Study abroad is a period of intensive change in both language use and identity development. This paper explores how out-of-class experiences of international English language students in Australia impact their language identity. My research findings point at study abroad as a multilingual experience, not target language immersion, and suggest re-conceptualising study abroad in terms of 'whole-person' linguistic outcomes that are broader than target language acquisition.
For the increasingly mobile student population worldwide, study abroad (SA) experiences are characterised by an intensive change in language use, as well as profound identity development (Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott, & Brown, 2013). However, the non-linguistic outcomes of study abroad remain overlooked in SA research, and the view of SA as a language immersion experience prevails in popular discourse. In Australia' s international English language teaching (ELT) sector, overwhelmingly monolingual classroom approaches determine the focus on language acquisition; little reference is made to transnational students' existing languages and related aspects of their language identity. Yet, outside the classroom these very students experience the multilingual and intercultural realities of diverse urban settings (Benson, Chappell, & Yates, 2018) through studying, living, working and socialising with peers from other parts of the world. This paper reports on a longitudinal study that explores this contradiction by approaching SA as a complex, whole-person, multilingual experience. Using multi-modal diaries and semi-structured interviews, it investigates how linguistic identities of Australia's international English language students develop and are manifested in the domains of work, home and social life. The findings contrast with the sector's educational language policies and current pedagogy aimed at target language immersion. The significance of this research lies in its capacity to critique the monolingual approach in ELT and support evolving multilingual pedagogy in Australia and globally. In addition, novel conceptualisations of multilingual identity in this study help re-think SA outcomes in terms including, but not limited to, language acquisition.
