Living and Studying Abroad: Research and Practice

Languages for Intercultural Communication and Education #12

by Michael Byram (Editor)

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.

296 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2006

About the author

Michael Byram taught languages in secondary school and adult education. At Durham University since 1980, now emeritus, he has researched the education of linguistic minorities and foreign language education. His most recent book is From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship (Multilingual Matters) and he is the editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning.