study abroad, student mobility, COVID-19, space, learner agency, language
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International Student Mobility (ISM) has always been positioned as a
desirable element of the student experience and is portrayed as beneficial in
terms of the expansion of linguistic repertoires, increased awareness of
interculturality, and the acquisition of transferable skills for long-term career
prospects. However, while the opportunities for student mobility proliferated
over the last three decades (Calderon 2018), ISM has been hugely disrupted
by COVID-19 with many programmes pivoting to online, campuses essentially
closing and restrictions placed on movement and access to spaces. While the
impact of this on the number of students travelling has been negative (de
Wit/Marinoni 2021), the pandemic also had repercussions for those who
decided to embark on international mobility as it has affected the where,
who, why, and how of interaction during the sojourn. In light of this, this
study explores, from a longitudinal, narrative inquiry perspective, the
experiences of eight Study Abroad/International students for whom language
development was a major catalyst for participating in a student mobility
programme. Previous research has highlighted that linguistic gains are often
predicated on exposure to intense and diverse social interactions while
abroad (Dewey et al. 2013; Baten 2020). Given the unique nature of the
pandemic, the current study broadens the scope of traditional research by
illuminating, following Benson (2021a), how differential interaction with
physical and socially-constructed spaces impacted not only language
development but also learner agency.