Building dialogue between cultures: Expats’ way of coping in a foreign country and their willingness to communicate in a foreign language

Abstract

During recent years there has been an increasing focus on student mobility and English as a foreign language. Willingness to communicate in a foreign language (L2 WTC) other than English is an issue less discussed. This chapter is based upon a study of expatriates’ (expats’) willingness to communicate in German as a foreign language in naturalistic settings. It is an attempt to listen to expatriate voices and to look for trends in how they experience their sojourn abroad, intercultural communication and foreign language learning. The study was carried out in Germany and the following groups were addressed: expatriates working and/or studying in Germany, all members of the network “Expats in Germany”. The methodology applied comprises a quantitative and a qualitative approach. The findings show that using English as a lingua franca influences expatriates’ German language communication. In addition, the expatriate situation in terms of cultural immersion strongly enhances their willingness to communicate in German dependent on expatriate age, education, gender, language skills, occupation and country of origin. The study argues for the importance of paying attention to individual and societal factors in foreign language learning and communication.