Problemáticas lingüísticas en estudiantes extranjeros de intercambio universitario

Abstract

The number of international students who make university exchanges in Chilean universities has increased considerably. A large number of them come from countries whose native language is not Spanish. Objectives. To know the difficulties of international students (from three disciplinary fields: Humanities, Social Sciences, and Engineering) as perceived by academics, and define the representative academic genres that students should produce during the university exchange. Materials and methods. A quantitative study using a descriptive transectional design was carried out by applying an online questionnaire to 44 academics from a Chilean university. Results. The main difficulty observed by the academics corresponds to a deficient Spanish level, and regarding the representative genres that they must produce, in the written genres stand out: essay (Human Sciences) and laboratory report (Sciences of Engineering) and in oral genres: debates (Human Sciences) and oral presentation (Sciences of Engineering and Human Sciences). Conclusion. Universities need to define and require a Spanish level that allows international students (non-native Spanish) to perform sufficiently in the academic field. In addition, international students must be taught to produce written and oral texts in Spanish