“I know how to improve. You know what I mean?”. Neoliberalism and the development of multilingual identities through study abroad

Abstract

Abstract The present article examines the relationship between study abroad and the construction of multilingual identities regarded as more marketable in the neoliberal economy. The main objective is to provide an insight on student mobility and dominant visions of the future in line with which languages are chosen to be taught/learned at tertiary level and how this offer mirrors the economized perspective adopted in the higher education system. It focuses on European higher-education students participating in study abroad through the Erasmus program in three contexts across Europe (Finland, Romania, and Catalonia). In the first place, the article delves into the ways neoliberal discourses on the value of study abroad and the skills that are expected to be acquired through the experience – this is, the type of individuals that the participants might become – shape their decision to enroll in a sojourn abroad in a particular context. Secondly, this article analyzes to what extent European youth participating in study abroad eventually perceive they added to their identities the desirable marketable skills they expected and how they consider this is going to materialize in the future. By looking at how multilingual identities are constructed through the Erasmus program, this study hypothesizes that study abroad is another mechanism embedded in educational practices that respond to economic demands in which the marketization of language skills plays a prominent role.