Sebastian Windisch

Cultural linguistic short-term language acquisition abroad: Promoting communicative competence of learners

Supervision: Eva Vetter
Period: 2021-
Contact: sebastian.windisch@usc.es
Lecturer of Austria's Agency for Education and Internationalization (“OeAD”-Lektor”), University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)

The dissertation project investigates the potential of study trips as informal learning spaces to promote the communicative competence of foreign language learners. The study design included learners using a task catalog developed on the basis of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2001) and the Linguistic Risk-Taking initiative (cf. Slavkov 2018; Cajka/Vetter 2019). The tasks are designed to encourage active language use in the target country. The use and impact of interventions such as the study passport or language tandem in the target country were also recorded.

Communicative target language acquisition after sojourn stays in the target country cannot be neglected (cf. Teichler 2019, Dalhaus 2009), but communicative learning opportunities are not fully realized by learners: According to the research, this is true both in the context of short-term-sojourns (mostly in immersion setting with a language course) and longer-term study abroad (e.g. programs like “Erasmus” in Europe or language assistance settings in schools.) (cf. Coleman 2015, Mitchell 2014). The aim of this dissertation project is the scientific examination of communicative target language acquisition in informal, short-term cultural learning study abroad trips without immersion, which has hardly been investigated in the scientific literature. At the same time, the didactic focus is on improving the communicative competence of learners through learning opportunities in the destination country. These opportunities are provided by means of a task catalog, designed according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages 2001), and the Linguistics Risk-Taking initiative of the University of Ottawa (cf. Slavkov 2018), for learners from universities of the Iberian Peninsula during a cultural short-term trip to Vienna. The study design follows action research (Altrichter et al. 2018) which, in this context, envisages recording the use and impact of this action intervention on the basis of self-assessment by the students.

The task catalog developed in the project was translated into the following languages. Sample pages can be downloaded here.

GERMAN:
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2132474

SPANISH:
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2132475

GALIC:
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2132476

ITALIAN:
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2132477

FRENCH:
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2132478