Conference

Are They Talking About Me? English Speakers’ Contact with Foreign Language Speakers

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Abstract

The campus of Iowa State University (ISU) has become more diverse with individuals from various cultures and countries in the world. It becomes common to hear foreign languages being spoken in university settings (e.g., classrooms, buses, and library). A recent study developed by a graduate student in the ISU psychology department discovered that, barriers do exist as we try to promote the diversity contact in a foreign language environment on campus. When another person speaks an unknown language, English speakers may have a mixed of both positive and negative feelings (e.g., “excited,” “upset,” “interested,” and “irritable”). Such feelings may hinder relationship-building among individuals from various cultural groups, thus they need to be addressed and acknowledged before we can break the ice and start conversations. Therefore, this presentation will briefly introduce the study findings, as well as ways to promote diversity interactions as English speakers respond to a foreign language environment. As ISCORE emphasizes greatly on promoting student, faculty, and staff awareness of racial and ethnic issues, this presentation also hopes to encourage audiences to examine their internal biases and assumptions related to people speaking foreign languages through an experiential activity and group discussion.