Catalan Law and Business Students in Italy: The Impact of a Stay Abroad on Fluency and Accuracy
Catalan Law and Business Students in Italy: The Impact of a Stay Abroad on Fluency and Accuracy

Summary/Abstract: The growing number of English-Medium Instruction courses offered across Europe is increasing the opportunities for student exchanges. This study follows the progress of three students from Universitat de Lleida after their Erasmus experience at three different European universities, two in Milano and one in Macerata. The students took a monological English oral test before and after their stay abroad, and fluency and accuracy measures have been calculated from it. The students were also interviewed and participated in focus-group discussions. The measures from the two students who went to Milano show an improvement in their English level, whereas the student who went to Macerata performs even worse on his return. However, the experience from the two students in Milano was substantially different from the one who went to Macerata. Using the ethnographic information and the qualitative data available, we bring forward arguments that can help to account for these different outcomes.

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