Naslov
Linguistic Aspects of Visual Arts Students' Exchange Programmes - the Croatian Experience

Autori
Kabalin Borenić, Višnja

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, stručni

Izvornik
Multilingualism in the Public Sphere / Jernej, Mirna ; Lah, Josip ; Iveković-Martinis Anja - Zagreb : Institute for Anthropological Research & Croatian Anthropological Society, 2012, 80-81

ISBN
978-953-7467-06-7

Skup
Multilingualism in the Public Sphere

Mjesto i datum
Dubrovnik, Hrvatska, 04.05.2012. - 06.05.2012

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
student mobility ; English ; social inclusion ; language use

Sažetak
The study aims to reveal to what extent participants in visual arts students' international exchange programmes are able and willing to engage in communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries and to fulfil the potential of encounters and communication with strangers. To gain insight into exchange students' communicative practices and goals we recently conducted an online survey among Croatian and foreign students who had taken part in student exchange programmes at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb between 2000 and 2011. The questionnaire included quantitative and qualitative items on biographical data, interest in (learning) languages, communicative practices (choice of languages and collocutors), problems encountered and linguistic benefits. Participation in the survey was anonymous and voluntary. Altogether 150 subjects were approached via e-mail and more than 70 completed and returned the questionnaire. Approximately two-thirds of respondents were Croats who had spent between two and four months in a European country or the USA whereas one-third were foreign nationals who had spent between two and four months in Croatia. This allowed for comparative analysis across the different groups. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Generally speaking, the respondents expressed surprisingly little interest in (learning) both the language of the host country and English as a language of global communication. English was the most frequently used language and the majority of respondents tended to socialize with other foreigners rather than host country nationals. Incoming respondents found Croats to be markedly warm and hospitable while outgoing Croatian students found the citizens of the host country only moderately hospitable. When assessing what they had learnt about the host country, respondents mostly ranked their knowledge of the host country linguistic characteristics rather low, especially in the case of LWULs such as Croatian, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak. The obvious exception to this was English. Only five respondents, all of them Croats, mentioned improving their linguistic competences (2 in English, 1 in French, 1 in Hungarian and 1 non-specific) among the benefits of taking part in the exchange programme. Finally, approximately 40% of respondents reported some problems in communication and only 10% of respondents remarked that they wished there were fewer linguistic barriers as that would contribute to social cohesion. The fact that a small number of students complained about the lack of communication with host country nationals could be explained by their specific focus on their personal artistic development and on the visual. It seems that relying on English as a global language to achieve social cohesion is far from producing the desired results in the investigated context. We need to put a significant effort into achieving better social inclusion of incoming students, which is a goal that could be realized if Croatian language classes were offered to them on a regular basis. Likewise, outgoing Croatian students would have found the interaction with the host community much easier and more gratifying had they learnt the basics of the host country language.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

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