Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education - Online First

Study abroad is often believed to be transformative, but measuring transformation directly is difficult. In Duerden’s (2018) experience typology, a transformative experience is described as a change in self-perception that is most often characterized by enduring behavioral changes. This definition is helpful but provides limited insight into how one experiences transformation. This study clarifies several components of meaning-making in response to disorienting situations that may contribute to one’s perception of a transformative experience. Study abroad students in a language and culture program in Spain responded to a questionnaire based on the Experience Impact Scale (Lundberg et al., 2021). They also reflected on their experiences in short writing assignments, which were coded and analyzed. In addition to the core idea of change, a transformative experience often includes a challenge overcome or a disorienting dilemma resolved. It involves relationships and is facilitated by structured reflection. Additional support for the hierarchical nature of the experience typology suggests that creating transformative learning experiences should involve the fuller spectrum of experience typology characteristics, including those that are memorable and meaningful, as well as transformative. Increasing opportunities for structured reflection — both during and after study abroad — may help participants better recognize the significance of their experiences.

This article documents language development in the context of studying abroad with English as the lingua franca. In particular, it examines whether and how lexical sophistication in English as a foreign language changes during a semester abroad. Given the advances in the conceptualization and operationalization of lexical sophistication, this study applies indicators of lexical sophistication that have not previously been used in study abroad research. A statistically significant improvement was found in two measures of lexical sophistication in oral production — familiarity and meaningfulness — and in one measure in written production — meaningfulness. Comparing the differences between the pre- and post-test results showed that respondents performed better in the oral production in terms of range and familiarity, that is, they produced more lexis that occurs in fewer texts and is less familiar, while they performed better in the written production in terms of imageability, in other words, they used less imageable lexis.

Drawing on the concepts of desire from applied linguistics and Deleuzian perspectives, this study investigates the desires encapsulated in a Japanese woman’s English learning sojourn in the Philippines. Data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire and through two semi-structured interviews. The participant’s retrospective narrative provides insight into her perceptions of the Philippines compared to Canada. While previous research has primarily examined the sociolinguistic aspects of studying abroad in the Philippines, the current study expands this focus to encompass other dimensions, such as material factors. The findings illuminate how the Philippines, as a study-abroad destination, is experienced and remembered by students. Further, the findings unveil the participant’s ambivalent yet irresistible akogare for the West. The marginal desirability of the Philippines as a study-abroad destination represents how the historically and economically constituted global hierarchies of power have been reproduced in the discourse and practice of transnational English learning.