学术活动发布与订制系统

The number of students who venture abroad has increased dramatically in recent years and many feel profoundly changed by the experience. All too often, however, they return home and, without adequate support and encouragement, they soon ‘shoebox’ their learning. Valuable opportunities for deeper intellectual integration and L2 enhancement are then lost, and others in the home community do not benefit from their experience. How then can we enrich and extend the learning (e.g., language, cultural, academic, personal development) of returnees? This session focuses on the design and delivery of a new web-enhanced course at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) that is based on the findings of a series of investigations of Chinese sojourners. The course is open to English majors and students in all Faculties who have had recent international experience (study abroad, international exchange, volunteering, service learning, internships, educational travel, work or residence abroad). This credit-bearing course, which follows an outcomes-based approach (OBA), provides returnees with a forum to exchange ideas about their diverse international/ L2 experiences. The course explores theories and models of intercultural (communicative) competence and intercultural transitions, employing a practice-to-theory-to-practice pedagogy. In relation to their own (and others’) international experience, participants explore such topics as language/culture shock, intercultural adjustment, reentry, identity expansion, and intercultural/ sociopragmatic competence in an L2. This process encourages them to use their own data to test and apply existing theories and research. Through critical reflection, reading, discussion, and writing (e.g., discussion forums, blogs, narratives), students develop a deeper understanding of their international/L2 experience and discover ways to incorporate it into their campus life and post-graduation plans (e.g., set concrete goals for future L2 enhancement/ intercultural contact). Near the end of the course, the students do group presentations to share their insights with students who are thinking about or planning to go on exchange. This session highlights the benefits of designing a research-driven, learner-centered curriculum that prompts extensive self-reflection, analysis, and writing to help students make the most of the time spent in the host speech community.

Jane Jackson is Professor in the English Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) where she teaches applied linguistics/ intercultural communication courses and supervises PhD research. She received her Ph.D. in applied linguistics/ cross-cultural communication from the University of Toronto and M.Ed. in bilingual (French-English) education from the University of Calgary. She has more than thirty years of experience in applied linguistics, intercultural communication, and TESOL teacher education and has worked in Canada, Egypt, Oman, the U.S., and greater China. Prior to arriving in Hong Kong in 1995, she was the Director of the TESOL Centre at Saint Mary’s University in Canada. In Beijing, she served as a consultant for a teacher education program linked to the Canada-China Language and Cultural Development Project.

Professor Jackson is an elected fellow of the International Academy of Intercultural Research and a member scholar of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology. She serves on the editorial board or manuscript review panels of many applied linguistics/ intercultural communication journals. Her research interests include intercultural communication, sociopragmatics, L2 identities, reticence and anxiety, and education abroad learning. With the support of competitive research/ teaching development grants, she has been investigating the language and (inter)cultural learning of study abroad students and designing innovative courses to enhance their learning. She is the recipient of numerous research and teaching honors, including the 2009 ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award’ at CUHK.