A recent participation in the selection board for mobility grants at higher education institution level once again revealed that students with apparently good prospects for an exchange scholarship lose out on positions in the final admission shortlist because of their weak and sometimes inappropriate letter of motivation.

For this reason I would like to encourage language teachers to dedicate some of their teaching time  to explain to their students how to write a letter of motivation. The number of students who want to study abroad for a period of time with or without mobility grants is increasing. They surely would be grateful if, during their L2 or L3 lessons, they could acquire and deepen skills that can be concretely used already during the study period, such as how to write a well-structured and convincing letter of motivation. Read More