Foreign academic researchers in the Basque Country with a focus on multilingualism: language and intercultural competences, beliefs, and practices

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the multilingualism of foreign academic researchers in academic workplaces and in the wider Basque society. Academic workplaces are by default international and multilingual, and languages and cultures brought to the Basque Country by foreign researchers add further to the richness of this bilingual region. Although English is used as lingua franca in academia, other languages are used by academics depending on who they interact with, the context, and the activities. The aim is to investigate foreign researchers¿ languages, and how foreign researchers, use their languages, how mobility, language learning and intercultural encounters shape their intercultural competences, their opinions about languages, and to learn about their cultural experiences in the Basque Country. In order to study a group of foreign researchers as multilinguals, the `Focus on Multilingualism¿ approach developed by Cenoz and Gorter (2011, 2017) has been adapted as the principal framework. The thesis demonstrates the relationships between multilingualism and intercultural competence. The profile of the foreign researchers shows that they are all thoroughly multilingual speakers, who also are highly intercultural competent, who in general have positive attitudes towards various languages