ABSTRACT
This chapter considers reflective writing samples and participant observation techniques to analyze intercultural communication through experiential learning in a diverse and largely L2 group of thirty students in a Parks, Recreation and Tourism course. It investigates many challenges and opportunities of ecocultural communication, particularly in pedagogical settings, and by the prominent role place plays in all communicative endeavors. The chapter also considers the term experiential learning as distinct from experiential education, emphasizing the living, learning subject over the subject being taught. It suggests that a field-based method of engaging language and landscape might foster humanature connections, facilitate language learning, and catalyze cultural exchange. Canagarajah has argued that the work of language and culture learning is best accomplished in "a rich context comprising diverse social institutions and experiential domains". The student whose reflective writing discussed the hike engaged a central component of experiential learning: risk.
