The long-term impact of a study trip abroad on the acquisition of regional Spanish vocabulary incidentally

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    This quantitative study investigated the possible gains in the acquisition of regional vocabulary as a result of incidental learning after studying abroad for one semester. Five college students took courses at a language institute in Madrid (Spain) while living with a host family during a semester, while a control group with five participants continued their studies at XXXX, in the US. They took a survey online that contained forty vocabulary items exclusive to Spain ( majo , mola , guay and similar) three times: at the beginning and at the end of the program and after three years. Results indicated that the group who traveled to Spain improved from a 21% to a 54.5% accuracy rate in the regional vocabulary items. This acquisition remained quite stable after a few years, lowering to 45%, but always maintaining around twice the scores obtained in the initial test.

    Original languageAmerican English
    JournalScholarship and Professional Work - LAS
    Volume13
    Issue number27
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Nov 27 2019

    Keywords

    • SLA
    • Spanish
    • incidental learning
    • regional vocabulary
    • study abroad programs
    • vocabulary acquisition

    Disciplines

    • Education
    • Higher Education
    • Modern Languages
    • Other Education

    Cite this