On the Nature of Immersion During Study Abroad: Some Participant Perspectives

Abstract

The Valcourt program founded in 1990 with the aim of supplementing existing semester and academic-year programs available through Collegiate University and providing an opportunity for students with as little as two semesters of language instruction to study in France. In this article, perspectives from Molise and Ashley, who along with five other participants from Collegiate, agreed to serve as informants in a qualitative research project which sought to understand–from their point of view–the transition they were making from language learning in an American classroom to language use in Valcourt and back again. The resulting data show, among other things, how truly unique each participant’s perspective can be, even when backgrounds seem similar.