An update on the study abroad experience: language choices and social media abroad

ABSTRACT

While growing numbers of university students study abroad in different European countries, little is known about the communicative practices facilitated by this exchange situation in an increasing globalised world. The present study aims to describe the language-related practices of 37 Erasmus students in Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain. We used a questionnaire to tap into the students’ routines regarding their use of social media, mass media, resources for study or work, and face-to-face interactions. Specifically, we wanted to find out how often these students used these different forms of communication and which language they used: their native language, Spanish or English. Results show that social media platforms such as Facebook or Skype are used in students’ native language more often than in Spanish or English. WhatsApp, however, is equally used in the three languages, which may point to the creation of an international multilingual community. Traditional sources of input, such as newspapers, TV, and radio, have a reduced presence in any language. Finally, the predominance of English in academic tasks points to the Englishisation of higher education [Coleman, J. A. (2006). English-medium teaching in European higher education. Language Teaching, 39(1), 1–14]. These findings have significant implications for pedagogical interventions and the design of materials for language teaching abroad.

KEYWORDS:

• Mass media use
• social media use
• study abroad
• multilingualism
• English as a Lingua Franca

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCiD

Asunción Martínez-Arbelaiz http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3784-2266

Notes

1. Only in the 2011–2012 academic year, 250,000 students went abroad with the Erasmus program, according to http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-657_en.htm.

2. Although international students might have been exposed to the Basque language as well, Basque was not targeted to avoid lengthening the questionnaire. In addition, we believe that if we had included questions related to this language, the results presented here would have been similar.

3. We want to thank the Offices of International Relations at the University of the Basque Country and the University of Deusto in Donostia-San Sebastián for their help in sending this questionnaire to international students.

4. English L1 students gave the same responses regarding English use and mother tongue use; for this reason, percentages showing English as a lingua franca are calculated with 32 students and not 37.

5. Throughout the article, when we mention ‘maintaining ties with home’ or ‘family ties’, we do not only mean the actual home or family but, metaphorically, we refer to the comfort zone created by talking in the mother tongue with people the students already knew before going abroad.

6. According the official web page of the University of the Basque Country, the number of courses offered in English has increased to 207 in the academic year 2011–2012 (Source: http://www.ehu.eus/zenbakitan/es/node/59.html).