Abstract
This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the impact of university students’ socialisation patterns on the development of ICC (Intercultural Communicative Competence) during their Erasmus placements. In our research, we complement previous comparative analyses of a quantitative nature between UK and Spain based students’ ICC. The answers to sixteen items from a questionnaire provided by 40 Nottingham Trent University and 30 University of Salamanca students shed light on three pivotal dimensions: everyday interaction patterns, overall perception of the study sojourn, and intercultural lessons learned during their stay. Our results show that, at the end of their placement, both cohorts report no substantial differences on their means to socialise while abroad and that the two confer paramount importance to being open-minded and using the target language proficiently, while their perception differs regarding aspects such as their previous knowledge about the host country or their self-image as representatives of their home culture.
Highlights
A communicative landscape of linguistic complexity where English undisputedly acts as the lingua franca par excellence (Baker 2016) and a worldwide increase of mobility are causing an unprecedented shift in language teaching that involves the need to “transcend the traditional paradigm of one nation, one language, one culture” (Risager 2016: 48)
The following three tables provide a synthesis of the answers to the questionnaire that asked students to rank the three main dimensions of their everyday Erasmus experience under the headings of “interaction patterns”, “perceptions”
Regarding the first category, concerning everyday interactions, their answers to the questionnaires and their interviews reflect a myriad of interactions in their host communities
Summary
A communicative landscape of linguistic complexity where English undisputedly acts as the lingua franca par excellence (Baker 2016) and a worldwide increase of mobility are causing an unprecedented shift in language teaching that involves the need to “transcend the traditional paradigm of one nation, one language, one culture” (Risager 2016: 48). Added to that is a steady growth in the number of students who follow tertiary education abroad, which is intensifying the need to foster intercultural communicative competence (henceforward ICC). The Erasmus + (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) budget of over 14 billion includes funding for more than 2 million university students to study and 800.000 lecturers, teachers, trainers, education staff and youth workers to teach or train across Europe during the. This paper presents a work in progress following an investigation on the impact that university students’ Erasmus placements may have on the development of their ICC during their residence abroad (Gutiérrez, Durán and Beltrán 2015; Durán, Gutiérrez, Beltrán and Martínez 2016). At the end of their placement, UK Nottingham Trent University (NTU)
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