Language Learning while Negotiating Race and Ethnicity Abroad

Despite institutional and national focus on the importance of study abroad (SA) in U.S. higher education, the number of students of color abroad is still disproportionately low (Institute of International Education, 2017). Moreover, there is limited literature examining how race and ethnicity shapes experiences abroad, despite SA research highlighting how identity negotiation influences language learning in the SA context (Kinginger, 2013). This study presents the cases of two U.S. students — an Iranian-American and an Africanand Mexican-American — studying in Spain. Through journals, interviews, surveys, and the Versant for Spanish oral test, this study illustrates how these participants rejected negative racial and ethnic positionings by withdrawing from host country nationals and eventually re-evaluating experiences to align with their desired identities. Both learners improved their Versant post-SA but their linguistic confidence in their Spanish language capabilities did not increase. The study concludes with implications for creating more inclusive and supportive SA programs. Study abroad has been heavily emphasized across higher education institutions, as evidenced by the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) initiative, Generation Study Abroad, which aims to double the number of U.S. students enrolled on a study abroad (SA) program by 2020. During the 2015-16 academic year, the number of U.S. students studying abroad in an academic program increased four percent over the previous year (Institute of International Education, 2017). The emphasis on study abroad stems from institutional and national goals to better prepare students for the global economy. From a linguistic standpoint, study abroad has been shown to aid several aspects of target language (TL) development. The findings from SA research in applied linguistics demonstrate that, across languages, improvements are often seen in the areas of lexical development (cf., Fitzpatrick, 2012; Jiménez, 2010), speaking and listening abilities (cf., Cubillos, Chieffo, & Fan, 2008; Mason, Powers, & Donnelly, 2015), and pragmatic competence (cf., Shively, 2011). While study abroad is considered an integral part of the U.S. higher education and language learning experience, it is surprising the low number of students of color who study abroad (Anya, 2017; Guerrero, 2006) and the fact that SA participants are still typically White, middle to upper class women (Picard, Bernardino, & Ehigiator, 2009). Of the approximately 325,339 U.S. students who studied abroad in 2015-16, only 28.4% were students of color (Institute of International Education, 2017). Meanwhile, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (2016), an estimated 40% of enrolled U.S. postsecondary students in fall 2014 were students of color. This article does not intend to address why students of color do or do not study abroad. Rather, this study aims to analyze how the reactions and interpretations of students of color may Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad Volume XXX, Issue 2, Spring 2018 ©2018 Tracy Quan. 33 differ from the more typical and overrepresented participant: a White female (Sweeney, 2013). More importantly, how does confronting racial and ethnic identities abroad by students of color serve as challenges or opportunities for language learning? With this information, institutions and practitioners can work towards diversifying the U.S. study abroad student population, better prepare and support students of color for their overseas programs, and create inclusive language learning curricula. This study presents the case of two U.S. university students, Vera and Caroline (pseudonyms), in Granada and Madrid, Spain. Vera, an Iranian American, and Caroline, an African and Mexican American, are considered students of color both in the U.S. context and in Spain. By exploring the experiences of these two focal participants, this study illustrates how students of color reflect upon their racial and ethnic identities, as well as their responses to those imposed subject positionings. Lastly, this analysis demonstrates how these learners’ reactions and interpretations can influence the overall quality of their language learning experiences abroad and the development of their L2 oral speaking abilities. Previous Research Identity and Language Learning Abroad The shift towards the social in applied linguistics has pushed for more critical and in-depth reflections of learners’ interactions and interpretations of their experiences abroad, moving beyond seeing language learners as data points to analyzing them as whole people (Coleman, 2013). An ongoing question in SA research is why students return from study abroad with varying linguistic, cultural, and personal gains (Kinginger, 2013). Why are some students more engaged in language learning than others abroad? This question is perhaps best understood in relation to identity, since how learners are positioned in language learning spaces abroad and how they interpret these actions depends on their identities (Kinginger, 2013). Summarizing Blackledge and Pavlenko’s work (2001), Block (2007) states that “identities are about negotiating new subject positions at the crossroads of past, present, and future” (p. 27). Therefore, identities are multiple, fluid, and sociohistorically shaped and constrained by ideologies (Darvin & Norton, 2015). Given the nature of study abroad, an individual’s identity may be destabilized as learners decide to negotiate, reject, or reaffirm differences between their claimed, desired, and ascribed identities. This process of identity negotiation affects one’s investment, or commitment, in language learning, language use, and attitudes. As Kinginger (2013) states, “what language students learn during study abroad depends upon the kinds of access to learning opportunities that they are able to negotiate, how they evaluate the performance of identity in the contexts they frequent, and which elements of language they choose to attend to and/or incorporate into their own communicative repertoires” (p. 352). All students abroad are subject to national, foreigner, gender, age, linguistic, and/or racial and ethnic identities (Block, 2007; Kinginger 2013). The focus of this study is to examine the role of race and ethnicity in particular as they impact language learning in the SA context, given how infrequent these topics appear in the literature on study abroad. This study defines race from a social science perspective, in which race is a social construction embedded in sociopolitical and sociohistorical contexts. Societies, cultures, and institutions have