Social Interaction and Linguistic Gain During Study Abroad

Abstract

This study investigates the role of social interaction in language gain among study abroad students in France. Using the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the Can‐Do self‐assessment scale (Clark, 1981), a revised version of the Language Contact Profile (LCP; Freed, Dewey, Segalowitz, & Halter, 2001), and preand postdeparture questionnaires, we examine gains in oral proficiency as related to language contact in the study abroad environment. This research shows that language gain is possible during a semester‐long study abroad program. It does not uphold the common belief that living situation and contact with authentic media differentiate students who improve from those who do not. Looking at the background of students (age, gender, grade point average, etc.), it reveals that only prior coursework in French correlates strongly with gains in proficiency once abroad. In its most surprising finding, this study suggests that speaking French with Americans may impede proficiency development.

Study Abroad Field Trip Improves Test Performance through Engagement and New Social Networks

“…However, Hadis (2005) goes on to say that the research literature on the learning outcomes of study abroad offers a limited number of pre-and post-experimental designs, and even when a post-test is given it is almost always by way of an electronic questionnaire (Stronkhorst, 2005) to assess the attitudinal change and not learning outcomes. Indeed, almost all research that involve a post-study abroad interview have all been to evaluate language acquisition and have neglected learning outcomes (Freed, 1995;Allen & Herron 2003;Magnan & Back 2007). It is likely that the lack of post-test participation is due to the student's adjustment difficulties upon return to their home institutions (Sussman, 1986).…”

Introduction: international academic mobility and inequalities

“…International mobility is hence considered to be leverage for advancing (academic and non-academic) careers in a competitive labour market both in the countries of education (Zeng and Xie 2004) and origin (Mohajeri Norris and Gillespie 2009). In academic and policy discourses, international academic mobility is considered inherently beneficial for mobile individuals, higher education institutions, and the labour markets through -for example -exchanges of knowledge and know-how (Bilecen and Faist 2015;Jöns 2009;King and Raghuram 2013;Madge, Raghuram, and Noxolo 2015), fostering intercultural understanding (Jackson 2010;Williams 2005), and tolerance (Bilecen 2013) together with the development/improvement of language skills (Magnan and Back 2007;Pellegrino Aveni 2005).…”

Cross-cultural study of the impact of short-term language courses abroad on language acquisition

“…Graduation rates (Sutton & Rubin, 2004), and grade point average (Williams, 2005) were believed to be the most reliable indicators of students' academic progress. Researchers, who specialized in foreign language acquisition, have increasingly found study abroad programs to positively affect the development of foreign language competence of the participants (Freed, 1995; Magnan & Back, 2007). Research studies attempted to investigate the differences between language learning at home and abroad for different student groups.…”