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Immersion learning: Implications for non-native lexical development
... A SA experience can be an effective way to learn a second language (L2) (Coleman 1997;DuFon and Churchill 2006;Isabelli 2004;Jackson and Schwieter forthcoming;Kinginger 2009Kinginger , 2013aKuntz and Belnap 2001;Pellegrino 1998). It also provides a fruitful learning environment whose effects on L2 development can be examined (Barron 2006;Díaz-Campos 2004;Lafford 1995Lafford , 2004Schwieter 2013;Schwieter and Ferreira 2014;Schwieter and Kunert 2012) and political-, cultural-and identity-related issues (Block 2007;Kinginger 2013b;Plews 2015;Schwieter and Ferreira 2016). ...
... The level of L2 proficiency at the onset of SA plays an important role in the outcomes of the experience. For instance, although beginning L2 learners will be able to participate in a limited number of advanced language situations, they may have room for more growth in L2 development (Schwieter 2013). However, SA learners can be resilient as seen in Schwieter and Ferreira's (2014) study in which only one out of the 14 beginning L2 learners expressed difficulties to socialise in the L2 due to low proficiency. ...
English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish who were taking part in a four-week study abroad program in Spain and Japanese-speaking learners of L2 English who were individually studying in year-long abroad experiences participated in the present study. Quantitative and qualitative data from language questionnaires and contact profiles along with open-ended responses revealed details on learners’ engagement with and use of their languages while abroad. We discuss the findings and their implications for programs, educators and learners.
... There are a number of methods, both qualitative and quantitative, which researchers can use to track and assess the language learning of education abroad participants. While some studies are designed to compare language learning in the host speech community with learning in traditional classroom settings in the home environment (e.g., Isabelli-García 2010; Segalowitz and Freed 2004), others utilize within-group analyses to explore linguistic and intercultural development in two or more timespans (e.g., Faretta-Stutenberg and Morgan-Short 2018; Grey et al. 2015;Schwieter 2013;Schwieter and Klassen 2016). The design choice depends on several factors, including the research questions, availability of research equipment and materials, the expertise of the researcher, and the structure and length of the education abroad programme. ...
This study investigates lexical and morpho-syntactic development in comprehension and production among university-level students who participated in a second language (L2) study abroad program. Prior to and at the conclusion of the short-term study abroad experience, English language learners of Spanish participated in a verbal fluency measure along with comprehension and production tasks. The verbal fluency measure revealed rapid lexical gains. However, the comprehension and production tasks showed that the comprehension of grammatical gender agreement was excellent, while the accuracy in the production of morpho-syntactic agreement decreased over the limited time spent abroad. We analyze this counterintuitive trend as a shift in learning strategy: from grammatical accuracy to communicative ease, in line with a theory of U-shaped development in second language learners (e.g., Sharwood Smith & Kellerman, 1989) and previous observations about the study abroad environment (Isabelli-García, 2010). Other analyses of morpho-syntactic accuracy in our production data provide additional support for this argument.
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