Wenhao DiaoMay 16 2009.ppt

Wenhao Diao May 16 2009 Study abroad = linguistic + cultural gains? Linguistic: fluency gains only (e.g.Freed, 1995) Cultural challenges: Intercultural sensitivity (Wilkinson, 1998) Fear of self-presentation in L2 (Pellegrino, 2005) Social cultural conflicts (Kinginger, 2008) Study Abroad in China? China: the “new hot spot” What does it mean to study abroad in China? Learning a language in classroom? Studying abroad in China? Language is contextual Voloshinov: verbal communication can never be understood and explained outside of … connection with a concrete situation Bakhtin: it is inseparable from the total situation of the utterance to the same extent that it is inseparable from linguistic elements Gramsci: there is nothing fixed, rigid, and indefinite … and there never will be Norms as a system of a standard voice Bakhtin: Hetereoglossia “a system of linguistic forces” Gramsci: Norms are an instrument to unify individuals A justification of Mandarin Chinese in pedagogy Access to a minimum comprehension Bakhtin: a system of elementary forms guaranteeing a minimum level of comprehension in practical communication Access to a maximum comprehension Bakhtin: “[the unitary voice] as a force for overcoming this heteroglossia, …guaranteeing a certain maximum of mutual understanding The safest social marker Gramsci: [language] is a ‘choice’, a cultural index, and is always, for that reason, a cultural-political act Encountering social hetereoglossia Discontinuity of the standardized voice The unitary voice is not the totality of the language Pronouncing one’s foreign voice Foreign voice is distinctive from other voices The foreign voice is less comprehensible Each individual constructs a hetereoglossia within him-/her-self Extraverbal elements in a dialogic relation The physical foreign-ness speaks for the voice A case study Participant Steve: 3rd year American college student. Caucasian male. Studied abroad in both urban and rural China (Shanghai, Beijing, Sichuan and