'I came as a visitor, but I stayed': an ERASMUS-Sojourn in an ELF country

This study qualitatively explores how studying abroad in an English as a lingua franca context promotes student-sojourners' intercultural awareness (ICA) taking a longitudinal perspective. A group of Catalan/Spanish bilinguals and Turkish-L1 speakers were interviewed regarding their past ERASMUS experiences in terms of ICA following a stimulated recall protocol and later participated in an L1-based focus group interview. The results foreground that ELF use contributed to the conceptualisation of ERASMUS as an ELF community of practice while the participants developed a supranational identity with traces of ICA, which was maintained as a long-term effect of their semester-long sojourn. Bu nicel calisma Ingilizcenin ortak dil olarak kullanildigi bir ulkede ERASMUS ogrenci degisim programina katilmanin kulturlerarasi farkindaliga (ICA) boylamsal olarak ne derece katkida bulundugunu arastirmaktadir. calismada anadili Turkce ve Katalanca/Ispanyolca olan iki grup universite ogrencisinden bireysel ve anadil-bazli grup mulakati yoluyla nitel veri toplanmistir. Bulgular Ingilizcenin ortak dil olarak kullaniminin ERASMUS degisim programinin bir Ugras Toplulugu (Community of Practice) olarak kavramlastirilmasina katkida bulundugunu ortaya cikarmistir. calisma ayrica tum katilimcilarin kulturlerarasi farkindaliklarini ve yeterliklerini kismen artirdiklarini ve uluslarustu bir kimlik gelistirdiklerini tespit etmistir.

Automated summary

This study qualitatively explores how studying abroad in an English as a lingua franca context promotes student-sojourners' intercultural awareness. The study found that the use of the common language contributed to the conceptualization of studying abroad as a community of practice, and the participants developed a supranational identity and maintained long-term intercultural awareness.