Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2023

The study abroad (SA) context is assumed to be ideal for second language (L2) learning because of the opportunities it provides to use the target language (TL) and to socialize with TL speakers. Although research conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic generally confirms this assumption, little is known about how the COVID-19 pandemic modified conditions for L2 learning in a SA context. This study contributes by documenting Swedish French language students’ patterns of TL use and perceived linguistic progress in a SA context in France during the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2021) and compares these data with data from an equivalent group of Swedish French language students who studied in France before the pandemic. The results suggest that the SA context provided advantageous learning conditions even during the pandemic.

The “social turn” in ongoing efforts to understand L2 acquisition in study abroad has brought about valuable additions to the literature, encouraging researchers to consider notions of identity in study abroad such as gender, class, nationality, race, and sex. This study focuses on an under-researched aspect of identity abroad: religiosity, and the benefit of pre-existing beliefs to find, create, and become a member of religious communities of practice for personal support – during what can be a difficult time of adjustment and homesickness – as well as for practice and learning in the L2. Findings indicate that joining religious communities of practice while abroad can encourage L2 learning while supporting critical notions of the L2 learner’s identity.

This article presents a comparative case study analysis of two mobility students who, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, had to terminate their stay abroad early and return home after seven and eleven weeks, respectively. The study aims to shed light on the impact of the outbreak of the pandemic on students’ social contacts and their re-adaptation back home, drawing on interview and questionnaire data. The interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and suggest that, while the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was a stressful experience for both students, which impacted the social contacts they entertained and their re-adaptation at home, the two students’ experiences also differed in many ways. We argue that these differences may be attributable to the social contacts the students maintained prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, the goals associated with the stay abroad, and the students’ coping strategies.

This study examines the request development of eight UK-based students during their stay abroad (SA) year in Germany or Austria. Open-ended roleplays were used to elicit 144 requests before, during, and after SA, and to track the development of external and internal request-mitigation strategies and deictic orientation. Semi-structured interviews and a language-engagement questionnaire were carried out to determine which contextual factors most influenced students’ pragmalinguistic development during SA. Participants mainly used conventionally indirect hearer dominant request strategies pre-sojourn. Whilst abroad, sojourners’ requests became more direct and mostly speaker dominant, whilst participants increasingly favored external mitigation strategies and, to a lesser extent, use of the internal-mitigation strategy upgrader. Of the factors hypothesized to be influential in their acquiring pragmalinguistic competence, participants’ awareness of differences in linguistic politeness, followed by their sense of identity in the host community and degree of interaction with the host community, influenced pre- to in-sojourn pragmalinguistic changes the most.

This study investigates the effects of an immersion experience on the lexical development of Spanish heritage language learners (HLLs) and second language learners (L2Ls) abroad. Data were collected from 21 Spanish HLLs and 33 L2Ls who spent a semester abroad. Lexical development was assessed based on written narratives collected before and after the semester. The narratives were analyzed to determine the impact of study abroad on three measures of lexical development: density, diversity, and sophistication. Lexical sophistication was assessed based on Spanish frequency data from the Corpus del Español (Davies, 2006) using the log-transformed frequency count. Results indicate a significant increase over time in lexical density for HLLs but not L2Ls, and a significant decrease in lexical sophistication for both groups. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on study abroad and the analysis of lexical development.

Phrasal verbs are highly common in informal discourse among native English speakers, yet they pose extraordinary difficulty to second language (L2) English learners. Informed by usage-based theory, this mixed-methods study attempted to determine the relationship between the amount of out-of-class English exposure in study abroad and the phrasal verb knowledge of international adult students in the United Kingdom. It also brought foundation program students (i.e., students in a preparation course for university degrees), a previously under-researched study-abroad population, under the spotlight. One hundred and eighteen foundation program students at a British university completed a modified Language Contact Profile and a productive phrasal verb test. Nine students were interviewed to further unravel how they acquired phrasal verbs via informal language contact. Analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between speaking English with international friends and phrasal verb knowledge. Hierarchical regression identified that overall English proficiency, spoken input contact, and non-interactive language contact were significant predictors of phrasal verb scores. This study points to the importance of having meaningful, emotionally enjoyable, and regular L2 contact to formulaic language competence during study abroad.