Abstract
This study provides a critical-interpretive enquiry into the educational impacts of a short-term overseas English as a Second Language (ESL) programme on a group of university students visiting Australia from Japan. Unlike previous research that confined 'educational impacts' to a few preordained criteria such as improved ESL proficiency, attitude towards host nationals, cross-cultural adaptation and culture learning, the present study is aimed at theorising students' learning experience from a broader perspective by taking cultural, historical, economic, institutional and situational constraints into consideration. A case study involving twenty-three undergraduate students was conducted, and the data obtained from preliminary questionnaires, semi-structured individual and group interviews, participant observations and related documents were analysed in accordance with the social constructionist version of grounded theory methodology. The findings demonstrated a three-factor interactive learning process (i.e. communication difficulties, buffering behaviours and learning outcomes) in which the students learned several different things while overcoming difficulties of communicating in English. The emergence of 'new interpretations' that embodied self-reflexivity and creativity was particularly important for transforming the students' epistemological foundations on culture and communication and for deconstructing cultural essentialism and nationalism that some theorists claim are detrimental to harmonious communication across cultural boundaries. The implications of the findings for future research and educational practices are also considered.
