Research Proposal

This upcoming fall I’m planning on partaking in the study abroad program through FSU; I’ll be on my way to Valencia, Spain come the end of August. A foreseeable problem is that my Spanish speaking ability; of which I have none. Spain is a Spanish speaking country with about a 12% English speaking population. One could say I’ll be in a pickle trying to understand a language that I cannot speak. A very useful tool that exists for just such a problem is Google Translate. The topic that will be addressed relative to how Google Translate directly helps this community of students abroad is: how does a study abroad student who is traveling to a Spanish speaking country; Valencia Spain, survive in this new language?

Clearly a huge point of reference that began my interest in researching this topic is my desire to be a part of the study abroad program where I will do one full semester out of the states; an experience that will be neat but makes me curious as to how I will be able to acclimate to an entirely different language. This exploration into my topic will be researched via peer reviewed articles about both Spain and Google Translate and will involve study about certain aspects of study abroad programs. Through interviews with both friends who have experience with studying abroad and advocates who work with study abroad programs a greater understanding will be reached about the problematic nature of being put into a society with a foreign language.