Introduction
The opp ortu nity to study abroad (SA) is a major attraction of the undergraduate degree in modern languages at Durham University. Questions about the year abroad always feature prominently in contact with prospective students and then from our own students when they first arrive in Durham. This enthusiasm for SA reflects broader trends nationally and, indeed, within Europe: in a 2015 survey of UK students, 34 per cent expressed an interest in SA (British Council, 2015), a nd European Commission (2015) data indicate that Europe-wide participation in ERASMUS + study and training exchanges continues to grow steadily each year, with 272,497 students taking part in these exchanges in 2014–15. SA is actively promoted by government bodies, academic organisations, and student networks. The UK government funds a Strategy for Outward Mobility with the aim of increasing the number of UK-domiciled students having an ‘international experience as part of their UK higher education ’ (Go International, 2016, para. 1), while the European Union has a target for 2020 of 20 per cent of all graduates completing part of their university studies abroad (European Commission, 2015). In 2012, the British Academy and the University Council of Modern Languages (UCML) , an organisation representing UK-university modern languages departments and related professional associations, published a joint report stressing ‘the importance of the year abroad as part of a degree programme for UK students’ (UCML, p. 1). This report sits within an established European tradition of presenting SA not only in terms of the development of subject-related knowledge and skills but also as a means of fostering international citizenship. It argues that:
Recent years have also seen the growth of numerous student-led initiatives, such as the popular thirdyearabroad.com, offering first-hand information, practical guidance, and useful tips on every aspect of the wide range of often very different year abroad experiences.The international experience has been shown to contribute both to students’ individual experience and employability and to their home country’s national prosperity. In addition to academic learning and deeper cultural insights, students on a year abroad develop both essential skills which help them to observe without misinterpretation or ethnocentric judgement, and interpersonal skills which allow adaptation to complex cultural milieux. They learn to show respect for local values without abandoning their own. (UCML, 2012, pp. 2–3)
Universities have understood the value of SA in terms of its contribution to the internationalisation of higher education . Many of them in the UK have made significant efforts to integrate opportunities for student mobility into their degree programmes. By offering placements in English-speaking as well as non-English-speaking countries and by promoting language study to students across all disciplines, they have extended the take-up for SA beyond just languages students. At Durham, for example, internationalisation features prominently in the University’s ‘Principles for the development of the taught curriculum’: all students are ‘strongly encouraged to undertake credit-bearing languages as optional modules within their programme of study’ and ‘curricula will be designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop as international citizens […] so that students can make a positive contribution to an increasingly globalised society’; SA is encouraged in a number of ways, not least because ‘the University will facilitate opportunities for programmes to permit students to undertake year-long placements, or placements within individual modules’ (Durham University, 2016d, section 3).
However, this growth in interest in and access to SA, though pleasing, is also potentially problematic. As increasing numbers of students opt to complete some of their studying abroad, managing their expectations and, at the same time, ensuring the quality of experience and learning while abroad become more difficult. Students may have unrealistic expectations of SA, fed by a discourse that presents it as automatically and effortlessly transformative and necessarily the best year of your life. Faculty, on the other hand, have little direct control over the quality of learning and pastoral support available in the host country. This is especially problematic in an environment in which students in England now pay substantial tuition fees (though capped at 15 per cent of the full tuition fee during residence abroad) and increasingly see education in consumerist terms. Other problems arise through misperceptions about the nature of SA. Some UK students see it as an extended holiday or little different from the kind of gap year for travel often taken between secondary education and university. Here the priority is on having fun or participating in what, in a US context, Kinginger has described as ‘globalized infotainment ’ (Kinginger, 2008a, p. 206; see also Kinginger, 2013, p. 7; Streitwieser, 2010). Such perceptions are too often encouraged by the way SA is sold to students, with text and images in official publicity or circulating on social media that would not look out of place in a glossy travel brochure. In an analysis of the marketing of SA in the USA, Zemach-Bersin (2009, p. 303) notes the way such ‘institutionalized commercial rhetoric ’ has an impact on ‘how students approach international education’ and ‘the quality of education in which they are prepared to engage’. This rhetoric also risks reinforcing a narrative in which SA is not taken seriously by faculty, is considered time away from real academic work, and is understood as something not unlike a modern Grand Tour (Gore, 2005).
Within this context, questions of how to ensure quality learning, how to distinguish SA from tourism or a holiday, and how to establish the specificity of SA within a modern languages degree in a particular institution all have an important impact on curriculum design and development. This chapter considers efforts to ensure the quality and distinctiveness of SA within the modern languages degree at Durham University through (1) changes to the system of assessment and (2) the introduction of a programme of increased support for social and experiential learning before, during, and after the period of residence abroad. Rather than being driven by expediency or a desire simply to please an ever growing number of eager prospective SA consumers, the approach taken to curriculum review at Durham was underpinned by relevant educational, curriculum design , and SA research . Overall, it was ‘grounded in experiential/constructivist assumptions’ and was ‘holistic’ in the sense use d in Passarelli and Kolb (2012, p. 137) an d Vande Berg , Paige , and Lou (2012, p. 19). In addition, the review of year abroad assessment, more specifically, was infor med by Biggs (2003), Healey (2005), Jenkins and Healey (2009), a s w ell as b y Coleman (2005) and Coleman and Parker (2001) on S A learning objectives and by Dörnyei (2005), Ushioda (2003), a nd Willis Allen (2013) on motivation. Development of more targeted learning support dr ew on Meier (2010), an d on Coleman (2013, 2015) a nd Meier and Daniels (2011) fo r social lea rning, Kolb and Kolb (2005), Kolb (1984), an d Passarelli and Kolb (2012) fo r e xperiential learning , a n d Alred and Byram (2002), Bathurst and LaBrack (2012), Byram (1997), Byram and Zarate (1997), a nd Jackson (2010, 2013), a s well as the Intercultural Educational Resources for ERASMUS students and their Teachers (IEREST) discussed by Beaven and Borghetti in this volume, for intercultural learning. We argue that the effective integration of formal academic learning abroad into the broader undergraduate curriculum, as well as appropriate support for and acknowledgement of other forms of informal learning , are all essential in the creation of a successful SA programme.
Institutional Context
The Scho ol of Modern Language and Cultures at Durham offers a four-year undergraduate degree in modern languages in which students can study one or two languages from Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Students take six modules in each year: one core-language module for each language studied with the remainder selected from a wide range of cultural options, covering literature, cultural history, cinema and visual culture, translation, and, in some languages, interpreting. Students on Combined Honours and Joint Honours degree courses (e.g., liberal arts, history and French, economics with French) also take modules in the School. There are roughly 240 to 270 students in each year of study, across the School. The students come with excellent secondary-level qualifications; they are all advanced language learners (though some begin one of their languages ab initio in first year) and tend to be independent, self-motivated, and ambitious, going on after Durham either to further study or to a variety of careers, from language-specific work in translation or teaching to work in the media, civil service, business, or finance. The year abroad is compulsory for students on the modern languages degree and is taken in the third year of study. It is considered to be central to the degree and to each student’s development linguistically and intellectually as well as in terms of intercultural competence, enterprise...