Living and Studying Abroad

Research and Practice

Michael Byram, Anwei Feng, Michael Byram, Anwei Feng, Prof. Michael Byram, Dr. Anwei Feng

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781853599101
• eBook ISBN: 9781853599125
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Education General
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The internationalisation of higher education has led to study abroad being a large scale phenomenon. Students spend short periods on study tours or a year or more taking courses in foreign universities. Studying aboard cannot be dissociated however from learning to live in another country and culture. The need to adapt to a new education system is obvious but the inevitable difficulties of living in another culture for the purpose of study are also an important facet of the whole experience. Chapters in this book report research into this whole phenomenon. Authors have researched students travelling across the world, from East to West and West to East, and also the effects of studying in countries which seem to be more like students' own. Each chapter explains the case in question, the findings from the research and what the implications might be. The second part of each chapter is then a critical reflection on the research methods used. The book thus provides a guide to the complexity of this kind of research and how that complexity can be handled with appropriate techniques and methods.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• About the Authors
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Japanese Students in Britain
• Chapter 3 Recording the Journey: Diaries of Irish Students in Japan
• Chapter 4 The One Less Travelled By . . .: The Experience of Chinese Students in a UK University
• Chapter 5 Reciprocal Adjustment by Host and Sojourning Groups: Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong
• Chapter 6 Study Abroad and Experiences of Cultural Distance and Proximity: French Erasmus Students
• Chapter 7 Ethnographic Pedagogy and Evaluation in Short-Term Study Abroad
• Chapter 8 Student Perspectives in Short-Term Study Programmes Abroad: A Grounded Theory Study
• Chapter 9 The Assistant Experience in Retrospect and its Educational and Professional Significance in Teachers’ Biographies
• Chapter 10 British Students in France: 10 Years On
• Chapter 11 Assessing Intercultural Competence in Study Abroad Students
• References