The spread of English and its increasing importance in intercultural encounters have challenged essentialist perspectives of culture in English language teaching. In addition to using English as a means of communication, students are expected to develop intercultural awareness, which allows them to analyse and reflect on their intercultural…

The aim of the study is to investigate the meaning attributed by early-career researchers to academic mobility, the sources of motivation for mobility, and the difficulties and opportunities faced by these researchers during their academic activities. The present study employed the qualitative research method in order to understand the…

Studying abroad in general is beneficial academically, socially, and linguistically for students. This qualitative study is using narrative inquiry to uncover personal experiences of three Indonesian undergraduate students as they sail to study abroad through IISMA to the University of Padua, Italy in 2021. The experiences and meaning the students…

A novel way to support change and development in a country's education system is to send teachers abroad on a professional learning program, so that they become immersed in a different culture, language and education system. The focus of this study was to investigate the supports and tensions created during a professional learning and leadership…

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's education for international students has seen rapid growth, making it the third largest destination for international students globally and the largest in Asia. This growth occurs against a backdrop of intensifying global economic competition and increasingly fierce competition for international…

Study abroad experience (SA) has been regarded as one of the best ways to enhance English language proficiency because it offers opportunities for learners to experience the use of English in actual situations. The present research study attempted to explore the language development of a group of EFL learners participating in Erasmus program for…

Study abroad (SA) provides a space and place for second language (L2) learners to be challenged in terms of their target language skills and intercultural awareness. In order to appropriately equip learners, a task-based approach seems ideal to identify learners' specific needs (Long 2015). The present study reports a multiphase needs analysis…

Adopting a learning ecology perspective, this study examined sojourners' formal classroom learning and the interactions between their learning in the classroom and their learning in the community. Data for the study were collected from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations involving 14 sojourners learning Chinese as a second…

Although there have been many studies investigating international students, many of them focused on the students who travel in pursuit of higher education in English countries and/or universities. This current qualitative study is intended to explore the experiences of international students, particularly the challenges, and strategies to deal…

This contribution reflects on some of the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced for languages in Higher Education (HE). In particular, two areas are discussed: the delivery of teaching and learning activities, including assessments, and the year abroad. These two areas, on which the enforced move to online provision has had a significant…

Our principal objective is to explore if interculturality is relevant for the success of a bilateral student mobility program, Mexico-Japan Technical and Academic Exchange Program (MJTAEP). First, the authors explain their methodology and objectives of field work. Second, they situate their analysis within a framework of growing academic…

The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought changes to the landscape of education abroad. This paper reviews some of the operational gaps exposed by the pandemic circumstances and then advocates for enhanced notions of communication, collaboration, and community needed to embrace change and close prior gaps. The paper concludes that developing a nuanced…

A major rationale for study abroad (SA) from the perspective of second language acquisition is the presumed opportunity available to sojourners for naturalistic second language (L2) "immersion". However, such opportunities are affected by variations in the linguistic, institutional and social affordances of SA, in different settings.…

The pandemic-induced shift to online learning has increased the relevance of Online Intercultural Exchanges (OIE) as a means to navigate student mobility challenges. Our study investigates the role of OIE in the internationalisation of higher education, focusing on how students' perceptions of the benefits of internationalisation through OIE have…

There is an increasing number of Chinese graduate students who study in Canada and have quite different educational backgrounds. Despite a large number of studies attending to the challenges and difficulties they encountered in life and study, not much research narratively explores Chinese international students' academic adjustment experiences in…