Background: Measuring the effect of a study abroad program is one way to determine its impact on developing students’ cultural competence. To date, few articles describe outcomes of such strategies. In some published studies, a description of the program or intervention is frequently not offered making it difficult to utilize findings or to replicate them. Purpose: To measure the effects of a s...

We study the role of social capital in language acquisition during study abroad. Using data collected from 204 participants in Japanese study abroad programs, we show that students who leverage social capital through bridging relationships feel they achieve higher levels of language improvement. Furthermore, an analysis of the topics participants discuss with locals suggests that there are sign...

Short-term study abroad programs currently account for more than 50% of students who study overseas. Using an adaptation of the Value–Belief–Norm theory of proenvironmental behavior (Stern, 2000), we hypothesized that study abroad nurtures global citizenship related to ecologically conscious behaviors by strengthening core relations among environmental values, beliefs, and norms. The sample con...

Lina Lee University of New Hampshire The current study explores closely how using a combined modalities of asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) via blogs and face-to-face (FTF) interaction through ethnographic interviews with native speakers (L1s) supports autonomous learning as the result of reflective and social processes. The study involves 16 American undergraduate students wh...