PRACTICE IN STUDY ABROAD CONTEXTS

Understanding the ways in which study abroad and/or immersion experiences can shape second language learning constitutes a vibrant domain of second language acquisition research. Investigating how learners use their languages when abroad is required to better understand how the nature and extent of language use during study abroad (SA) can influence the rates and routes of second language (L2) development. SA research has mostly focused on how production skills develop as a result of SA, typically using assessments of L2 skills before and after SA. In skill acquisition theory, establishing reliable and accurate declarative knowledge is argued to be an essential first step in the L2 learning process. Describing practice as deliberate means that language use is interpreted as being goal-directed and mostly driven by external and internal motivation, consistent with emergentist/usage-based accounts of L2 learning that forefront critical roles for how learners use language to carry out specific communicative functions.