (p. …