Numerous educators are convinced that international exchange tours bring a tremendous positive impact on adolescents studying at school. While there is a disadvantage from the concept coming in the form of obstacles during recruitment procedures, I reckon that increased mutual knowledge and enhanced sociocultural status from it are far greater.
People who assert that cross-cultural student exchange has more negative sides than the positive ones are based on justified grounds. Obstacles during the recruitment stage is the preliminary downside of studying abroad via exchange. As teenagers mostly choose to study overseas solely by epistemic motivation, the willingness to grant the maximum number of scholarships available leads to unjustified easing. Elaborating it, the use of all financial resources allocated to a certain university results in the excessive simplification of requirements. Such actions turn against the learners because some of them go to countries in which they do not know the language well enough to study there. Unfortunately, the awareness of the need to know the foreign language is not always sufficient among students and the exchange enterprise itself. As an outcome, pupils easily enter an abroad college and suffer from the difficulty to understand the studies and simply from living there.
Nevertheless, from my perspective upsides need to be examined as well. Mutual knowledge increases is one of the primary merits. Meaning that these visits broaden on a given discipline in a different education system, allows to build awareness of the international dimension and character of knowledge, improves language competences, promotes the development of critical thinking and independent learning skills. For instance, studying in Spain offers a degree of linguistic competence, socioeconomic and socio-professional status. Moreover, participation in student exchange programs shapes a person’s personality and worldview. Explaining, this experience makes students not only self-confident, but also more tolerant towards other cultures. Lessons conducted in foreign universities highlight the importance of the cultural content in modern language teachings thus boosting the favorable attitudes towards other notions. Homestay is a central space in France which is excellent instance of how the visits draw in many people. Precisely, it is the place where students are invited to negotiate their own identities against the backdrop of the host culture.
To conclude, although international exchange visit participants may face language barrier issues, the concept offers undoubted benefits such as mutual knowledge and tolerance to other nationalities. These facets truly prove the value of the opportunity