Message sent. Message-received? Teachers and target community members decide

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe linguistic, social, and intercultural benefits of overseas experiences for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners continue to gain attention as the significance of English as a lingua franca proliferates. As the use of English for international communication increases, it is important to examine such interactions from multiple viewpoints. While previous studies have investigated various aspects of study abroad for EFL learners, the perspectives of target community members (TCMs) have often been overlooked. Therefore, this study investigated differences in EFL teacher and nonteacher TCM perceptions of five Japanese university study abroad students’ spoken pragmatic output. Students completed 10 oral discourse completion tasks before and after their one-semester study abroad. The EFL teacher and nonteacher TCM groups watched videos of and rated each task for formality and appropriateness. Findings showed the two groups perceived gains related to student speech and development. However, teachers rated on the pre-departure tasks lower but the post-tasks higher, while the TCMs did not identify as much improvement. Implications for students, teachers, and receiving communities are discussed.