Language Learning, Digital Communications and Study Abroad : Identity and Belonging in Translocal Contexts

This book argues for a view of study abroad as emergent of, and negotiated through, tensions between localised and globalised imaginaries of language, identity and place. By examining the experiences of a group of Japanese high school students during, and after, a year embedded in families and schools abroad in countries across Europe, Asia and North and South America, it provides the first in-depth exploration of the role of mobile communications technology in study abroad. This includes its facilitation of strategic language learning, host community participation and the construction of multilingual identities. The student accounts covered in this book explore a number of other critical issues in contemporary study abroad, including translanguaging practices, racialised identities, the role of the host family and the status of English as a lingua franca in multilingual environments. The results demonstrate the importance of understanding study abroad and related language learning as intersecting with global flows of people and information.

Levi Durbidge is a Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. He has been involved in language education across the secondary and tertiary sectors for more than two decades in both Australia and Japan. His research explores the intersections of transnational mobility, language learning and digital technology.