The Impacts of Erasmus+ on Foreign Language Development

Abstract

Through a quantitative research model, this paper deals with improvement of English language skills (listening, reading, vocabulary and grammar) after Erasmus+ programme. The assessment results of OLS (Online Linguistic Support) system which is organized by European Commission [EC] are taken as a source for data collection process. By means of this linguistic support, students are subject to two assessments which are held before-and after-mobility as a mandatory regulation of the programme. 213 Turkish Erasmus+ students who sojourned in different European countries were applied a questionnaire that inquires OLS assessment results. The collected data about the evaluations of aforementioned skills was analyzed via Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test. Results demonstrate that reading, listening, vocabulary and grammatical competences of the participants improved thanks to studying abroad even after one semester. Moreover, the relationship between initial and final results of the assessments were also examined in order to search to what extend initial level of proficiencies effect after mobility language development. According to analysis, it is found that students who were initially at A2 and B1 on CEFR levels progressed more than other students and improved their English language in respect of reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary.