A focus on ‘world English’ and emphasizing a destination’s diversity
Like many colleges, West Virginia University has long encouraged students to study in a linguistically diverse set of countries. But in recent years, there has been a decline in foreign-language study among the university’s students. And for first-generation students, language was an especially big roadblock — in a campus survey, 90 percent of students said they would not go to a non-English-speaking country, said Vanessa Crandall Yerkovich, director of education abroad.
Worried that students wouldn’t go abroad — as a state, West Virginia ranks 47th in the share of its college population that studies overseas — Yerkovich and her colleagues are trying a new approach focused on “world English,” the differences in dialect, accent, and vocabulary in English spoken around the globe.
Through a grant from World Learning, an international education and exchange nonprofit, West Virginia is starting a pilot project that will send underserved students on short-term programs to two English-speaking destinations, Jamaica and Wales. The first groups will travel over spring break this year.
Rather than a stand-alone trip, the international component is embedded in a first-year seminar for students from traditionally underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. Intercultural learning and other preparation for the trip is integrated into the curriculum, and students will travel with a professor, teaching assistant, and classmates who they know. Yerkovich hopes the familiar faces will help make international travel seem less intimidating.
“For some of these students, just going to Morgantown was a big deal,” she said of attending the flagship university. “So to get a passport and get on a plane is huge.”
Cost, along with language, was another big hurdle, and West Virginia is waiving tuition for the overseas program and seeking scholarships to cover students’ travel expenses.
To create the program, Yerkovich had many allies across campus, including the Office of Student Success and the department of world languages, literatures, and linguistics. She hopes that additional voices will reinforce the value of going abroad and that by blending the experience into a first-year course, students will see international education as essential to their studies.
While colleges are pushing to send a more diverse group of students overseas, Education New Zealand is working to attract underrepresented students as a study-abroad destination.
“How do we change the narrative away from just hobbits and beautiful scenery?” said DuBois Jennings, director of engagement for North America at the New Zealand government agency that promotes international education. He and his colleagues think New Zealand’s distinctive Maori culture could appeal to students from marginalized backgrounds and those looking to study issues of diversity and indigenous rights. (The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.)
As part of its focus on access and inclusion in study abroad, Education New Zealand has formed partnerships with the U.S. Department of State and the National Science Foundation to create opportunities for research and study abroad in New Zealand for American students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. Exchange agreements could also lead to more options for Maori students to study in the United States or engage in international scientific research projects.
Traditional study-abroad programs, with their emphasis on sending individual students around the globe, may not be a natural fit for students from communally minded cultures like the Maori, Jennings said. “Study abroad is not built for indigenous people in the way it operates.”
Education New Zealand’s efforts were disrupted by the pandemic, when strict travel rules meant that few international students could enter the country. But the group organized some virtual programming, such as an event that brought together students of color at the University of Maryland at College Park and Maori students from the Auckland University of Technology to discuss politics, culture, and racism.
“Yes, we still have the hobbit stuff, we still have all the beautiful scenery,” Jennings said. “But we also offer a different, more multicultural picture.”