Since the beginning millennium the Union increasingly engaged financial and human resources for strategies towards academic mobility and the recognition of educational performances within all EU-member states. The programme “European 2020” continued the overall objectives of the Bologna process and the preceding Lisbon strategy. The focus had been put on the education-mobility nexus that promoted cross-border knowledge acquisition, skill training and competence transmission towards a successful labour market transition and integration (COM 2010). Mobility in education and training in the light of the lifelong learning continuum was considered a central element towards individual and economic growth in a Europe.
A learning and training stay abroad was thus supposed to contribute to the acquisition, enrichment and cultivation of skills. One crucial element of mobility and corresponding low or high participation are linguistic skills that have a two-fold significance for learning and training periods abroad, as they represent on the one hand a pre-condition and one the other hand an envisaged objective and result.
The EU-Commission formulated awareness-raising on multilingualism to be one of the highest priorities for contemporary educational scenarios to actively participate in a diversified European society where “language barriers (i.e. lack of knowledge of a neighbouring country’s language) was the most important obstacle to cross-border cooperation” (COM 2018: 46). Accordingly, the development of linguistic competences is emphasised as one of the top priorities for formal and informal education in Europe. Phillipson (2003) outlined how the learning and training of foreign languages has been promoted in the light of the European social goals. Accordingly, the EU-Commission translated social goals on individual, societal and national level into corresponding implications for future language training applicable by all member states at the beginning millennium. Whereas social goals and thus recommendations for national curricula on national level focus on socio-economic advancement, foreign language is increasingly promoted as motor for socio-cultural cohesion on meso and micro level. This perspective was deflected in the following years, where language knowledge increasingly equals potential mobility and thus better education opportunities which in turn translate in better employability on individual level and economic prosperity on macro level.
Additionally, language is promoted as means to strengthen European Identity (COM 2017) and points with reference to the principle “unity in diversity” to a stronger valorisation of the richness and cultural variety of its nations and the promotion of the “European way of life” (Ibid.: 2ff.). This lifestyle can accordingly be pursued trough travel, study and work abroad periods as well as intense intercultural dialogue throughout mobility which require communication and linguistic skills. Accordingly, linguistic competences represent a core element of culture per se, which grounds identity (COM 2012). Providing high-quality solutions for foreign language acquisition should be thus priority for sending and receiving educational contexts to promote linguistic competence acquisition and transmission on individual, societal and national level.
Other than the impact on skills and competence development, data confirms that mobility periods or academic stays in a foreign country affect later decisions on where to work, to live and to raise a family. Studying abroad can also be a pre-defined strategy to enter the labour market of the destination country, where professional and social networks are tied during the academic stay, resulting in potentially augmented visibility and competitivity (COM 2018a).
Bibliography
European Commission. (2010). Communication from the Commission. Europe 2020 A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. (COM/2010/2020 final).
European Commission. (2012). The development of European identity/identities: Unfinished business. A Policy review. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2017). Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture. The European Commission's contribution to the Leaders' meeting in Gothenburg. Strasbourg: European Commission.
European Commission. (2018). Proposal for a Council recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2018a). Study on the movement of skilled labour. Final Report. Brussels: European Commission.
Phillipson, R. (2003). English-Only Europe?: Challenging Language Policy. London: Routledge.