Editorial to Issue 7: Special Issue "Year Abroad Conference"

Clare Wright, Kazuki Morimoto, and Ruba Khamam

This special issue of the Language Scholar showcases work arising from the second Year Abroad Conference, held in Leeds in September 2019. The newly created Year Abroad Conference series, first held in Newcastle in 2018, is a unique platform for academics and professional staff involved in YA, including residence abroad coordinators, study abroad officers, mental health, disability and student support colleagues. The Conference offers the chance to come together to share their expertise, experience and practice in all aspects of the YA, whether language-related or in other disciplines. Post Brexit, the benefits for students going on a Year Abroad (YA) is more valuable than ever to boost language and cultural skills, resilience and employability in a globalising world. Yet aiming for YA success creates many complex challenges for students and staff, particularly on compulsory language-focused YA (see Salin et al, 2020 for a helpful introduction and overview of key issues). The complexity of these challenges has also increased exponentially in 2020, given the current climate of uncertainty of access to Erasmus, precariousness of higher education funding, global slowdown and post-pandemic constraints on movement.
The event, hosted by Leeds’ School of Languages, Cultures and Societies and Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence, focused on the theme ‘Thinking Global’. Themes of the Leeds conference aimed particularly to focus on the longer-range span over the YA journey from predeparture to re-entry, including how students could be better supported in adapting to new settings, pedagogically, socially and psychologically. Handling students’ mental health difficulties during YA was identified as an urgent area of concern, not least in areas where intercultural differences may impact on recognising and treating mental health issues. Other areas of interest included how to work more closely with students for clearer expectations over YA, how to better boost longer-term employability opportunities, and looking to wider horizons beyond Europe.

The conference was a great success with nearly 100 attendees from around the UK and EU. We had 32 presentations on a wide variety of topics, and a well-attended workshop dedicated to student mental health support. Attendees represented all aspects of the YA experience, spanning academic, professional, institutional staff and early career researchers. We were particularly grateful to our keynote speaker, Professor Ros Mitchell (University of Southampton) for her informative presentation and discussion about the longer-term impact of YA experiences on identity and future life choices.

The eleven articles presented here, carefully selected and peer-reviewed, represent the breadth of those presentations, including early career researchers through to seasoned established scholars. Nine are research studies, based on the authors’ empirical research, addressing language-related themes as well as broader issues of cultural or disciplinary adjustment. We also have two shorter scholarbits, offering useful and practical insights into changing ways for working with students to help them make the most of their YA experiences. This special issue serves as a sister volume to that referred to above, published by Sandra Salin, Damien Hall and Cathy Hampton, the organisers of the Newcastle conference. That volume is highly recommended to readers and is freely available online here - https://research-publishing.net/book?10.14705/rpnet.2020.39.9782490057573

The contributions have been grouped as follows to highlight overarching themes from the conference:

• Mental health and emotional experiences - Takako Amano (UCLAN), Anne-Charlotte Husson and Damien Hall (Newcastle University), Emine Çakir and Julide Inozu (University of Oxford).

• Expectations, motivations and potential mismatches across the YA journey - Simon McKinnon (Durham University), Martin Ward and Mika Takewa (University of Leeds), Clare Wright and Ying Peng (University of Leeds), and Claire Reid (University of Portsmouth) (Scholarbits).

• Adjustments to local realities - Chloe Wallace (University of Leeds), Hahn Pho (Newcastle University).

• Student voices and mediators in YA prep and reflective learning - Fumiko Narumi-Munro and Mihoko Pooley (University of Edinburgh) and Siobhan Mortell (University of Cork) (Scholarbits).

We start with papers addressing students’ mental and emotional states during YA, identified at the conference as a rapidly growing area of concern for YA staff, academic tutors as well as professional support staff, and of course, students themselves. Takako Amano’s paper sets the scene for discussions of mental health, taking a corpus-based approach on terminology and how institutions understand the terms. She finds gaps between home and host universities in how mental health concerns can be identified, and provides a useful worksheet to check common understanding of key terms, to help partner institutions across different cultures and settings work together more
effectively to support YA students.

Anne-Charlotte Husson and Damien Hall’s paper is a sensitive and insightful analysis of mental health problems found among students and staff as addressed in their workshop. They present a helpful synopsis of discussions and draw out several recommendations - including coaching students in strategies to handle the unpredictability of YA, and raising awareness of different cultural attitudes to mental health around the world. They also recommend ensuring better support and stability for YA officers, through longer-term appointments, investment in culture-specific training in mental health issues, and flagging up the possibility, if necessary, of removing the compulsory
component of YA residence for some individuals.

Emine Çakir and Julide Inozu change direction, while staying on the topic of the role of emotion during YA. Their in-depth case study examines patterns of emotional behaviours that may affect the learning process while abroad. Using two detailed personal narratives of two learners of Turkish, they present evidence of the ways that emotions either enhance learning or could be detrimental. Using motivational theories of current and imagined selves, they draw out intriguing and nuanced insights into how the way we feel about how we see ourselves can impact on our language development.

In the next section, the papers look at the very varied nature of student expectations over the whole arc of pre-, during- and post-YA, as well as ways in which institutional preparation may do better at shaping expectations and outcomes for the YA. Simon McKinnon’s paper looks at issues arising over perceived purpose and value of the YA. He presents data drawn from interviews with staff and students, as well as evidence found in institutional and national policy documents, identifying areas of mismatch between institutional and student priorities. He makes some helpful recommendations for taking the student perspective more into account, particularly in relation to design of support during the YA and academic assessment of YA outcomes, since he argues students will engage better with learning that better matches their priorities.

Martin Ward and Mika Takewa’s paper looks at fluctuating motivation in studying non-European languages such as Japanese. They take an interesting long-term perspective on possible reasons for studying Japanese across the degree journey from application to graduation, e.g. whether instrumental motivation for work purposes, or more general interest for linguistic or cultural purposes. Comparing themes identified in UCAS application statements, against evidence from postYA assessment reflections, and topics chosen for final year projects, the authors find little evidence of any clear long-term motivational decisions lasting over the whole degree cycle. While this may be a salutary warning against assuming students have fixed or strong motivations for studying a language from the start, their study also offers signs of students’ growing perceptions of a richer range of benefits of language degrees as they progress through the YA and beyond.

Clare Wright and Ying Peng’s paper also looks beyond European horizons, tracking Chinese-degree students’ expectations and experiences during YA. Following on from their study of pre-departure students’ perceptions of YA (reported in Salin et al, 2020), this study reports on students’ experiences during YA and after returning home. The data suggest that students can adapt relatively successfully to YA and on return, contradicting the evidence of an expectation gap noted in their previous study, though Joint Honours students tended to want more extensive targeted support. However, students’ capacity to engage fully in the local context, developing well-grounded authentic
intercultural awareness, remained patchy, in view of evidence of lack of regular contact with local people for social or other activities. This suggests, in line with their previous study, that some students may tend towards a somewhat superficial “cultural consumption” view of YA life. Similarly, autonomy in maintaining language abilities on return, and awareness of the value of the YA experience to build future employability remained variable at best. They provide the questionnaire used as the basis for the study, inviting others interested in student YA experiences to use it by permission for further study in other settings.

Claire Reid presents a highly accessible and practice-based review of her institution’s work on improving students’ readiness for the YA, but here, this is not through adding thorough training in more and more minutiae about aspects of life abroad. Instead she promotes the value of “less is more”, not least because of the evidence, from former students themselves, of the highly individually varied nature of each student’s life during YA, and the enjoyment they had in finding things out for themselves. She emphasises the value her institution is now placing on moving away from detailed briefings, and training students instead in developing more flexible and adaptable
mindsets, independent problem-solving skills and confidence in communicating back to home support teams, so that they can better handle “being thrown in at the deep end”.

In the next section, the two papers home in on some of the detailed experiences of students adapting to local realities, whether in disciplinary or linguistic aspects. Chloe Wallace’s paper addresses very different levels of adjustments required during YA amongst Law students from the University of Leeds, comparing the experiences of Joint Honours students (Law with French) studying in France, and ‘ordinary’ LLB Law students taking a year abroad in Australia. From her survey of students in both settings, it seems that the value of the YA to students’ academic development depended greatly on the country visited and that experience may be more academically valuable where difference is more visible. Students in France felt they had to do more to adapt to the very different culture, but this was relatively rewarding as the intellectual level was
not that challenging. Students in Australia felt the culture was less different so worked less hard, and may have missed chances to maximise the value of their YA opportunity. Efforts need therefore to be made to draw students’ attention to how to adapt appropriately in order to ensure that they get the most academically out of their year abroad.

Hanh Pho’s study explores the struggles that international students can face in early stages of YA in the UK, not least when they do not easily understand unfamiliar varieties of English speech. In interviews with newly-arrived students, she found positive evidence that socio-cultural adaptation to UK was not problematic, but that students felt great psychological pressure adjusting to the pace of academic work, allied to lack of comprehension of the variety of English accents they found, even for students with more advanced English language proficiency. She finishes with recommendations for much more training, pre-departure and on arrival at the host university, in helping to familiarise students with a greater range of English speech varieties they are likely to encounter, whether among international lecturers, or in local speakers, and for lecturers to show more understanding of the difficulties which unfamiliar accents can create.

In the final section, the two studies here forefront the student voice, whether as mediators in YA preparation, or by increasing opportunities for reflective learning. Fumiko Narumi-Munro and Mihoko Pooley (University of Edinburgh) report on an innovative and creative way of using final year students as language mentors to pre-YA students, in line with the Japanese concept of ‘Senpai-Kōhai’ support (senior-junior in Japanese). After observing limitations on previous practices based around unstructured, informal chats between returning students and outgoing students, the authors report on a more task-based structured approach, in which returning students deliver some YAfocused teaching activities to the pre-departure students, as part of a summatively marked language assessment. The activities, taught entirely in Japanese, provide useful ‘information’ on the year abroad as well as ‘teach’ useful expressions and phrases in the L2 target language. Narumi-Munro and Pooley emphasise the benefits to motivation and linguistic development for both student cohorts, while for post-YA students, the experience helps clarify how the YA impacts on their success both in their degree programme and beyond graduation. The authors finish with suggested ways in which the task-based approach could be further improved and adapted to other languages.

Siobhan Mortell concludes this special issue by presenting a useful pedagogic tool for fostering deeper student self-awareness of the value of the YA experience, which is then used to inspire the next cohort of YA students. She has developed a structured task-based module in which students produce a portfolio of reflective work through the cycle of arrival to departure, including dealing with hopes and fears, and focusing on future potential employability benefits. Two particular elements of the module provide innovative approaches to boosting the value of such student reflections. The module starts with tasks aiming to capture information which can easily be lost as the year goes on - by requiring students in the first couple of months to introduce the reader/listener to their location or university (task A) and give tips on how to make the most of the year abroad experience, or compare their home institution with the host institution (task B), the tasks can provide a wealth of local student-focused insight which no staff member can offer. And by offering a variety of digital formats such as writing a blog, creating a website or an online magazine, or using video or animation, to complete their tasks, the students develop new skills and creative talents. Mortell finishes with emphasising how this task-based approach shows the students the value of the YA - by making progress visible to students through the different tasks, and ensuring they have evidence of how they have handled potentially challenging or anxious situations, but giving them agency in how they present this, this can bring great satisfaction.

REFERENCE
Salin, S., Hall, D. and Hampton, C. eds. 2020. Perspectives on the year abroad: a selection of papers from YAC2018. Paris: Research-publishing.net.
https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2020.39.9782490057573

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the presenters and delegates who attended YAC2019 in Leeds for making the day a great success through their valued contributions through presentations, questions and discussions. We also thank the conference organising committee for all their sterling work in ensuring the day ran smoothly and enjoyably for all. Special thanks go to the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, and Leeds Institute of Teaching Excellence, for their help and financial support towards the preparation of the event. We would also like to thank all the authors who have contributed to this volume, and their patience due to the delays caused by the unexpected impact of COVID-19. Finally, we are grateful to Journal Managers Irene Addison-Child, Milada Walkova, and our Web Editor Philippa Dearns for their help and support in getting this volume ready for publication.