‘I think it’s kind of necessary and expected.’ Students’ views on self-disclosure in university foreign language classes

Students of foreign languages are routinely asked to disclose information about themselves (e.g. family, hobbies, and education) as part of the language learning process. Despite this unique aspect of language classes, previous studies have not examined this generalised phenomenon of self-disclosure (SD) in the L2 classroom from a student perspective. This paper considers SD from the perspective of students of four European languages at an Australian university. Following completion of an initial questionnaire, 18 students participated in semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) was used to analyse the data. Our findings show that students are willing to self-disclose and that they see SD as a vector for learning about language and culture. Nevertheless, they are sensitive to the perceptions of their classmates and are conflict-averse, viewing the L2 classroom as a space that should be high in positivity. This means avoiding controversial views and the sharing of certain experiences (e.g. mental health issues), although sensitive topics may be discussed if not framed in terms of students’ personal experience. In addition, students consider teacher self-disclosure beneficial for both academic learning and classroom social dynamics. We outline recommendations for university language teachers based on these findings.