Andrew Smith and Dr. Jennifer Bown, Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages
Introduction
The study abroad experience as an opportunity to increase learning about a foreign language and culture is becoming more popular in the United States (Gore, 2005; Kinginger, 2009). As a part of this expansion in education, study abroad to the Middle East is growing year after year. Many of these students are embarking on study abroad to Arabic speaking countries with the purpose of making language gains in Arabic. Enrollments in Arabic classes expanded by 126% between 2002 and 2006 (Furman, Goldberg, & Lusin, 2007).
However, immersing oneself in a different culture through study abroad comes with unique challenges that cause stress. One such stress encountered by most students studying abroad is creating quality speaking opportunities with native speakers, and the difficulty of creating these opportunities could increase based on gender. For example, Ishmael (2010) noted that female students studying abroad in Arab countries felt their social opportunities were limited in comparison to their male counterparts. One female student from this study actually said, “I am limited because I am a girl.” Through the use of qualitative and quantitative data, this paper explores the ways females are limited in their speaking experiences in comparison to their male counterparts.
Materials/Methods
Participants of this study included 52 students (20 females and 32 males) who studied abroad in Amman, Jordan for 16 weeks during the fall semester of 2011. Data for the research came from their pre- and post-program Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) scores, daily speaking reports, weekly speaking journals, and an anonymous exit survey. Daily reports about speaking asked the students to report on the time they spent speaking for that day, the time spent finding people with whom to speak, the time they spoke alone i.e. without the accompaniment of another student, as well as their engagement and satisfaction level on a seven-point scale. Weekly speaking journals consisted of two parts. Students evaluated their fluency, accuracy, communication, finding efforts, comprehension levels, and overall experience on seven-point scales. Students then wrote a journal entry discussing their speaking successes, hardships, future goals, etc….
The data collected in the journals was averaged and ran in linear regression models to find correlations between the different data sets. A team of both male and female research assistants used the qualitative methods for analysis as outlined by Corbin and Strauss (2008) to analyze the written responses and interviews. These undergraduate research assistants utilized the Saturate application to collaborate and code the data according to common themes. The results of the qualitative data were used to support findings of the quantitative data.
Results
From a quantitative perspective, the data showed that male and female students did not differ in their ability to complete the two hour a day speaking assignment, the amount of time spent speaking alone, percent time spent finding speaking partners, satisfaction with speaking experiences, engagement during conversations with Arabs, their final OPI score, or the progress they made on the OPI (See figure 3). The data objectively show that men and women similarly speak and make language gains while studying abroad. However, from a qualitative perspective, the journals showed that female students speak more in private, such as in a home, while male students speak more in public. This correlation was attributed to both the increase number of men in public and sexual harassment (defined as everything from groping to catcalling), which was expressed by every girl on the program. One female student reported that the hardest thing about being in Jordan was “having a good attitude about Jordanians because of the harassment from Jordanian men.” Another female student explained that she felt like she had “to control everything” all of them time. She said, “You get tired of watching where you are and thinking about everything when you are on the street, while in the US you are just free.”
This correlation showed through the journal entries as girls struggled in the beginning to find speaking partners. Once they had enough time to make friends however, they began to have an easier time fulfilling the speaking requirement. In their later journal entries, many of the girls expressed what this female student felt when she said, “I’m super bummed to be leaving right now because I feel like I just barely solidified friendships here.”
Discussion
Knowing how gender mediates speaking opportunities for students studying abroad in the Middle East shows the need to prepare students to find people with whom to speak. For example, this project indicates the initial difficulty some women have in finding friends as well as the importance of helping these students to study abroad programs. This can be accomplished in a way similar to what this program did, that is incorporating students into a social environment like a university or gym. The data also shows the difficulty western women have with assimilating to culture and finding people to speak to in the Middle East because almost every female student reported some kind of sexual harassment (from catcalling to groping) during their sojourn abroad. Study abroad programs should be sensitive to this issue in order to help female students cope with their new environment and persevere to find friends. This will hopefully prepare them to find speaking opportunities that are both high quality and fitting in the culture.
Future projects could focus on how opportunities open up to men and women who stay longer in the Middle East. This project examined students who were in the Middle East for sixteen weeks. However, towards the end of the program, many students expressed that they were starting to find more people to talk to (particularly the female students). It would be interesting to be able to follow students who lived in the Middle East for six months or even a year to see if and how speaking opportunities opened up to them. For example, would more men be invited over to an Arab home? Would the women be able to more adapt to being a western woman in Arab culture and be more apt to speaking in public? With questions like these answered, study abroad programs will become more equipped to help American students adjust to the new culture and learn their target language.
References
- Corbin, J., Strauss, A. (2008). Basics of Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Furman, N., Goldberg, D., & Lusin, N. (2007). Enrollments in languages other than English in United States institutions of higher education. Modern Language Association.
- Gore, J. E. (2005). Dominant beliefs and alternative voices: Discourse, belief, and gender in American study abroad. Routledge: New York.
- Ishmael, A. (2010, March). Studying abroad in the Arabic-speaking world: Gender perspectives. Paper presented at the Georgetown University Roundtable on Linguistics, Washington, DC.
- Kinginger, C. (2009). Language learning and study abroad: A critical reading of research. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.