The routledge handbook of study abroad research and practice

The Routledge Handbook of Study
Abroad Research and Practice

The Routledge Handbook of Study Abroad Research and Practice is an authoritative
overview of study abroad and immersive context research specifically situated within
applied linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) for graduate students
and researchers in these fields. Featuring contributions from established scholars
from around the world, this volume provides in-depth coverage of the theoretical approaches and methodologies used in study abroad and applied linguistics research,
and examines their practical implications on program implementation. The handbook is organized around core areas of research and practice: language development
and personal growth; study abroad settings; individual differences of learners; and
applications concerning the preparation of students, teachers, and administrators
for study abroad, the role of study abroad in foreign language curricula, and future
directions. This handbook is the ideal resource for graduate students, researchers,
and administrators interested in learning more about linguistic and personal development during study abroad.
Cristina Sanz is Professor of Spanish Linguistics, Chair of the Department of S
­ panish
and Portuguese and Director of the Barcelona Summer Program at Georgetown
University.
Alfonso Morales-Front  is Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics and Director
of the Spanish Summer Institute and the Quito Summer Program at Georgetown
University, USA.


Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics

Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics provide comprehensive overviews of the
key topics in applied linguistics. All entries for the handbooks are specially commissioned and written by leading scholars in the field. Clear, accessible and carefully
edited Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics are the ideal resource for both
advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students.
The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition

Edited by Shawn Loewen and Masatoshi Sato
The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies
Edited by John Flowerdew and John E. Richardson
The Routledge Handbook of Language in the Workplace
Edited by Bernadette Vine
The Routledge Handbook of English as a Lingua Franca
Edited by Jennifer Jenkins, Will Baker and Martin Dewey
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Superdiversity
Edited by Angela Creese and Adrian Blackledge
The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization
Edited by Leanne Hinton, Leena Huss and Gerald Roche
The Routledge Handbook of Sociocultural Theory and Second Language
Development
Edited by James P. Lantolf and Matthew E. Poehner with Merrill Swain
The Routledge Handbook of Study Abroad Research and Practice
Edited by Cristina Sanz and Alfonso Morales-Front

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/RHAL


The Routledge Handbook
of Study Abroad
Research and Practice

Edited by Cristina Sanz and Alfonso Morales-Front


First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-19239-3 (hbk)
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Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra


Contents

List of Illustrationsx
List of Contributorsxiii
Acknowledgmentsxxii
Introduction: Issues in Study Abroad Research and Practice1
Cristina Sanz and Alfonso Morales-Front
Part I

Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Study Abroad17
Survey of Theoretical Approaches
1 Variationist Research Methods and the Analysis of Second
Language Data in the Study Abroad Context19
Kimberly L. Geeslin and Jordan Garrett
2 Psycholinguistic, Cognitive, and Usage-Based Approaches to
Study Abroad Research36
Timothy McCormick
Survey of Methodological Approaches
3 Quantitative Approaches for Study Abroad Research48
Sarah Grey
4 Qualitative Approaches for Study Abroad Research58
Natalia Curto García-Nieto
Part II

Language Development and Personal Growth: Key Areas69
Phonological Development
5 Acquisition of Phonetics and Phonology Abroad: What We
Know and How71
Megan Solon and Avizia Yim Long
v

Contents

6 L2 Spanish Intonation in a Short-Term Study Abroad Program86
Jorge Méndez Seijas
Pragmatics
7 Being Polite at the Railway or Bus Station: How a Role-Play
Can Illustrate the Differences between Study Abroad Groups
vs. Heritage Students and At-Home Groups of Spanish L2
University Learners102
Lourdes Díaz, Mariona Taulé, and Núria Enríquez
8 Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence in Study
Abroad Contexts119
Wei Ren
Morphosyntax
9 The Development of Second Language Grammar in a Study
Abroad Context135
Martin Howard and John W. Schwieter
10 Benefits of Study Abroad and Working Memory on L2
Morphosyntactic Processing149
Nuria Sagarra and Ryan LaBrozzi
Oral Fluency and Complexity
11 Effects of Time and Task on L2 Mandarin Chinese Language
Development during Study Abroad166
Clare Wright
12 Utterance Fluency in the Study-Abroad Context: An Overview
of Research Methodologies181
Lorenzo García-Amaya
13 Exploring Oral L2 Fluency Development during a ThreeMonth Stay Abroad through a Dialogic Task193
Maria Juan-Garau
Lexical Development

14 Vocabulary Acquisition during Study Abroad:
A Comprehensive Review of the Research210
Victoria Zaytseva, Carmen Pérez-Vidal, and Imma Miralpeix

vi


Contents

Communication and/or Learning Strategies
15 Language-Learning Strategy Use by Learners of Arabic,
Chinese, and Russian during Study Abroad226
Jeffery R. Watson and Gregory Ebner
Personal Growth
16 Project Perseverance and Journaling: Toward Creating a
Culture of Engagement during Study Abroad246
R. Kirk Belnap, Jennifer Bown, Thomas Bown,
Chantelle Fitting and Alyssa White
Identity
17 Identity and Study Abroad262
Brandon Tullock
Part III

The Program: Study Abroad Settings275
Length of Stay
18 Length of Time Abroad and Language Ability: Comparing
Means Using a Latent Approach277
Lin Gu
19 A Short-Term Study Abroad Program: An Intensive Linguistic
and Cultural Experience on a Neighboring Pacific Island293

Diane de Saint-Léger and Kerry Mullan
Family vs. Dorm Stays
20 Interactional Development through Dinnertime Talk: The Case
of American Students in Chinese Homestays309
Wenhao Diao, Yi Wang, Anne Donovan, and Margaret Malone
Sheltered Programs, Direct Matriculation Programs, Hybrid Programs
21 Making a Difference through Talk: Spanish Heritage Language
Learners as Conversation Partners in a Hybrid Study Abroad
Program329
Silvia Marijuan

vii


Contents

Service Learning Programs, Professional Programs
22 Curricula Crossing Borders: Integrating Multicultural and
Multilingual Teacher Education Courses in Study Abroad344
Eric Ruiz Bybee, Julia Menard-Warwick, Enrique David
Degollado, Deb Palmer, Shannon Kehoe, and Luis Urrieta Jr.
23 Development of Critical Intercultural Communicative
Competence and Employability in Work Abroad Programs:
A UK Perspective359
Sandra Y. López-Rocha
Language Program Components
24 Interaction and Corrective Feedback in Study Abroad374
Lara Bryfonski and Alison Mackey
Part IV

The Person: Individual Differences385
Aptitude, Motivation, Anxiety, Working Memory
25 Study Abroad and L2 Learner Attitudes387
Kimberly L. Geeslin and Lauren B. Schmidt
26 The Role of Cognitive Aptitudes in a Study Abroad
Language-Learning Environment406
Medha Tare, Ewa Golonka, Alia K. Lancaster, Carrie Bonilla,
Catherine J. Doughty, R. Kirk Belnap, and Scott R. Jackson
27 Contributions of Initial Proficiency and Language Use
to Second-Language Development during Study Abroad:
Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Evidence421
Mandy Faretta-Stutenberg and Kara Morgan-Short
Experienced Learners (Bilinguals), Heritage Language Learners
28 Spanish Heritage Language Learners in Study Abroad across
Three National Contexts437
Tracy Quan, Rebecca Pozzi, Shannon Kehoe, and
Julia Menard-Warwick
Proficiency Levels
29 Proficiency Levels in Study Abroad: Is There an Optimal Time
for Sojourning?453
Bernard Issa and Janire Zalbidea
viii


Contents

Age
30 What Do We (Not) Know about the Effects of Age on L2
Development When Learning Occurs in a Study Abroad Setting?465
Àngels Llanes

Intercultural Sensitivity
31 Unpacking the Study Abroad Experience:
An Intercultural Process476
Kacy M. Peckenpaugh
Part V

Applications491
Preparing Students for Study Abroad
32 The Role of Individual Factors in Students’ Attitudes toward
Credit-bearing Predeparture Classes: Implications for Practice493
Lisa M. Kuriscak and Kelly J. Kirkwood
Educating Teachers and Administrators on Study Abroad
33 Linking High-Impact Immersion to Study Abroad Design:
Higher Education Faculty and Staff Make Connections510
Delane Bender-Slack and Diane Ceo-Difrancesco
Where Study Abroad Fits in the Foreign Language Curriculum
34 When Some Study Abroad: How Returning Students Realign
with the Curriculum and Impact Learning527
Paula Winke and Susan Gass
The Future of Study Abroad
35 History and Current Trends in US Study Abroad545
Amelia J. Dietrich
Index559

ix


Illustrations

Tables

1.1 Minimal pairs of [s] and [θ] in Peninsular Spanish25
1.2 Central Peninsular Spanish clitic paradigm27
5.1 Summary of several existing studies on the acquisition of
segments during SA76
7.1 Main characteristics of InfoTravel corpus107
7.2 Morphological categories in InfoTravel109
7.3 Direct questions111
7.4 Direct questions by group and role111
7.5 DQ types by roles112
7.6 DC across groups and roles113
10.1 Descriptive statistics for WM, years learning157
11.1 Oral proficiency planned monologue results173
11.2 Oral proficiency unplanned monologue results173
12.1 Utterance fluency research185
13.1 Descriptive statistics for NNSs (n = 31) at T1 and T2199
13.2 Wilcoxon signed-rank test: NNS differences between T1 and T2200
13.3 Descriptive statistics for NSs (n = 18) at T0201
13.4 Mann-Whitney U test: significant comparison of NNSs at T1 and T2
with NSs201
15.1 Sample modified SILL items230
15.2 Sample structured interview questions231
15.3 Breakdown of high- vs. mid- vs. low-gainers on L2 proficiency tests231
15.4 ANOVA data for listening comprehension: number of LLS used232
15.5 Chi-square data for listening comprehension: Likert-scale survey232
15.6 ANOVA data for reading comprehension test: number of LLS used233
15.7 Chi-square data for reading comprehension test: Likert-scale survey233
15.8 ANOVA data for OPI: number of LLS used234
15.9 Chi-square data for OPI: Likert-scale survey234
15.10 Aggregate LLS rankings for high-gainers235
15.11 Aggregate LLS rankings for mid-gainers236

15.12 Aggregate LLS rankings for low-gainers237
16.1 Quantitative changes in student journaling by year250
16.2 Results of exit survey250
18.1 Descriptive statistics for the observed variables284
x


Illustrations

18.2
18.3
18.4
18.5
18.6
19.1
19.2
19.3
19.4
0.1
2
20.2
20.3
20.4
20.5
20.6
21.1
21.2
22.1
25.1
25.2

25.3
25.4
25.5
25.6
25.7
6.1
2
27.1
27.2
27.3
27.4
27.5
27.6
8.1
2
28.2
28.3
29.1
31.1
32.1

Correlations of the observed variables285
Fit indices for the three competing models285
Multigroup analysis I287
Multigroup analysis II287
Multigroup analysis III 288
Please select from the following list your top four reasons
for initially participating in this study tour (n = 12)298
In which of the following specific domains do you think you have
improved as a direct result of the tour (multiple-choice answer)? (n = 12)299

Out of the three “formal” types of assessment, which one was the
most useful to your learning and why? (n = 12, multiple-choice with
single-answer item)300
Which aspects of the tour helped you most with your learning?
(n = 12, multiple-choice item, multiple answers permitted)301
Usage ratios of RTs by Mandarin and English speakers312
Profiles of participants and their host families314
Length of recordings and transcribed recordings from each participant315
Typical backchannel forms in students’ RTs316
Typical lexical forms in students’ RTs316
Distribution of forms used for RTs in Mandarin317
Self-rated proficiency for L2Ls and Spanish HLLs
333
Focus group questions for L2Ls and Spanish HLLs
334
Attended sessions by demographic categories347
Dialectal features targeted in speech stimuli394
Four enrollment levels of Spanish L2 learner participants395
Kindness ratings according to study abroad experience, M (SD)397
Prestige ratings according to study abroad experience, M (SD)399
Ratings of Castilian Spanish according to prior study abroad in
Spain, M (N, SD)399
Ratings of Argentine Spanish according to prior study abroad in
Argentina, M (N, SD)399
Ratings of PR Spanish according to prior study abroad in Puerto
Rico, M (N, SD)399
Pooled coefficients from ordinal regression for aptitude predictors414
GJT experimental stimuli426
Descriptive results for behavioral measures427
Weekly L2 contact data428

Correlations examining initial proficiency, L2 contact, and
behavioral change from pre- to posttesting429
Descriptive results for processing measures429
Correlations examining initial proficiency, L2 contact, and
processing change from pre- to posttesting431
Researcher roles and contexts
440
Data collection procedures
440
Background information on case-study participants
441
Investigations of predeparture proficiency in study abroad
457
Participant scores on CCAI481
Descriptive statistics: Participant and program information496
xi


Illustrations

3 2.2
32.3
32.4
33.1
34.1
34.2

Descriptive statistics: IEC question497
Descriptive statistics: maximizing question (posttest only)498
Crosstab: matched cases: IEC Attitude by Gender499

One-sample statistics517
Participants in the focus group sessions532
Paired demographic information by year of study, language, OPIc
scores, and gender (300 participants)534
3 4.3 Paired data by language t test results535

Figures
6.1 Representation of a statement, produced by the author. The ƒ0 is
represented on the y-axis, while time is represented on the x-axis87
6.2 Representation of two languages that differ in terms of pitch range.
In a, the language represented with the solid line has an overall wider
pitch range than the language represented with the dotted line. In b, the
language represented with the solid line has a wider pitch range at the
beginning of the intonational phrase but a narrower pitch range in the end89
6.3 Box-and-whisker plots obtained from all the data points of
Participant 3 (male) in Week 1 (left) and Week 5 (right). The last two
boxes to the right in each week represent the nuclear pitch accent and
the boundary tone, respectively94
6.4 Box plots obtained from all the data points of Participant 2 (male)
and Participant 4 (female). The boxes represent pitch range at the
beginning (left) and end (right) of utterances96
8.1 Factors influencing learners’ pragmatic development127
12.1 Naturalistic continuum of learning contexts
187
13.1 Linear regression between SR at T1 and gains obtained at T2
202
13.2 Linear regression between PhonR at T1 and gains obtained at T2
203
13.3 Linear regression between APD at T1 and gains obtained at T2
204

18.1 Higher order factor model281
18.2 Correlated four-factor model282
18.3 Correlated two-factor model282
18.4 Correlated two-factor model with standardized estimates286
19.1 Student motivation for undertaking the tour
298
20.1 Percentage changes of RTs for each student
317
20.2 (a) Distribution of reactive responses in the first recordings (Pre 1).
(b) Distribution of reactive responses in the last recordings (Post 2)
318
25.1 Matched-guise task interface, Version A (kindness adjectives)
394
25.2 L2 group dialect ratings according to attribute
396
26.1 Pattern of OPI pre- and posttest scores413
27.1 ERP waveforms representing group-level data for all electrodes in the
region of interest used for analyses for (a) Article and (b) Adjective
gender agreement. Solid line represents processing of correct stimuli;
dotted line represents processing of violation stimuli. Time is
represented on the x-axis in milliseconds (ms); voltage is represented
on the y-axis in microvolts (µV)430
33.1 Participant ratings519
xii


Contributors

R. Kirk Belnap is a Professor of Arabic at Brigham Young University. From 2002 to
2015, he served as Director of the National Middle East Language Resource Center.

He has directed and studied numerous intensive language programs since 1989.
Delane Bender-Slack is an Associate Professor of Literacy and Reading/ Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Program Director in the School
of Education at Xavier University. She is a teacher educator, teaching courses in
methods, middle childhood, adolescent, multicultural literature, content area literacy, process writing, and reading theories. She has been published in journals such as
The Reading Professor, English Education, English Journal, Feminist Teacher, Teacher
Education and Practice, Teacher Educator, and Mid-Western Educational Researcher.
She has been involved in coordinating and implementing international experiences
for students, faculty, and teachers in Peru and Nicaragua. Her research interests include social justice teaching, critical literacy, curriculum studies, study abroad, and
adolescent literacy.
Carrie Bonilla is a Term Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at George Mason University. Her research focuses on second and third language acquisition, particularly pedagogical practices as related to the acquisition of morphosyntax and
individual differences.
Jennifer Bown (PhD, The Ohio State University) is Associate Professor of Russian
at Brigham Young University. Her research interests include language assessment,
development of advanced proficiency, and affective factors in SLA.
Thomas Bown is a PhD candidate in Psychology at Brigham Young University. His
research interests include theoretical psychology and the role of writing in cognition.
Chantelle Fitting (B.S. in Psychology, Brigham Young University) participated in
the 2014 SA program. Alyssa White (B.A. in Middle East Studies/Arabic, Brigham
Young University) participated in the 2015 SA program.
Lara Bryfonski is a doctoral candidate in applied linguistics at Georgetown University. Her research focuses primarily on interaction and corrective feedback in SLA
as well as task-based language teaching and learning. She is also a licensed English
as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and has taught ESL in a variety of contexts in
the US and abroad.
xiii


Contributors

Diane Ceo-DiFrancesco is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and

Modern Languages at Xavier University and serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. She instructs courses in Spanish and Foreign ­Language
pedagogy and has published articles in such journals as Hispania, The Language
Educator, Central States Reports, and The NAMTA Journal. Her research interests
include second language acquisition, intercultural communicative competence, content based language learning, learner strategy training, and integrating technology
to enhance language learning. An international presenter and K-12 teacher trainer,
Diane has also coordinated study abroad programs in Spain, ­Mexico, and Peru, and
has served as a visiting professor in Costa Rica and Spain.
Natalia Curto García-Nieto is a PhD Candidate in Hispanic Linguistics at Georgetown University. She is currently carrying out her dissertation study on morphosyntactic development in short- vs. long-term study abroad programs and the role of
individual factors in explaining differences in achievement. She has presented her
research at international conferences, including the International Symposium on Bilingualism, the Second Language Research Forum, and the annual meeting of the
American Association for Applied Linguistics.
Enrique David Degollado is a PhD student in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at the
University of Texas Austin. His research interests include language ideologies, social
justice in dual-language education programs, and teacher life stories.
Wenhao Diao (PhD, Carnegie Mellon University) is currently an Assistant Professor
in the Department of East Asian Studies and the doctoral program of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) at the University of Arizona. Her research
deals with the sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects of language learning and use.
She has primarily focused on the phenomenon of study abroad—­particularly going
to and from China. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Modern Language Journal, and System. She has also co-guest-edited a special
issue for the journal Study Abroad in the 21st Century.
Lourdes Díaz is Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at the University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) and member of the CLiC research group (Center of Language
and Computation) at the University of Barcelona. Her research and publications focus on Spanish Second Language Acquisition (Null Subjects and Aspect), Second
Language Writing, Interlanguage Pragmatics, Classroom discourse, and oral and
written Learner corpora. She is an experienced teacher trainer, and she has been Director of the postgraduate teacher training program of the Instituto Cervantes and
Universidad Menéndez Pelayo.
Amelia J. Dietrich is Associate Director for Programs and Resources and former American Council of Learned Societies Public Fellow at The Forum on Education Abroad
and Associate Editor of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. She
holds a PhD in Spanish and Language Science from Pennsylvania State University.
Anne Donovan  (M.S., Applied Linguistics, Georgetown University) is a Project Manager at the Center for Applied Linguistics and Assistant Director of the
xiv

Contributors

Georgetown Assessment and Evaluation Language Resource Center. Her previous
work has included research on language learning during study abroad and the intersections between language learning and programmatic factors during the sojourn
abroad. Additionally, she works in the field of language testing, including test development, research, and professional development for language instructors.
Catherine J. Doughty  is the Division Director for Romance Languages at the
Foreign Service Institute and adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland. Her
research interests include aptitude for language learning, instructed SLA, and technology in language learning.
Gregory Ebner (PhD in Arabic Studies, University of Texas) is Professor of Arabic
and the Head of the Department of Foreign Languages at the United States Military
Academy. His previous research includes studies into language-learning strategy use
by college Arabic students and integrating dialect and Modern Standard Arabic in
the college-level Arabic curriculum.
Núria Enríquez  has a bachelor’s degree in German studies and a master’s degree
in Spanish as a Foreign/Second Language, and is currently a PhD candidate in the
Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston. For 10 years, she has
been teaching Spanish as a foreign language in several universities in Germany, and
today, she teaches in the US. She has also taught training courses for teachers and
is currently working with Spanish as a heritage language. Her research interests are
around the acquisition and learning of Spanish as a foreign and heritage language as
well as the psycholinguistic aspects of learning.
Mandy Faretta-Stutenberg is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Basic Language
Program Director at Northern Illinois University.
Chantelle Fitting (B.S. in Psychology, Brigham Young University) participated in
the 2014 BYU SA program.
Lorenzo García-Amaya  is Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures at the University of Michigan. He
obtained his PhD in 2012 from Indiana University and previously held positions at
Northern Illinois University and the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Jordan Garrett is a PhD candidate in Hispanic Linguistics at Indiana University and
currently teaches Spanish at City High School in Iowa City, Iowa. His research interests include Spanish and Portuguese morphosyntax, language contact, second/heritage
language acquisition, and bilingualism. His publications and conference presentations include work on the syntax of object expression, coordination, and the syntax-­
information structure interface as well as SLA projects in online processing and the
acquisition of dialectal variation in study abroad. He is currently working on a dissertation investigating the acquisition of variable language phenomena during study abroad.
Susan Gass received her PhD from Indiana University and is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. She has published widely in SLA
xv


Contributors

(more than 30 books and 100 articles), is the recipient of many awards, and has served
as President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and of the
Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée (AILA).
Kimberly L. Geeslin  is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Indiana University. Her research focuses on second language Spanish and the intersection of
SLA and sociolinguistics. She is coauthor of Sociolinguistics and Second Language
Acquisition (Routledge, 2014) and the editor of The Handbook of Spanish Second
Language Acquisition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and the Handbook of Spanish Linguistics (Cambridge, 2018). She has published research articles in Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, Language Learning, Hispania, Spanish in Context, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Linguistics, and Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone
Linguistics.
Ewa Golonka is a Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language. Her research interests include instructed Second Language Acquisition (SLA), language immersion, multilingualism, and technology for
language training. She has taught Russian in the past.
Sarah Grey is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Spanish at Fordham University in New York City. She uses behavioral quantitative approaches and ERPs to
study adult language acquisition and bilingualism. Her work has appeared in The
Modern Language Journal and Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
Lin Gu is a Research Scientist in the Center of English Language Learning and Assessment at Educational Testing Service. She received her PhD in SLA from the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on issues at the interface between language
learning and assessment.
Martin Howard is Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at
University College Cork. He is founding editor of the journal Study Abroad Research

in Second Language Acquisition and International Education and Chair of the European Committee on Science and Technology (COST) Action ‘Study Abroad Research
in European Perspective.’
Bernard Issa is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Language Program Director
of First-Year Spanish at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Scott R. Jackson received his PhD in Linguistics from the University of Arizona and
since 2009 has worked as a research scientist at the University of Maryland Center for
Advanced Study of Language, with primary research interests in language aptitude.
Maria Juan-Garau is Associate Professor in English at the University of the Balearic
Islands. Her research interests center on language acquisition in different learning
contexts, with special attention to study abroad. Her work has appeared in numerous
international journals and edited volumes.

xvi


Contributors

Shannon Kehoe is a PhD student in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at the University of Texas Austin. Her research interests include the cultural identity of bilingual
teachers and critical pedagogy in study abroad.
Kelly J. Kirkwood,  Ed.D., is Assistant Director of Study Abroad at Ball State
­University. She has been active in the field of international education since 2002. Her
research explores the intercultural development of education abroad professionals.
Lisa M. Kuriscak,  PhD, is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Ball State University. She focuses her research on SLA of Spanish, especially as it pertains to study
abroad effects on acquisition, writing, pragmatics, and phonetics. She has taught in
­consortium-based study abroad programs since 2008.
Ryan LaBrozzi (PhD, Penn State University) is an Associate Professor of Spanish
linguistics at Bridgewater State University. He examines the effects of immersion,
cognitive individual differences, and input enhancement on adult L2 acquisition and
processing of grammar and vocabulary.
Alia K. Lancaster holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from Boston University and

is a Faculty Research Specialist at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced
Study of Language, where she specializes in SLA of adult learners.
Àngels Llanes  received her PhD from the Universitat de Barcelona (Spain). Currently, she teaches in the Department of English and Linguistics at Universitat de
Lleida (Spain). Her research focuses on the effects of learning context L2 and reading
on L2 development.
Avizia Yim Long (PhD, Indiana University) is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at
the University of Guam. Her research interests include second language variation,
phonetics/phonology, and pronunciation in task-based language teaching. She is
­coauthor of Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition: Learning to Use Language in Context (Routledge, 2014).
Sandra Y. López-Rocha (PhD UMBC, PhD UoB) is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Bristol’s School of Modern Languages. Her research encompasses migrant
adaptation and linguistic change, virtual communities and representation, and the
application of Intercultural Communication in the language classroom.
Alison Mackey  is Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. She is interested in interaction-driven L2 learning, L2 research methodology, and the applications of interaction through task-based language teaching as well as second language
dialects and identities. She is the Editor of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,
published by Cambridge University Press, the official journal of the American Association for Applied Linguistics.
Margaret E. Malone (PhD, Georgetown University) is Director of the Assessment
and Evaluation Language Resource Center (AELRC) and Teaching Professor at

xvii


Contributors

Georgetown. She is also Director of the Center for Assessment, Research and Development at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
She has more than two decades of experience in language test development and
teacher training using both online and face-to-face methods.
Silvia Marijuan is Assistant Professor of Spanish Applied Linguistics and Program
Advisor of the World Language Teaching Credential at California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo. Her research looks at second/heritage language acquisition and study abroad. She is particularly interested in investigating the interaction
between external and internal factors in language development.

Timothy McCormick  is a doctoral candidate in Spanish applied linguistics at
Georgetown University in Washington, DC, US, where he is also the Assistant Director for Intensive Advanced Spanish.
Julia Menard-Warwick is a Linguistics Professor at University of California Davis,
where she teaches classes on language learning and teaching. Her research interests
include narrative, identity, and translingual practice. From her perspective, study
abroad integrates all of the above.
Jorge Méndez-Seijas  is a PhD candidate in the Spanish Linguistics program at
Georgetown University, where he also serves as the Assistant Director of the School
of Foreign Service Spanish Program. Before working at Georgetown, he was a Spanish Lecturer at Princeton University.
Imma Miralpeix obtained her PhD from the University of Barcelona, Spain, where
she is Lecturer and Researcher. Her main research interests include second language vocabulary acquisition, especially lexical development and assessment, and
multilingualism. She is the author of several publications in these areas and has
taken part in different funded projects on second language learning and teaching.
Alfonso Morales-Front  is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and
Portuguese at Georgetown University. His research interests focus on prosodic aspects of Spanish phonology (syllable, stress, and intonation), the acquisition of first
and second language phonology, and study abroad.
Kara Morgan-Short is Associate Professor of Spanish and Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Associate Editor of Language Learning.
Kerry Mullan is Convenor of Languages at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University. She teaches French language and culture, and introductory
sociolinguistics. Her main research interests are intercultural pragmatics, discourse
analysis, and language teaching.
Deborah Palmer is an Associate Professor of Bilingual Education in the program in
Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She led study abroad programs to Mexico and Guatemala
for students at The University of Texas in 2007, 2013, and 2015.
xviii


Contributors

Kacy M. Peckenpaugh is Assistant Professor of German and French at Weber State
University. She completed her PhD at the University of Arizona and has worked as

an instructor at Middlebury College’s German summer immersion school.
Carmen Pérez-Vidal is an accredited Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra,
where she has taught English Linguistics and SLA since 1995. Her main research
interests include child bilingualism and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) acquisition, with a special interest on context effects. Since 2004, she has been principal investigator of the Study Abroad and Language Acquisition (SALA) project.
Rebecca Pozzi (PhD, University of California Davis) is Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics at California State University, Monterey Bay. Her research interests
are in second and heritage language acquisition, sociolinguistics, study abroad, language pedagogy, language policy, and language technology.
Tracy Quan (PhD, University of California Davis) is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Applied Linguistics at University of Delaware. Her research focuses on study
abroad, identity and language learning, formulaic language and oral fluency, and
language maintenance.
Wei Ren is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Centre for Linguistics & Applied
Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. His research interests include L2 Pragmatics, Variational Pragmatics, and Pragmatics in online and lingua
franca communication. His recent publications include a monograph, L2 Pragmatic
Development in Study Abroad Contexts (Peter Lang) and articles in Applied Linguistics, Critical Discourse Studies, Discourse, Context & Media, ELT Journal, Foreign
Language Annals, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism,
Journal of Pragmatics, Language Teaching, Pragmatics, and System.
Eric Ruiz Bybee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher ­Education
at Brigham Young University. His research interests include Latina/o education,
teacher education, and identity and cultural knowledge in education.
Nuria Sagarra  (PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is an Associate
Professor of Spanish Linguistics at Rutgers University. She investigates how language experience (transfer, proficiency), linguistic cues, and working memory affect
L2 morphosyntactic and syntactic processing in early and late bilinguals.
Diane de Saint-Léger is Lecturer in French studies at the University of Melbourne.
Her main research interest in relation to language acquisition in the Foreign Language classroom focuses on learner motivation and attitude.
Cristina Sanz  (Lic. University of Barcelona; PhD, University of Illinois, Ch-U)
is Professor of Spanish Linguistics at Georgetown University and Director of the
Georgetown at Barcelona Summer Program. Within the last two years, her research investigating the interaction between learning context and individual differences in multilinguals has appeared in Bilingualism Language & Cognition,
Neuropsychologia, Applied Linguistics, The Modern Language Journal, Language
xix

Contributors

Learning, and Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Her volume Mind and Context in
Adult SLA received the 2006 Modern Language Association’s Mildenberger Prize.
She has educated Spanish teachers in three continents and has worked as a consultant for private and public institutions, including the United Nations and the
Council on International Educational Exchange.
Lauren B. Schmidt (PhD, Indiana University) is Assistant Professor of Spanish in
the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at San Diego State University. Her research focuses on second language phonology and the
acquisition of social and regional variation, and appears in Borealis and Studies in
Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics.
John W. Schwieter is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics and Faculty
of Arts Teaching Scholar at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is also a Visiting Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Centre for Applied Research and Outreach in Language Education at the University of Greenwich. He is founding Executive Editor of
the book series Bilingual Processing and Acquisition.
Megan Solon (PhD, Indiana University) is Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the University at Albany, SUNY. Her research focuses on second language
Spanish and, particularly, the acquisition of phonetics and phonology. Her publications have appeared in journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition,
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, and Hispania.
Medha Tare is a Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language. Her research interests include instructed SLA, bilingualism, language development, and technology for language training.
Mariona Taulé is Professor in the Linguistics Department at University of Barcelona
and member of the CLiC research group (Center of Language and Computation) and
UBICS (Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems) at the same university. She is also Secretary of the Sociedad Española de Procesamiento del Lenguaje
Natural and edits the journal Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural. Her research and
publications are related to computational linguistics and natural language processing, and, especially, to lexical semantics, corpus linguistics, and the development of
linguistic resources for natural language processing, primarily for Spanish, Catalan,
and English.
Brandon Tullock is a doctoral student at Georgetown University. His dissertation
focuses on multilingual US-based sojourners learning Spanish in Catalonia. His research exploring multilingualism, study abroad, and multiliteracies has appeared in
System and Research on the Teaching of English.
Luis Urrieta Jr. is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies in Education in the College
of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include cultural and racial identities, agency as social and cultural practices, social movements
related to education, and learning in family and community contexts.

xx


Contributors

Yi Wang is currently a doctoral student focusing on Chinese linguistics in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. She is also a PhD minor
in the graduate program of SLAT. Her areas of interests include sociolinguistics,
language ideologies and language use, study abroad in multilingual contexts, data
collection and survey research, and program evaluation. Her current research focuses on language assessment literacy, oral proficiency assessment, and the relative
difficulty of learning different languages.
Jeffrey R. Watson  (PhD in Sociocultural Theory and SLA, Bryn Mawr College)
is the Chair of Linguistics and Language Acquisition in the Center for Languages,
Cultures, and Regional Studies at the United States Military Academy. His research
interests include SLA, intercultural competence, and foreign language and culture
study abroad.
Paula Winke  received her PhD from Georgetown University and is an Associate
Professor at Michigan State University, where she teaches courses in assessment and
language teaching methods. She is the 2012 recipient of the “TESOL Award for Distinguished Research.”
Alyssa White (B.A. in Middle East Studies/Arabic, Brigham Young University) participated in the BYU 2015 SA program.
Clare Wright is Lecturer in Linguistics and Phonetics in the School of Languages,
Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds, with over 20 years of language
teaching and research experience. She gained MAs from the Universities of Cambridge and Newcastle (UK), and a PhD in SLA and working memory from Newcastle
University (UK). Her research investigates linguistic, cognitive, and contextual factors affecting language learning, particularly in study abroad contexts for Mandarin
and other languages.
Janire Zalbidea is a doctoral candidate in Spanish Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University.
Victoria Zaytseva completed her PhD in SLA at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in
July 2016. Her main research interests entail L2 vocabulary acquisition, particularly
in different learning contexts (formal instruction and study abroad).
Cong Zhang recently completed her doctoral studies at Oxford University, focusing

on acquisition and production of Mandarin tone, following her MA in Linguistics
and Language Acquisition from Newcastle University (UK) and her BA in Translation and Interpreting at Beijing Foreign Studies University (China).

xxi


Acknowledgments

Any author will tell you that just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village
to write a book. This is especially true when, as in this case, the book is an edited volume that includes 35 chapters. We want to use a few lines to thank all 68 authors for
their important contributions and for their professionalism; it has certainly been a
pleasure to work with colleagues from across the globe, all of them researchers, many
of them also practitioners with experience in wildly different study abroad contexts.
We were happily surprised to see how many of our colleagues were willing to read
and provide careful, insightful feedback; they did it on the abstracts, first, then on the
manuscripts. They are all incredibly busy people, so we are very much indebted to them
for their time. The following are their names: Amelia Tseng, Andrew Cohen, A
­ ngels
Llanes, Bernard Issa, Brandon Tullock, Catherine Stafford, Cristi ­K illingsworth,
Cristina Isabelli, Dale Koike, Dan Dewey, Di Qi, Elizabeth Kissling, ­Ellen Serafini,
Elsa Tragant, Emili Boix, Florencia Henshaw, Germán Zárate-­Sández, HaeIn Park,
James Lee, Janire Zalbidea, Jason Sanderson, Jeff Connor-­Linton, ­Jessica Cox, Joan
Carles Mora, Joe Barcroft, Jorge Méndez-Seijas, Julio Torres, Karin Ryding, Lara
Bryfonski, Lisa Gordinier, Lori Czerwionka, Lucia Conte, Luke Plonsky, Maria
­A ndria, Maria Arche, Marisa Filgueras, Meg Malone, Melissa Bowles, Mike Raisch,
Montserrat Mir, Nancy Vázquez, Natalia Curto, Natalie Schilling, Nick Panza,
­Rachel Shively, Raquel Serrano, Sarah Grey, Sheri Anderson, Silvia Marijuan,
­Timothy McCormick, Yasser Teimouri, and Yiran Xu.
We would also like to thank the graduate students in the Linguistics and Spanish &
Portuguese Departments in the seminar on language development during study

abroad offered in the fall semesters of 2013 and 2015 at Georgetown University. The
conversation was fantastic and inspired us to propose this handbook to Routledge.
We all agreed it was a necessary tool for researchers and practitioners, and that the
field of study abroad had grown enough to justify a handbook. We hope our readers agree. Finally, we thank Kathrene Binag, our editor, for her patience, and Linxi
Zhang, our research assistant, for her enthusiasm.

xxii


Introduction
Issues in Study Abroad
Research and Practice
Cristina Sanz and Alfonso Morales-Front

Definition and Overview
Studying abroad, broadly defined as an academic experience that allows students to
complete part of their degree program through educational activities outside their
country, is not a new phenomenon. Its tradition goes back several centuries to the
Grand Tour, which was considered to be the culmination of an aristocratic education
and designed to broaden the horizons of the young members of elite British families
by introducing them to, among other things, languages, art, and geography. For an
activity with such old pedigree, it is somewhat surprising that the bulk of publications on language and personal development during study abroad (SA) did not appear until the early 1990s (DeKeyser, 1991; Freed, 1995; Lafford, 1995), with work
coming out of Europe only recently. A search of all published reports of empirical
studies on the effects of study/stay abroad yields about one hundred publications. Of
those, about one fourth are journal articles, including several in the 2004 special issue
of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and another fourth are book chapters in
edited volumes, mainly dedicated to the topic of study abroad/immersion, such as
Freed (1995), DuFon and Churchill (2006), Ortega and Byrnes (2008), and the most
recent by Hansen (2012). There are also volumes dedicated to SA, such as Kinginger’s
(2010, 2013). Most research has contrasted the SA context and the traditional second

language (L2) classroom, focusing on how lexicon and grammar (DeKeyser, 1986,
1991; Guntermann, 1995), listening skills (Carroll, 1967), communication strategies
(e.g., Lafford, 1995), and specially fluency (Freed, 1995) seem to develop differently in
those contexts. Reports of studies with an interest in SA now have their own strand,
keynotes, and colloquia at major conferences, including the annual meeting of the
American Association for Applied Linguistics and the Second Language Research
Forum. Frontiers continues to be the journal of reference for all matters having to
do with SA. Both System and ARAL have just published one volume each on international education; there is a new Journal of Study Abroad, and AILA (Association
Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée) has a Research Network (ReN) fully dedicated to SA.
1


Cristina Sanz and Alfonso Morales-Front

We think there are multiple reasons that account for the growth in the interest in
SA among researchers, but among them, three deserve individual attention: numbers, surprising results, and the social turn in Second Language Acquisition (SLA).
We have certainly come a long way from the days when the Grand Tour was reserved for the few members of the elite. The number of students participating in SA
programs has increased tremendously (see Chapter 35, this volume) with the success
of the Erasmus program in Europe and the popularity of short-term programs in
the US; SA is a considerable investment of time and money, and many parents and
administrators, and students, are calling on researchers to answer questions on its
efficacy.
A second reason is that practitioners, and of course language learners going abroad
as well as their parents, have always assumed that SA provides the best conditions for
language development: A sojourn abroad accelerates the learning process. There are
aspects of language, such as pragmatics (politeness, making requests) that can only
be learned while living in the country where the language is used. Whether intuitively
attractive or based on anecdotal observation, these are common beliefs. Common as
they are, we need to see that they are actually substantiated by research. Recent approaches to SLA, including neurocognitive approaches to SLA (e.g., Morgan-Short,
Steinhauer, Sanz, & Ullman, 2012), show that only ‘immersion-like’ conditions lead

to an electrophysiological signature typical of native speakers (NSs). Also, the basic
tenets of classic SLA theories, such as Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1985), Long’s
Interaction Hypothesis (1996), and Swain’s Output Hypothesis, (1995) imply that SA
should provide the optimal context for language development. Immersion abroad is
abundant in rich and meaningful input that keeps the focus on the message (Krashen,
1985). It also provides constant opportunities for the negotiation that comes with interaction and information breakdowns (Long, 1996) and pushes the learner to produce and consequently to move from semantic processing to syntactic processing
(Swain, 1995). However, and contrary to all these expectations, SA research often
finds minimal, or even no, effects of immersion experience on linguistic development
(e.g., Collentine, 2004; DeKeyser, 1991; Diaz-Campos, 2004). There is also the notion
that Millennial and Gen Z students see in SA a much-needed opportunity to break
away from academic-induced stress. How do we make SA work for them? How do
external factors, such as living arrangements or the type of program—sheltered vs.
direct matriculation, for example—interact with individual differences, such as attitudes and aptitudes? We should not be surprised that researchers are now producing
studies that take a broader and deeper approach in an attempt to explain results that
contrast both with the public assumptions and with theoretical predictions.
A final reason is the birth of a new brand of research now getting track, which
looks at the individual as a whole. Those studies pay especial attention to the learner’
identity, principles, and beliefs, and the role that gender or age, for example, have in
the development of social networks that ultimately shape the individual’s development as a language learner and as a person.
The rest of the chapter presents our view of what has been accomplished in the
field of SA, current developments, and future needs, both from the practitioner’s and
from the researcher’s perspective. Many of the ideas have been outlined in some of
our publications, especially in Marijuan and Sanz’s position paper forthcoming in
Foreign Language Annals.

2