Length of stay and study abroad: Language gains in two versus three months abroad

This study examines the effect of 'length of stay' on the written and oral development of two groups of Spanish-speaking students learning English in the UK through the Erasmus Program. Written and oral data were collected from 46 participants by means of a composition and an oral narrativ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Llanes Baró, Àngels, Serrano Serrano, Raquel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/103565
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/103565
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Adquisició d'una segona llengua
Immersió lingüística
Estudis a l'estranger
Second language acquisition
Immersion method (Language teaching)
Foreign study
Descripción
Sumario:This study examines the effect of 'length of stay' on the written and oral development of two groups of Spanish-speaking students learning English in the UK through the Erasmus Program. Written and oral data were collected from 46 participants by means of a composition and an oral narrative after stays of two months (25 students) or three months abroad (21 students) in the target language country. The learners' written and oral samples were analyzed in terms of fluency, accuracy, lexical richness and complexity. The results of the statistical analyses suggest that there are no significant differences in the gains made by the two groups of learners; therefore, an additional month abroad may not be long enough to produce significant differences in learners' second language development in terms of the measures of written and oral production considered in this study.