Evans, Jennifer Robyn

Neigert, Miriam

Feez, Susan

Tasker, Isabel

Morgan, Anne-Marie

2025-03-25

<p>This thesis explores perceived long-term influences of in-country language (ICL) study abroad programs. It examines two long-running ICL programs conducted in regional Australia between 1995 and 2015 at high school and university levels. Perceptions of their long-term influences are explored through thematic analysis and complexity theory. The resulting themes relate to language learning, intercultural development and personal growth in individuals, and broader influences on families, institutions and communities.</p> <p>Complexity theory provides a metatheoretical framework for understanding the elements, processes and agents involved in ICL programs at micro, meso and macro levels, and the changing influences of these experiences over time. Using a ‘complexity lens’ highlights the heterogeneity, dynamism, nonlinearity and emergence which characterise ICL programsystems, and allows the close study of both individual program iterations and general patterns of language study abroad. </p> <p>The investigation presents a retrospective multiple case study from the perspectives of those involved, including students, host family members, teachers, administrative staff and institutional leaders. Through reflexive thematic analysis, qualitative data drawn from 86 surveys and 42 follow-up semi-structured interviews are used to develop the three themes which constitute the study’s research narrative. Within the themes, relationships are explored between a) goals and perceptions of program effectiveness, b) target language development and language use in immersive learning contexts, and c) in-country language-learning experiences, and personal and intercultural development. The study also examines the way participants perceived the influence of the ICL programs as extending beyond the temporal boundaries of the experience itself and beyond individual students to potentially affect the larger system. </p> <p>The study shows that both the high school and university in-country language programs examined were perceived to have the potential to influence long-term target language learning, intercultural understanding and personal development in individuals, families, institutions and communities. Perceived national and international benefits related to multiculturalism, economic prosperity, globalisation and diplomacy. Arising from the application of a complexity understanding to the analysis, the study offers recommendations for the development of ICL programs. These recommendations are intended to harness the potential of in-country language-learning experiences and maximise benefit for those directly involved and for the communities in which the programs are enacted. </p>

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/69179

en

University of New England

Ripples and reflections: Long-term perceptions of language study abroad programs in regional Australia (1995–2015)

Thesis Doctoral

Publication