“As a Person, I Feel I’ve Changed Pretty Immensely”: Sojourners’ Aspirations and Self-Perceived Achievements

Abstract

This article explores the interplay between learners’ linguistic and personal objectives as well as evaluations of their achievements in study-abroad contexts, an area that has thus far remained widely unexplored given the prevalence of product-oriented, outcomes-based research. The study draws on the case of one Canadian student of German who studied abroad at a German university for one year. To adopt an emic perspective, the data gained from a learning history questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and e-journals were analyzed and interpreted within the framework of narrative analysis. The results show not only that learners’ sojourn objectives may be complex, dynamic, and contradictory in nature but also that they need to be examined beyond their face value, as they are entangled with learners’ negotiations of desirable subject positions and attempts to integrate their sojourn experiences, successes, and frustrations in a coherent and positive life narrative.