Spaces and Exchanges: We may wonder why students choose gap years to have an experience abroad and if it's always a benefic ?

Introduction :

The notion I'm going to introduce is « Spaces and Exchanges ». First of all I'd like to give a definition of these words : An exchange is the act of giving something and the fact of getting something in return. There can be material exchanges (with trade for example) but also cultural and social ones.

In relation to be the notion, the subject of my presentation will be « Gap Years ».

We may wonder why students choose gap years to have an experience abroad and if it's always a benefic ?

To illustrate my presentation, I will use 3 documents which are the following : « Picture High School – Gap Year - College » ; an audio document « Jordan tells us about his gap year » and « The disadvantages of Gap Years ».

First we'll see why students choose gap year between high school and college, then we'll see how Jordan lived his gap year and finally we'll see the disadvantages.

Plan :

First of all, there are some students who choose gap year after High School. The picture is composed of three main elements : first, 2 cliffs (one is on the right, the other one is on the left. Both are black. Above the left-one we can read high school whereas above the right one we can read college. Between them, there is a huge gap above which we can see « gap year » in white letters as well as the figure of a young man who is jumping so as to reach the second cliff (college). He has probably taken a big run-up to be able to jump so high and so far.

In the background, we can see orange and yellow, representing the sunset, as well as a forest at the bottom.

The huge gap between the two cliffs may smbolise the big changes that are awaiting a student when he has finished high school. These changes may be difficult to overcome. He may not be ready so sometimes it may be necessary to make a break. We may also say that the sunset symbolizes a transition : it is a passage from day to night. We can draw a parallel with a gap year which is also a transition between teenage and adulthood.

Now we are going to see the experience of Jordan.

Furthermore, Jordan tells us about his year abroad and why he likes this gap year. This year abroad was a compulsary part of his studies and he decided to spend it in France. He explains that in the U.K language degrees take 4 years compared to 3 years in most other disciplines. That is the key reason why he chose that course in the first place. In summary he decided to go abroad because he needed to spend a year abroad as part of his studies, he wanted to improve his language skills and cultural awareness, he wanted to experience new things : meet new people, he wanted to learn more about himself and develop personally, he wanted to develop professionally in terms of skills and futur prospects, he wanted to make a positive contribution in society.

All of these goals and many others push thousands of young people every year to spend time abroad whether as part of their studies or as a gap year.

In the UK gap years are becoming increasingly popular and especially for students who are competing for university places on

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