Evaluating Study Abroad: The Value of Purdue’s “Reading London” Summer Program for Pre-service English Teachers

Study abroad provides undergraduates the opportunityto participate in programs that offer rich experiences foracademic learning and personal development. Handsonexperience can be valuable to students who will beteaching material related to that experience in theirfuture classrooms. Studying in locations like Londonmay strengthen future English teachers’ abilities toexplain and communicate literature more clearly to theirstudents. Although few Purdue students study abroadeach year, those who do typically report having a positiveexperience that provided them with multiple opportunitiesfor growth, encouraging further examination of thepotential effects of studying abroad. This qualitative studyexamined the learning experience of pre-service Englishteachers in the “Reading London” program throughtwo research questions: (1) How is studying in Londondifferent from studying on Purdue’s campus? (2) Howdoes experiencing British literature in the city of Londoninfluence students’ learning? To answer these questions,the authors examined three sources of data from the2008, 2010, and 2011 Reading London program: studentinterviews (15), student journal entries (645), and preandpost-program surveys (30). The authors used contentanalysis to identify significant information in the data,grouped similar information into themes, and coded thesethemes throughout the data. Findings show that studentsin the “Reading London” program see study abroad as apositive academic experience that supports professionaland personal development. Findings also show that studyabroad offers a comfortable educational atmosphere andgreater connections with the material through smallerclass size and more student/professor interactions.