Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2017

Based on narratives from Hong Kong students on one-semester programmes at universities in Australia, Britain and Canada, this study focused on the emotional charge of expectations and day-to-day realities of homestay. It showed how, for many of the students, this emotional charge was related to the adoption of imagined identities as family members within the homestay. It also showed how a corresponding sense of inclusion or exclusion could arise from recognition or non-recognition of these imagined identities. The students’ experiences of homestay were often shaped by an expectation that a degree of emotional intensity within a family environment would lead to a successful language learning experience. Paradoxically, emotionally disturbing experiences could also contribute to a positive overall experience from the student’s perspective, if they led to a stronger sense of emotional inclusion. The experience was least satisfying overall in homestays where students were unable to feel this sense of inclusion.

This study examined the language-related experiences of Turkish students during their time in the U.S., and how these experiences related to their perceptions about learning English in an English-speaking community and interacting with host community members. The study also examined why Turkish students preferred a native speaker environment such as the U.S. as a venue for learning English. The participants of the study included 31 Turkish students who took English classes in a short-term summer study program in the U.S. The study used face-to-face interviews for data collection and content analysis to categorize students’ experiences. Findings show that although the majority of the students benefited from their stay in the U.S., they faced various challenges that limited their interaction with the host community and restricted their access to language input.

The number of international students keeps increasing worldwide. This is partly attributed to their expectation of improving their language skills by actually using the target language (TL) in the host countries. However, past studies show that such opportunities are not automatically given to them. Perceiving himself as one English learner, the author conducted an autoethnography to explore the processes of availing of opportunities to use the TL in Hawaii during his sabbatical. By recording observations and informal interviews in a diary of his own TL-mediated socialization, the author found that he could engage himself as an active social agent within a type of social space called affinity space which greatly promoted his situated TL-learning in naturalistic contexts. The author discusses how his own case can be applied to other learners studying abroad and presents some educational implications.

The number of Chinese students who are joining international exchange programs has increased significantly in recent years, with the majority enrolling in English-medium courses in the host country. To better understand how to prepare and support their learning, the present study investigated the developmental trajectories of 149 students from a Hong Kong university who participated in a semester-long exchange program in an English-speaking country. By way of questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews, and document analysis (e.g., study plans, responses to email prompts), this mixed methods inquiry tracked their evolving attitudes, motivation, and depth of investment in language and intercultural learning. As well as individual differences, the findings brought to light environmental factors that led to differing outcomes. While some participants developed more self-efficacy in English and meaningful intercultural friendships, others found it difficult to overcome language and cultural barriers, suggesting the need for interventions to bolster language enhancement and intercultural engagement.

Language learning in study abroad is usually analyzed for settings where the target language is the native language, thereby ignoring the growing number of lingua franca contexts in study abroad. To address this gap, this study examined the pragmatic perceptions of 19 English learners studying abroad, comparing students in native-language settings to their peers in lingua franca environments. During their semester abroad following pragmatic instruction, the learners composed essays which elicited their perceptions of the instruction’s usefulness, applicability, gains in pragmatic awareness, and (dis)advantages of including pragmatics in the curriculum. The results indicate that the native-language setting offers more opportunities to apply pragmalinguistic strategies taught in class, but the lingua franca environment provides more room for sociopragmatic awareness and negotiation. The lingua franca students valued the instruction more, and they highlighted the importance of pragmatic consciousness-raising to complement pragmalinguistic strategies. Implications for study abroad research and language teaching are derived.

This research note presents a short synopsis of the recently established project ‘Study Abroad Research in European Perspective’ (SAREP), funded in 2016–2020 by the European agency COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology). The report outlines the aims and objectives of SAREP and gives details of the Working Groups. It also presents an overview of the first event held in Vilnius, Lithuania on 13–14 October 2016 followed by a further event held in Lund, Sweden on 6–7 April 2017, and gives further information on SAREP’s activities.