Project Perseverance and Arabic Study Abroad

Study abroad is widely touted as a shortcut to linguistic fluency. As a result, students often begin their overseas experience with unrealistic expectations and then resort to avoidance behavior when they are blindsided by unanticipated challenges to their identity, such as feeling that they appear incompetent as they struggle to express themselves in the second language (L2). A variety of interventions can facilitate greater student engagement. This essay reports on Project Perseverance, which began as an effort to help fifty-two students maximize the benefit of their semester of intensive Arabic study in Jordan. Pre- and postprogram oral proficiency scores indicate that most students began at Intermediate Low or Mid and reached Intermediate High or Advanced Low. Students’ reflections on their experience in learning journals and an exit survey highlight interventions that led to greater self-efficacy and illustrate how some were able to make remarkable progress that could not have been predicted from preprogram scores. The ability to emotionally self-regulate appears to be a key factor. This study has significant professional development implications and underscores the importance of program directors and teachers adjusting to student needs and facilitating higher-quality speaking opportunities than students are likely to randomly encounter. Most students of Arabic report that they want to reach “professional-level” proficiency (Belnap and Nassif 2011, 5). This is wishful thinking unless a student perseveres in studying the language. There is no substitute for time on task and for authentic cultural interaction; in-country intensive study is therefore typically essential for students to realize their goal of higher levels of proficiency. Research indicates that the benefits of study abroad (SA) are, indeed, far-ranging. Among the documented benefits of SA are increased linguistic proficiency (Baker-Smemoe et al. 2014; Brecht, Davidson, and Ginsberg 1995; Ingraham and Peterson 2004; Vande Berg, Connor-Linton, and Paige 2009), increased self-confidence and self-efficacy (Cubillos and Ilvento 2012; Dwyer, 2004; Milstein, 2005), intercultural sensitivity (Dwyer 2004; Kinginger 2013; Paige et al. 2009; Vande Berg, Connor-Linton, and Paige 2009; Williams 2005), and career attainment (Dwyer 2004; Ingraham and Peterson 2004). However, the challenges that students face abroad are also numerous and can significantly inhibit both linguistic and cultural growth. The experience of crossing cultures during SA engenders a significant amount of stress that involves coping with unfamiliar physical and psychological experiences (Cushner and Karim 2004; Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001). Real or perceived inability to communicate in a satisfactory manner can make it difficult for students to engage with the host culture (Engle and Engle 1999; Pellegrino Aveni 2005). The lack of language skills and cultural differences may hinder students from forming meaningful relationships with native speakers (Dewey, Belnap, and Hillstrom, 2012–13; Dewey et al. 2013). Some learners turn away from the host culture and instead strengthen ties and spend far more time with co-nationals than they planned (Mendelson 2004; Trentman 2013; Wilkinson 2002). In order to lessen the effects of culture shock and other psychological distress, a number of researchers (e.g., Engle and Engle 1999; Nichols 2014; Trentman 2012, 2013; Vande Berg, Connor-Linton, and Paige 2009) have documented the value of training and other interventions that may help learners to make more of their SA experience. Likewise, well-designed overseas programs include numerous provisions that facilitate a positive entry into the target culture and a maximally productive study experience throughout the duration of students’ in-country stay. For example, Trentman concluded that “sustained, program-facilitated access [specifically, native-speaker roommates committed to speaking Arabic and assisting their American roommates in gaining access to local social networks] is a crucial program contribution to the study abroad experience particularly for short-term programs” (2012, 353). Scholars and practitioners have suggested a number of potential programmatic interventions to help learners “move beyond the safety of their group and venture into unfamiliar territory” (Jackson 2006, 93). Promising interventions include requiring learners to participate in extracurricular activities and service opportunities (Engle and Engle 1999; Kinginger 2011), to conduct ethnographic research projects while in country (Jackson 2006; Kinginger 2011), and to keep blogs or other journals during their sojourn (Lee 2011, 2012). Jackson (2006) and Kinginger (2011) both highlight the importance of teaching learners the skills of observation and introspection. Findings suggest that these interventions promote social interaction during SA as well as increased intercultural development. Even a near-perfect program design is no guarantee of student success. It is ultimately the students’ responsibility to choose to engage and remain engaged, but programs can do much to help their students learn to manage their affective responses as well as cope with the various cultural differences they may encounter during SA (Jackson 2006; Kinginger 2013; Lee 2011, 2012). In particular, the literature suggests that predeparture orientation and training can help to ease the transition and thus improve learning outcomes (Kruse and Brubaker 2007; Ryan and Twibell 2000; Vande Berg, Connor-Linton, and Paige 2009). Vande Berg, Connor-Linton, and Paige (2009) especially emphasized the benefits of including a cultural component in the predeparture orientation. To this end, Paige et al. (2009) developed training materials for study abroad learners, Maximizing Study Abroad , which are meant to be used before departure, during the SA program, and following reentry to the home country. Among the interventions suggested are helping learners to manage their expectations and goals for SA, both before and during the program. Pellegrino Aveni (2005) also wisely called for training a wider circle of key people, such as home-stay providers, who will regularly interact with the students in the host country. The literature suggests that a variety of program interventions may be effective at promoting language use and acquisition while abroad. The two primary purposes of this essay are to describe one program’s efforts to help learners stay focused and actively engage in the host culture while abroad, and to report on learners’ responses to those efforts and provide some evidence indicating whether or not these interventions were effective for at least some students. All of this could be instructive for various types of domestic and overseas language programs seeking to help their learners become effective self-regulating learners.