The Impact of the Erasmus Student Mobility on Turkish Pre-service EFL Teachers: Contributions and Challenges of the Experience

Abstract

In today's globalized world, the dynamics of education are changing each day. As a result of this situation, the Erasmus exchange program has made it easier for Turkish students to have study abroad experience. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the perceptions of Turkish prospective EFL teachers regarding the contributions of Erasmus exchange program to their academic, language, social, cultural, personal, and career development as well as the problems that they encountered before, during and after Erasmus mobility. The study was carried out with 37 Turkish prospective EFL teachers. Mixed methods design was adopted in the study. Data were collected via an online survey developed by Önen (2017) and semi-structured interview. The second part of the survey was analysed quantitatively and a qualitative analysis software called MAXQDA 2020 was used for the content analysis of semi-structured interview. Results revealed that the participants believed they benefited from Erasmus program mostly in terms of personal and cultural development. Their language development was mainly related to speaking skills and fluency. It was also found that participants encountered many problems in the Erasmus process. They believed that "pre-Erasmus" was the most problematic process. While a lack of information and paper work were the main problems encountered before the Erasmus, "during the Erasmus process" mainly academic and financial problems were encountered. Some participants experienced "post-Erasmus syndrome" after the Erasmus mobility. Findings are discussed in the light of related literature and suggestions for further research are presented.