Hilbe, Robert

The research project SAM investigates student mobility, which is still usually thought of and investigated in terms of a primarily monolingual focus on the TL as spoken natively, from a multilingual perspective. For decades, student mobility is enjoying increasing demand due to growing international connectedness. More recent research suggests that these programs cannot always live up to the high expectations regarding immersion into the target language. In many cases social contact with speakers of the target language are fewer than hoped for and language use more multilingual than anticipated, which can lead to disappointments among the study abroad students. This perspective largely ignores the learning affordances of multilingual language practices or of using the TL as a lingua franca. Through a mixed methodology of quantitative as well as qualitative approaches we will explore the relationship between students’ language attitudes, their social relations and their linguistic practices abroad with the aim of finding out (a) how effective different patterns of social relations and language use are for linguistic development and (b) what role students’ language attitudes play for the development of their social relations and linguistic skills. The insights from the study will benefit the (further) education of teachers, in particular when it comes to the expectations and assessment of student mobility.

Our contribution draws on quantitative data from a longitudinal mixed-methods study to uncover different patterns of social contacts of study abroad (SA) students and the relationship of these social contacts with (a) language use, (b) target language development, and (c) contextual variables. Data were obtained by means of online questionnaires pre, during, and post sojourn. English oral proficiency gains were measured using the Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc) test before and after the stay. Latent profile analysis yielded four profiles of social contacts, which differed in terms of the degree of integration into the community of locals or international students. Students with distinct profiles differ significantly with respect to language use but not in terms of language gains. Regression analyses indicate that comparable progress in oral proficiency was made by students across profiles of social contacts and also by those in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) context suggesting that different SA context and networking patterns are conducive to second language (L2) gains.

This article presents a comparative study of the oral English proficiency gains of two groups of students, namely mobility students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (n?=?26), who were matched for background variables such as pre-departure oral proficiency, duration of stay, accommodation, and destination. Oral proficiency was measured before and after the stay using the Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc). Results indicate that students staying abroad before the outbreak of the pandemic made significant progress while students staying abroad during the pandemic did not. Student comments suggest that this may be related to the measures taken to contain the pandemic, limiting opportunities for social networking and interaction. However, this impression could not be supported by statistical analyses of the self-reported number of social contacts or amount of English language use. The results point to the need for consideration of qualitative aspects of social interactions and language use and a more frequent and situated assessment of these.