In this qualitative study, 26 university students reflected on their experiences in domestic or international study away programs. Utilizing a sociocultural developmental framework, we examined perceived changes in identity in relation to salient aspects of the sociocultural context and social interactions during and after study away. Students…

The present study seeks to offer insights into how former study abroad students, temporally beyond the period of initial re-entry into their home environments, perceive Spanish as a foreign language in their lives now. This post-sojourn period is explored within the framework of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2009) and the expanded…

This paper examines Chinese (n = 11) and Spanish (n = 11) student teachers' learning-to-teach experiences during the teaching practicum or placement period through the lenses of transformative learning theory and third space construct. We traced student teachers' transformative learning experiences through observation, interviews, reflective…

This study examines the popularity of "intellectual risk-taking," a pedagogical term that typically describes when a student attempts a new way to learn and risks receiving a lower grade or being perceived as less competent by a teacher (Beghetto), risks facing public criticism by peers (Foster), or risks losing a personal belief or…

The purpose of the study is to explore how the digital brand story assignment creates a transformative learning experience for students. This study involves assessing the levels of learning according to Mezirow's transformational learning theory through the development of digital brand stories. The authors have tested the Digital Brand…

We charted how one educator's use of proleptic language--or language that invoked students' imagined future identities as if they are fully realized in the present--situated students in communities of academic and professional practice, both within the tangible community of the classroom and within those intangible communities consisting of…

This paper presents qualitative research examining to what extent sojourns abroad engage their participants in intercultural interactions and whether or not such experience translates into students' intercultural growth. The results of the study demonstrated that studying abroad did not provide students with ample opportunities to immerse into the…

Adopting a qualitative case study methodology, the present study illuminates how two multilingual students enrolled in a U.S. community college ESL class negotiated the sociocultural norms valued in their multiple communities to make investment in learning English in college. Drawing on Gee's theory of Discourse and identity (1996) and Norton's…

The framework of perspective transformation (Mezirow, 1994) provides a rich context for the conceptualization of technology use in language and culture learning. Although others have focused on the processes of becoming interculturally competent (Taylor, 1994) and changing language structures (Foster, 1997), more exploration of how technology aids…

A study followed for a year or more the internal experiences of learning and change of 41 adult basic education/English as a second language learners enrolled in these 3 programs: community college, family literacy site, and workplace site. It focused on learners' meanings as the starting point for exploration and used a developmental lens to…