This document discusses challenges and opportunities for students studying abroad to have cultural encounters and experiences. It considers how concepts like cultural self-awareness, cultural impressions, and ethnographic research can help students understand other cultures during their time overseas. The document poses questions about how language acquisition relates to intercultural learning during study abroad programs and how universities can best support students' language development and cultural understanding through their international experiences.

1. EEP Workshop discussions
Image: Ellie Edwards (2012). Day of the Dead in Mexico.
Modern Languages, University of Southampton.

2. Cultural encounters,
ethnography and the
student researcher

3. Initial discussion:
• What counts as a ‘cultural encounter’
• Which would be the ‘ideal’ type of cultural encounter we’d like our
students to experience?
• And do they? In your experience, what challenges and/or opportunities
do our students have abroad in this respect?
• What can we understand by “culture shock”? What role (if any)
does/would this play in understanding cultural exchange?
Examples from the Langsnap data…

4. The self, the other and space we share.
Image: Juley Somougli (2014). Too Tall to be Mexican.
Modern Languages, University of Southampton.

5. From “cultural impressions” to
Ethnography

6. Share your views:
• How can we ease the process of understanding concepts such as the
“cultural-self”, “otherness”?
• Is ethnography the alternative? Should we encourage ethnography?
• How can we prepare students to take up the challenge of ethnographic
research?
• Are there other means to achieve ‘ethnographic’ understanding?
• How do we support students in integrating research into their experiences
while they are away?
Examples from returning students…

7. Achievements and challenges ahead
Image: Juley Somougli (2014). Problem solving skills: My working space.
Modern Languages, University of Southampton.

8. The student researcher
CONCLUSIONS.

9. Connecting language
acquisition and
intercultural learning in the
Year Abroad

10. Questions to consider
• How are the processes of language acquisition and intercultural learning
related?
• Do students who engage more in research during their Residence Abroad also
show more improvement in their language skills?
• How do we support students in developing language skills and intercultural
learning while they are away?
• How are these processes influenced by the transformation of the digital
landscape and connections students may have before and after the residence
abroad?