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This study aims to investigate how a higher education institutions represent themselves on their study abroad websites. Through a close study of language, it is possible to not only describe and interpret narratives, but also explain the formation of identity within these institutional websites (Fairclough, 2013). The analysis focuses on three forms of narrative: structured interviews, personal narratives, and visual narratives. Through comparison, this study describes linguistic features of the text framed on the websites of four universities and interpret the factors contributing to the process of identity construction. Each website provides a wealth of textual information that speaks both to the study abroad process and to the …show more content…

552). While the students in England participated in what was largely a “tour” consisting of “visit[s]” and “observ[ations]” of notable medical facilities, the students in the Dominican program “worked alongside” Dominican nurses to triage emergency patients and develop care plans (p. 552). Though students received the same amount of academic credit for completing either program, Edmonds’ (2010) analysis reveals that their levels of immersion were strikingly divergent. According to Bolen, the typical study abroad experience is cosmopolitan and similar to a tourist’s, where a foreign culture is served “on a plate, laid out like a fast food all ready to eat” (2001, p. 186). However, the four institutional analyzed here insinuate that this is not the case. Meredith College’s advertise on their website that students are promised “an opportunity to experience authentic Italian life.” However, regardless of the amount of transformation students may encounter while abroad, in Heidegger’s (1977) words, “the merely correct is not yet the true” (p. 6). Essentially, a significant difference exists between recognizing that transformation is likely and telling students that they will inevitably be transformed as a result of studying abroad. Only by first recognizing this distinction can both researchers and students begin to understand the significance of either, or the

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