Mobile students’ appraisals of keys to a successful stay abroad experience: hints from the IEREST project

Abstract

In order to provide better support for students in higher education throughout a mobility experience, it is important to understand their point of view regarding stay abroad. This paper analyzes the responses of pre-departure, while-abroad, and upon-return students of different academic backgrounds (N = 990) to an open question that asked them to name the three most essential factors for making their stay abroad experience successful. This question was part of a wider online questionnaire distributed in Europe by the IEREST project (http://ierest-project.eu). A sequential mixed-method procedure identified six themes that were frequently cited: language and communication, social contacts, practicalities, personal development, academic advantages, and travel. This paper presents a more detailed analysis of the first three themes. It shows that although language proficiency was the single most frequently mentioned aspect, students attached particular importance to aspects of personal development (in particular with respect to openness) and social contacts (crucially including friendship). These findings informed the development of teaching materials within IEREST for supporting intercultural learning in the Erasmus context and may also be relevant to educators and researchers in various other study abroad contexts. KEYWORDSIEREST; language proficiency; personal development; social contacts; study abroad; student perceptions Per offrire assistenza agli studenti universitari nel corso dell'esperienza di mobilità, è importante capire il loro punto di vista sul soggiorno all'estero. Questo articolo si concentra su un gruppo di studenti (N = 990) iscritti a corsi di studio vari, che si trovavano in fasi diverse del percorso di mobilità al momento dello studio (alcuni non erano partiti, altri si trovavano all'estero, altri ancora erano già tornati). La domanda aperta posta loro chiedeva di menzionare i tre fattori che più di altri determinano il successo dell'esperienza all'estero. Questa domanda faceva parte di un questionario somministrato in Europa dal progetto IEREST (http://ierest-project.eu). Una procedura di analisi dei dati mista e sequenziale ha portato all'identificazione di sei temi: lingua e comunicazione, contatti sociali, questioni pratiche, sviluppo personale, vantaggi accademici, e viaggi. Questo articolo presenta in dettaglio l'analisi dei primi tre temi e mostra che, sebbene la competenza linguistica sia l'aspetto più menzionato, gli studenti attribuiscono particolare importanza allo sviluppo personale (all''apertura') e ai contatti sociali (tra cui le amicizie). All' interno di IEREST, questi risultati sono serviti a sviluppare materiali di educazione interculturale per studenti Erasmus, e ma possono offrire indicazioni utili anche in riferimento ad altri contesti di mobilità studentesca.

Are people really strange when you’re a stranger? A longitudinal study of the effect of intergroup contact on host-country identification

“…A recently published study has even found that students view personal development and social ties as the most and second-most essential factors, respectively, in a successful semester abroad. Interestingly, academic advantages are considered to be less important (Van Maele et al, 2016). The results found in the present study support the importance of having contact with locals for students' identification with the host country and for their overall satisfaction with their stay.…”

“…Although intergroup contact increased over time, the scores for contact were below the mid-point for each wave of data collection, which means that the students generally had limited sustained contact with host-nationals. This finding is not surprisingly as many studies have shown that international students primarily make friends with co-nationals as opposed to with host-nationals, even if they claim to prefer close contact with host-nationals (e.g., Kashima & Loh, 2006;Van Maele et al, 2016). With ongoing time abroad students had more contact with locals, which was to be expected because of the general assumption that already-existing contacts usually facilitate further contacts and remove obstacles to making friendships with locals, such as language deficits, diminish over time.…”

“…Most studies have found that international students primarily make friends with students from the same country of origin (also termed co-nationals) as opposed to with host-nationals (Kashima & Loh, 2006;Neri & Ville, 2008;Sakurai, McCall-Wolf, & Kashima, 2010). However, it is known that although many students have more co-national friends, they actually prefer close contact and friendships with hostnationals (Hayes & Lin, 1994;McLachlan & Justice, 2009;Van Maele, Vassilicos, & Borghetti, 2016). Furthermore, there is evidence for a positive relationship between international students' contact with host-nationals and their satisfaction with life (Rohrlich & Martin, 1991) and their academic program abroad (Perrucci & Hu, 1995).…”

Insights into the expectations of mobility students: the impact of Erasmus in their future professional careers

“…As seen in the literature review, the increase in students' mobility can be associated with the expected outcomes acquired or developed during the exchange period, regarded as an initial groundwork for a professional career in a globalized world (IEREST, 2016), fostering independence, confidence and broad-mindedness (Van Maele, Vassilicos, & Borghetti, 2016), while enriching the educacional environment (European Commission, 2015). The scope of developed skills is large, with a clear improvement of intercultural, interpersonal, management, communication and language competences, valued by all as fundamental, and resulting in a better performance and more professional opportunities.…”

“…Extant literature provides rich contributions on the motivations to student mobility, including speaking a new language, improving communication abilities, and enrich personal development through independence and confidence (Van Maele, et al, 2016). Mobility is also referred as an opportunity for students to to learn something new about themselves and enhance their cultural horizon.…”