Detta examensarbete är en kvalitativ studie med kvantitativa inslag. Studien behandlar tre studenters språkinlärning under ett utbytesår i Frankrike. De tre studenterna kommer ursprungligen från Sverige, USA och Tyskland, och franska är således ett främmande språk för alla tre. Uppsatsens syfte är främst att genom observationer och intervjuer kartlägga studenternas inlärningsstrategier, det vill säga hur de går tillväga för att lära sig franska. Jag intervjuade studenterna tre gånger under deras vistelse i Frankrike. Dessutom undersöktes studenternas inlärningsstrategier med hjälp av ett frågeformulär, utarbetat av R. Oxford. (1989:290). Studien är även inriktad på om studenternas inlärningsstrategier förändras eller utvecklas under deras utbytesår i Frankrike. En inblick ges även i inlärarnas upplevelser av den egna språkinlärningen och deras resonemang kring den franska undervisningen. Studiens resultat visar att alla tre inlärare vid språkinlärning använder sig av inlärningsstrategier i stor utsträckning. Vidare använde de olika strategier både i och utanför klassrummet. En slutsats man kan dra är att dessa tre studenter främst använder de kognitiva och de sociala strategierna. Men man kan även urskilja en stark användning av de metakognitiva och de kompenserande strategierna. Studenternas användning av inlärningsstrategier har under detta läsår inte påvisat några större förändringar. I intervjuerna framgår det att studenterna anser att det tar lång tid att utveckla sin egen inlärningsmetod. Det framgår även att alla tre studenter har olika behov när det gäller deras inlärningsprocesser och lärarens undervisning.

The purpose is to investigate the significance of social media for the user group exchange students. But also to investigate their central information needs and how they reason regarding criticism of the sources when it comes to using social media. I used theories regarding information needs from different researchers. I also used a model concerning information behaviors from Wilson. I used another theory concerning building blocks in social media by Kietzmann, Hermkens, MacCarthy and Silvestre. The study was conducted using semi-structured qualitative interviews with 8 exchange students. The questions asked are: Which are a few exchange student’s central information needs and what areas of usage are they related to? What social media do a few exchange students use and what activities do they usually carry out while using them? How do a few exchange students reason regarding criticism of the sources when it comes to social media use? My first conclusion is that social media has a significance impact when it comes to providing exchange students with information. Exchange students can also use social media to communicate with friends, family and relatives. My second conclusion is that exchange student’s information needs are increased. They need more information about news, cultural information and practical information. The last conclusion is that exchange students have good knowledge regarding criticism about the sources and when it comes to judging trustworthiness.

Utbytesstudenter har i tidigare studier identifierats som ett betydelsefullt segment inom ungdomsturismen, däremot har många destinationer inte tagit tillvara på de fördelar denna grupp för med sig. Denna studie undersökte vilka fördelar Kalmars utbytesstudenter förde med sig till staden. Eftersom tidigare studier har identifierat de tre största fördelarna som ekonomiska, kulturella och marknadsföring blev det dessa tre kategorier som vi valde att undersöka i vår studie. Denna studie bygger på en enkätundersökning och tre olika former av intervjuer.   Ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv visade vår studie att Kalmars utbytesstudenter betalade en levnadskostnad, de förde med sig besökare och de reste i staden, regionen, i övriga Sverige och Europa under sitt utbyte. Många av studenterna kunde även tänka sig att återvända till Kalmar i framtiden. När det kom till marknadsföring visade vår undersökning att majoriteten av utbytesstudenterna hade en positiv bild utav Kalmar. De flesta använde sig även av sociala medier och en stor del av dessa uppgav att de skrivit om eller nämnt Kalmar i sina uppdateringar. Majoriteten av studenterna kunde även tänka sig att rekommendera Kalmar till framtida utbytesstudenter. Den största kulturella påverkan utbytesstudenter har på en destination är att de utsätter värdbefolkningen för andra kulturer, men för att detta ska kunna ske behöver de interagera med värddestinationen. Vår undersökning visade att i Kalmar sker inte detta fullt ut, studenterna själva kände att de sällan interagerade med värdbefolkningen under sin tid här.   Vår slutsats blev att ur ett ekonomiskt och kulturellt perspektiv kunde vi inte med säkerhet säga till vilken utsträckning utbytesstudenterna kan anses vara en betydelsefull grupp för Kalmar. Däremot såg vi att ur ett marknadsföringsperspektiv fanns flertalet fördelar. Slutsatsen blev därmed att även om vi inte kunde mäta utsträckningen av de olika fördelarna så finns dessa och bör tas tillvara på av Kalmar. / Exchange students has been seen as an important segment of youth tourism according to previous studies of the topic, nevertheless have destinations failed to see the connection between the group and the advantages that comes with. This study aimed to investigate what kind of advantages the exchange students of Kalmar brings to the city. Previous research discusses the biggest advantages as economic, cultural and marketing, these three became the categories we investigated in our study. The study is based on a survey and three interviews.   Our study showed that the exchange students in Kalmar payed basic living costs. They also brought visitors and travelled around the destination as well as to other Swedish and European cities. They proved to have long term economic advantages since many of them planned to come back in the future. The result of the study when it came to marketing was that most of the students had a positive image of Kalmar, most of them also used social media and talked about or mentioned Kalmar in their updates. Many of the students would also recommend Kalmar to future exchange students. The biggest cultural impact according to previous research was that exchange students expose the host society for different cultures, however this can only happen if the exchange students gets the chance to interact with the local people and students at the destination. Our study showed that the exchange students did to some extent interact with the local students but not very much with the local society.   Our conclusion became that we couldn’t say for sure to what extent exchange students affected Kalmar from an economic and cultural perspective. But we can say that from the marketing perspective the exchange students brought some advantages. We think that even though we cannot say for sure to what extent the students affect Kalmar, we do believe that the advantages that comes with the exchange students needs to be addressed and recognized by the destination and its actors.

The mental constructions of other places are based on impressions from everything that surrounds us in our everyday life, e.g. pictures, videos, texts and narratives. The tourism industry is especially influential when it comes to creating the image of before “unknown places”. Furthermore, it has a tendency to embellish and idealize people and places located in what is commonly known as the Third World. The mental construction of South Africa, today a rapidly growing tourist country among Western tourists, is especially interesting to investigate given its very long and complex colonial history. The purpose of this paper was to describe and analyze the image of South Africa among a group of Western exchange students who each of them had spent one semester at the Stellenbosch University, situated in the Western Cape in South Africa. This was made through a text analysis which was based on open conversations/interviews with five former students. They were asked to tell about their time in South Africa regarding expectations they had, what they experienced on place and how their image of South Africa altered during time. The analysis was made based on post-colonial theory with the emphasis on Edward Said’s notions Orientalism and imaginary geographies. The analysis was also put in comparison to what other writers researching the similar issues have found. The analysis showed that all students had an imaginary Africa. South Africa’s small town Stellenbosch in its colonial appearance surprised them and wasn’t considered as “the real Africa”. The exotic animals and the locals though, were just as they’d expected them to be – very exotic respectively nice and friendly. The study indicates that the imaginary Africa is deeply rooted and that it takes much reflection to change or influence these imaginaries.

The aim of this dissertation is to study exchange students’ movement and exchange studies as a trajectory in time and space. The dissertation is based on interviews with fourteen Korean exchange students at Swedish universities. The theoretical framework is based on Actor–Network Theory (ANT). ANT argues that everything that does something is an actor (human and non-human) and that an actor cannot be separated from a network that acts through the actor. ANT also argues that one’s location is not explained only in terms of Euclidean space and time but also in terms of spatiality and temporality, which are a network’s production. The dissertation shows that the students were enrolled and mobilized in the exchange programs by heterogeneous actors and that there were specific network spaces that produced exchange students at the home universities. The exchange students were excluded at the Swedish host universities by being formally included without direction. At the host universities, they went off course from their educational trajectories because the curriculum disappeared during their exchange studies. The dissertation also shows that the exchange students were enrolled and mobilized in the networks of “international students” at the host universities. Theses exchange students instead moved in the same way as the other exchange students, which stabilized the networks of “international students” at the host universities. It describes how the exchange students acted at a distance as actor of networks in Korea. When they returned, many of them had to prolong their educational period. This was a result of the translation of exchange studies at the home universities. In this dissertation, it shows that the exchange program was performed not only by individual exchange students; rather, it was performed in the associations of heterogeneous actors. / Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka utbytesstudenters rörelser och utbytesstudier som banor i tid och rum. Avhandlingen baseras på intervjuer med fjorton koreanska utbytesstudenter som vistats på olika svenska värduniversitet. Den teoretiska referensramen grundar sig i Actor-Network Theory (ANT). ANT argumenterar för att allt som gör något är en aktör, oavsett om den är mänsklig eller icke-mänsklig. En aktör kan inte urskiljas från nätverket vilken agerar genom aktören. Aktörens lokalisering kan inte enbart förklaras i termer av det euklidiska rummet och tiden, utan också i termer av rumslighet och tolkningar av tidsförloppen vilka är nätverksprodukter. Avhandlingen visar att studenterna enrollerades och mobiliserades till utbytesprogrammen av heterogena aktörer och att det fanns specifika rum där utbytesstudenterna skapades. På värduniversiteten exkluderades de genom att formellt inkluderas i olika kurser utan att dessa ofta hade någon riktning i deras studier. Utbytesstudenternas studier kom ur kurs jämfört med deras ordinarie utbildningar eftersom en läroplan saknades på värduniversiteten. Avhandlingen visar att utbytesstudenterna enrollerades och mobiliserades in i nätverk av de internationella studenterna på värduniversiteten. Utbytesstudenterna rörde sig på samma sätt som andra utbytesstudenter, vilket stabiliserade nätverken av ”internationella studenter” på värduniversiteten. I avhandlingen beskrivs även utbytesstudenternas fortsatta agerande som aktörer i nätverken i Korea. När de återvänt till Korea behövde de flesta förlänga sin utbildningstid och detta var ett resultat av hur utbytesperioden tillgodoräknades på hemuniversiteten. Det var ett resultat av översättningen i utbytesprogrammen på hemuniversiteten. Avhandlingen visar att utbytesprogrammen inte enbart genomfördes av de individuella utbytesstudenterna; snarare genomfördes de i förbindelser med heterogena (mänskliga och icke-mänskliga) aktörer.

Globalization and social interaction between countries are two current topics in today’s research. A shown interest in exchange studies among students all over the world is one of the positive outcomes of globalization and the social interactions that comes with it. This essay examines how a group of Japanese exchange students studying at a university in Sweden experience their social meetings with the local Swedish students and fellow Japanese exchange students. A netnographic method was applied to interview the informants online, 12 synchronous interviews were thus carried out to better understand the experiences of the Japanese exchange students. To better understand the relations that occur between the informants and the Swedish students, and the relations that occur with fellow Japanese students, the theory of “the Established and the Outsiders” by Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson (2010) is applied. This theory examines the relationship that takes place between a group that is new and has a low sense of community, and a group that is established and has a high sense of community. This study shows that the Japanese exchange students have a positive attitude when it comes to getting to know Swedish students. The X-program and also the mix of local students and exchange students in classes contributes to create a social platform for the Japanese exchange students. This study also shows that the group of Japanese exchange students have a low sense of community within the group, the study examines different factors to discuss why that may be.