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North American Jews in a Year-Long Volunteer Program in Israel: Identities, Motivations, Attitudes, and Hebrew Language Proficiency

Received: 1 June 2018     Accepted: 1 July 2018     Published: 24 July 2018
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Abstract

The study investigated a group of 68 young North American young adults who volunteered to teach English in Israeli public schools for a year in the framework of a joint project conducted by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Education entitled 'Israel Teaching Fellows' that was inaugurated in 2013. Employing a pre-post design, the research explored their motivations for joining the program as well as the changes in their self-ascribed identity, attitudes toward Israel and its culture, and gains in Hebrew language proficiency and knowledge about Israel. Findings showed that after spending a year in Israel, the participants gained more knowledge of Israel and improved their proficiency in Hebrew, but no changes were detected in their attitudes and Jewish identity.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 6, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11
Page(s) 101-109
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Identities, Motivations, Attitudes, Language Proficiency

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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt, Rivi Carmel. (2018). North American Jews in a Year-Long Volunteer Program in Israel: Identities, Motivations, Attitudes, and Hebrew Language Proficiency. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 6(4), 101-109. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11

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    ACS Style

    Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt; Rivi Carmel. North American Jews in a Year-Long Volunteer Program in Israel: Identities, Motivations, Attitudes, and Hebrew Language Proficiency. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2018, 6(4), 101-109. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11

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    AMA Style

    Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt, Rivi Carmel. North American Jews in a Year-Long Volunteer Program in Israel: Identities, Motivations, Attitudes, and Hebrew Language Proficiency. Int J Lang Linguist. 2018;6(4):101-109. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11,
      author = {Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt and Rivi Carmel},
      title = {North American Jews in a Year-Long Volunteer Program in Israel: Identities, Motivations, Attitudes, and Hebrew Language Proficiency},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {6},
      number = {4},
      pages = {101-109},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20180604.11},
      abstract = {The study investigated a group of 68 young North American young adults who volunteered to teach English in Israeli public schools for a year in the framework of a joint project conducted by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Education entitled 'Israel Teaching Fellows' that was inaugurated in 2013. Employing a pre-post design, the research explored their motivations for joining the program as well as the changes in their self-ascribed identity, attitudes toward Israel and its culture, and gains in Hebrew language proficiency and knowledge about Israel. Findings showed that after spending a year in Israel, the participants gained more knowledge of Israel and improved their proficiency in Hebrew, but no changes were detected in their attitudes and Jewish identity.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    AU  - Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt
    AU  - Rivi Carmel
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11
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    JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
    JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-0221
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.11
    AB  - The study investigated a group of 68 young North American young adults who volunteered to teach English in Israeli public schools for a year in the framework of a joint project conducted by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Education entitled 'Israel Teaching Fellows' that was inaugurated in 2013. Employing a pre-post design, the research explored their motivations for joining the program as well as the changes in their self-ascribed identity, attitudes toward Israel and its culture, and gains in Hebrew language proficiency and knowledge about Israel. Findings showed that after spending a year in Israel, the participants gained more knowledge of Israel and improved their proficiency in Hebrew, but no changes were detected in their attitudes and Jewish identity.
    VL  - 6
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • English Department, Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel-Aviv, Israel

  • English Department, Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel-Aviv, Israel

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