The Erasmus student mobility programme allocates three explicit objectives to the experience of spending a few months studying in another European country: to benefit educationally, linguistically and culturally; to promote co-operation between institutions; and to contribute to the development of a pool of well-qualified, open-minded and internationally experienced future professionals (European Commission,1996). However, although not stated as one explicit objective, the programme has sometimes been referred to as one of the most powerful tools of European integration. However, little research has been done so far on how this may alter students' attitudes towards aspects of identity and feelings of citizenship. In this light, our study intends to cover this area of research by means of a set of quantitative and qualitative measures to determine the extent to which the Erasmus experience affected the sense of self as European citizens among a cohort of students from the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), their position towards the notion of European citizenship and how this relates with the development of their plurilingual competence. Quantitative measures are based on the results of two questionnaires, one before and the other after the study abroad experience, whereas qualitative data were obtained through the analysis of discussion groups focusing on aspects of European vs. national identity and citizenship.

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The aim of this study is to unveil English learners’ beliefs and emotions regarding the English language education received in Catalan schools. For that purpose, data from 5 focus groups with 31 university students have been analysed through a combination of MCA and small stories analysis. The findings reveal that the participants are dissatisfied with the English language education provided, and they believe that the teachers and/or the system are to blame for their (low) level of English. In the main story analysed, boredom, demotivation, irritation and frustration are emotions attached to English learning in high school, which are also present in most of our subjects’ small stories; it is the repetition (iterativity) of small stories, beliefs and emotions across participants that leads us to the detection of a discourse of victimhood, by which students identify themselves as the victims of their English teachers and/or the education system.

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This article focuses on the impact of the language policy of a highly internationalized Danish university on two different kinds of exchange engineering students from a mid-size Catalan university: those who attend the Danish university for one semester and those who stay for a whole year with the expectation of staying for even longer. The university is highly internationalized in the sense that (a) half the student population is from forty different countries; and (b) almost all courses are taught in English. The findings come from the discursive analysis of three group discussions, two with Catalan Erasmus students before and after their stay in Denmark and one with teaching and administrative staff from the Danish university. For the short-stay Erasmus students, the combination of an ELF environment (i.e. one in which English is the only feasible lingua franca) with a teaching style that favors student participation in class contributes to an increase in the student's self-confidence and, ultimately, fluency. However, for those students who are considering the possibility of extending their stay and even finding a job in Denmark, the scarce presence of Danish within the university environment distorts their perception of the professional environment in Denmark for which competence in Danish is essential.