American Students Abroad: Negotiation of Difference?
by Celeste Kinginger, Associate Professor of French and Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University
I will draw from a series of forthcoming case studies (“Language Learning in Study Abroad, Case studies of Americans in France,” Kinginger, 2008) to consider study abroad as a potentially identity-destabilizing experience involving negotiation of difference and upsetting taken-for-granted points of reference. These students often interpret their experiences through American discourses of gender, national identity, or educational tourism in ways that limit their appreciation of host cultures or appropriation of local practices. In the contemporary, short-term, globalized study abroad experience, negotiating difference, and investing in language learning in general, are matters of deliberate choice requiring significant commitment and perspicacity.
Friday, October 17, 2008
3:00-5:00 pm, B-4 Dwinelle Hall