3.1. Definition of a narrative

AA narrative, sometimes also referred to as a life story or a narrative interview4 , is a useful method of documenting not only the facts and events that may be relevant to the phenomena being studied but also their meaning and significance. Overall, this approach analyses “a spoken or written text giving an account of a series of events occurring over time and integrated into a plot” (Gertsen and Søderberg, 2010, p. 249), with the length of the story being less important. Most of the narratives fit in the continuum between a story told by a respondent without any interruptions on the part of an interviewer and an exchange of short questions and answers, making it possible to obtain reports on the events that took place. According to Arthur Bochner (1994), analysing narratives has a lot to offer to researchers. It is a “viable option to theorising” which allows “analyzing processes of reality construction” (cited in Lindlof, 1995, p. 172). Perhaps due to the in-depth insight into the data offered by this method, it has recently become very popular in the humanities and social sciences. Some researchers refer to this increased interest as the “narrative turn” (Errante, 2000; Riessman, 1993).

The very term “narrative” is derived from the Latin narratio and means “a story”. Torill Moen defined it as a “story that tells a sequence of events that is significant for the narrator or her or his audience” (Moen, 2006, p. 60). Storytelling plays an essential role in human life as it helps to systematise experiences and provide them with meaning. Donald Polkinghorne (1988) even stated that people cannot exist without stories and that everyone has something to tell. Meanwhile, Moen saw life itself as a “narrative inside which we find a number of other stories” (2006, p. 56).

On an individual level, narratives can play the role of powerful motivators to guide and inspire change or action: “Stories have the power to direct and change our lives” (Noddings, 1991, p. 157). Storytelling also has a social dimension, since narratives typically occur in contact with other people and they are stories that happened with their involvement (Zellermayer, 1997). According to Catherine Riessman (2008), creating and sharing narratives is a universal phenomenon that goes beyond the limits of space, time, society and age. Narratives are also potentially interactive, as they engage both narrators and listeners, and

4 These terms are used interchangeably in this book.

reflect the specific socio-cultural and historical context in which they are set (Elliot, 2005). Consequently, from the perspective of the socio-cultural theory, the contextual setting of individual stories must be taken into account when interpreting them.

The perception of narrative as an expression of self, identity, and culture has been posited by many scientists, especially sociolinguists (e.g. Cameron, 2003; Coates, 1996; Holmes and Marra, 2005). For example, Deborah Schiffrin (1996) considers narratives to be “self-portraits” that can be interpreted simultaneously through the prism of global and local socio-cultural norms and individual experiences. Lynne Cameron (2003, p. 459) emphasised the importance of transforming the life experience of an individual “into a coherent, lasting autobiographical narrative”, enabling the acquisition of a sense of identity, which is essential in late postmodernity (cf. Wąsikiewicz-Firlej, 2014).

In this context, it is also worth referring to linguistic biography as one of the available research methods (Miodunka, 2016a). In Poland, this method has been widely used in research on Polish-foreign bilingualism in various countries of the world, e.g. in Brazil (Miodunka, 2003), Australia (Dębski, 2009), Germany (Pułaczewska, 2017), France (Wróblewska-Pawlak, 2004), United Kingdom (Błasiak, 2011) and Argentina (Guillermo-Sajdak, 2015).

There are also a few narrative studies presenting conclusions on learning a foreign language while abroad. For example, Phil Benson, Gary Barkhuizen, Peter Bodycott and Jill Brown (2012) collected stories from nine pedagogy students who travelled to Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to take part in internships lasting several weeks. The stories allowed the researchers to draw conclusions on selected aspects of identity that were influenced by learning a foreign language, e.g. self-awareness of the degree of knowledge of a foreign language, including pragmatic competence; the level of willingness to learn a foreign language and involvement in this activity; the level of self-confidence as a learner; and – most interestingly – the level of personal autonomy and independence that resulted directly from actions taken in a foreign language. The latter issue means that an individual’s sense of self-worth, independence and overall well-being increases thanks to activities performed successfully in a foreign language. The publication of Benson’s team (2012) shows that students attributed a significant increase in foreign language proficiency not so much to the completion of the foreign internship but rather to interactions with the host country’s inhabitants. These interactions served as encouragement and provided them with a more positive image of themselves as foreign-language speakers, especially in terms of their ability to express their cultural distinctness and encourage others to socialise (e.g. make friends).

Hang Du (2015), who studied the experiences of 29 American students learning Chinese (Mandarin) during their stay in China, reached similar conclusions. Almost all of them tried to use Chinese when interacting with the Chinese, which provided them with a sense of satisfaction and motivation to take on new language challenges. Du stated that the American students:

were able to actively use and even create opportunities to use the language and thus make critical discoveries about their identity, develop a more sophisticated perception of their nation and the world, and validate their own self.

(Du, 2015, p. 262)

Although most of the surveyed students started to look at China from a different perspective thanks to that stay, seven participants began to appreciate their homeland more, with their narratives showing a strengthening of their American identity.

Similar conclusions can also be found in other studies. For example, Asunción Martínez-Arbelaiz and Isabel Pereira (2018) recorded a more positive perception of students’ homeland and native culture. Their narrative study involved foreigners studying at universities in Madrid for whom Spanish (Castilian) was not the first language. Further, a 2015 publication by these authors confirmed the conclusions that Benson and his team had drawn three years earlier. This time, based on a study including an analysis of two topics of essays written by 27 foreign students staying in Madrid, Martínez-Arbelaiz and Pereira concluded that interactions in Spanish not only changed the identity of the respondents as Spanish speakers but, after a period of initial destabilisation of identity as the learner, the students felt that their identity had a trans-linguistic and transcultural dimension (Martínez-Arbelaiz and Pereira, 2015).

In 2020, the same researchers examined the relationship between the level of satisfaction with a stay abroad and the level of proficiency in the local language, which seems important for understanding the results of the research presented in this book. They analysed essays of four foreign students who stayed in Madrid for a longer period and studied Spanish at an intermediate or advanced level. The subject of the study was the experiences that significantly affected the process of their learning Spanish. The study focused on breakthroughs in this process as well as linguistic aspects, e.g. the degree of complexity, correctness and fluency of the respondents’ essays (Martínez-Arbelaiz and Pereira, 2020). In other words, the researchers analysed not only the stories shared by the respondents but also the language used to convey them. The authors concluded that