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Work while abroad: student diaries and profiles; making sense of experience
Index:
Assessment of personal gain Diaries
Fluency Profiling
Purpose of diary Significant
events Self-assessment Transferable/Career/Employment
skills Two countries
Assessment of personal
gain
Personal growth is commonly seen as an important outcome of residence abroad and as such deserves to be reflected upon. Assessment of personal gain is facilitated by profiling of concurrent experiential learning but raises the issue of reliability. The general feeling is that personal objectives are difficult to assess and accredit and therefore perhaps should not be presented as primary stated objectives.
Diaries
Keeping a diary or some other form of record helps make sense of experience. Diaries and logbooks can, however, be rather mundane and repetitive and are most beneficial when highly reflective records of not only linguistic progress but also cultural and personal development. Students should thus be told not to record everything but to note only what they perceive as significant events or turning points together with the skills developed as a result.
Fluency
The best way of improving oral fluency is to actively seek out opportunities to interact with and integrate into the local community. Possibilities include joining a football team, a band, etc., finding part-time employment in a bar or a restaurant, offering to help at church and enrolling in evening classes. Demonstrating an interest in the subject of a conversation, for instance by asking questions inviting your interlocutors to expand on what they have said, and asking for clarification when you have not understood something are useful strategies for keeping interactions going and maximising both the amount of language you hear and opportunities to practice the target language. It is important not to be afraid of making mistakes: even native speakers pause, hesitate, look for words and start again. Oral fluency also benefits from rehearsing/preparing for verbal exchanges, for instance by conducting imaginary mental conversations. Playing conversations back in one's mind is another helpful strategy. Every effort should be made to immerse oneself into the language by watching television, listening to the radio and pleasure reading. Assistants should investigate opportunities to sit in on classes in the establishments in which they teach. In universities it might be possible to get involved in tandem learning either by joining existing schemes or through private arrangements while in large towns and capital cities formal tuition may be available through bodies such as the British Institute and the Alliance française.
Profiling
Record keeping activities which involve students in defining their own objectives and evaluate their progress against these are popular means of getting students to try and make the most of RA. Best practice includes the issuing of guidelines on how to complete logbooks (e.g. record events as they happen, limit yourself to what you feel to be important, note what skills you have developed as a result) and when to return them for assessment. There is widespread agreement that the best way of assessing students' work would be to check logbooks at regular intervals but that it is not unfortunately practical to do so given constraints on staff time and resources
Purpose of diary
Diaries and logbooks are aids to reflection and are designed to help students become more aware of the skills they gain and more selective in the kind of activities they undertake. They are also a means of developing key transferable skills such as monitoring progress and sources of evidence of the enhancement of these skills.
Significant events
The main criterion for inclusion in a diary is that the event is viewed by the student as a milestone or turning point. It may be positive (e.g. getting a part-time job) or negative (e.g. encountering important comprehension problems) but will providence evidence of progress or help identify weaknesses that need to be remedied.
Self-assessment
Self-assessment should form an integral part of keeping a diary and should cover linguistic progress such as improvements in fluency, the development of intercultural competence and the development of transferable and career skills.
Transferable/Career/Employment skills
RA provides ample opportunities to both develop and monitor skills relevant to future employment. Best practice involves drawing students' attention to the kind of skills that employers look for and stressing the value of seeing RA as part of career development.
Two countries
Arrangements for students studying two languages vary. Some students divide residence abroad equally between the two countries, spending a semester in each; some spend the academic year in one country and the summer vacation in the other; others only go to one country. In the latter case, proficiency in the other language is likely to suffer, due to lack of practice. The other two patterns make for a better balance but switching abruptly from one language to another can be a problem. The transition can be difficult, especially as it means having to adjust to a new cultural environment and making new friends. In addition proficiency in the language of the first country is likely to decline and efforts should be made to combat this, for instance by attending courses in the first L2 or through reading or listening activities.
Students undertaking placements in two countries should include information from both in their diaries. Visiting two countries provides valuable opportunities to make comparisons and students should be encouraged to include such comparisons in their diaries.
Marie-Madeleine Kenning
University of East Anglia
3/11/99