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The aim of this review is to synthesize empirical studies on undergraduate language learners' experience abroad during a time period of a year or less. To help provide a framework to this synthesis, we begin our review by tracing the recent evolution of empirical mixed-method research on the learner, identifying problems and characteristics that language learners generally encounter in the study abroad (SA) experience. We take a closer look at variables related to individual difference such as anxiety, motivation, and attitudes to more recent views of learner identity in language learning. We highlight the shift to language learner agency, a topic that merits more discussion in SA literature. We then review how the SA learning environments are treated. This review takes a closer look at research informed by socially grounded theories. Finally, we review the role that SA plays in undergraduate language curricula, where the objectives of the experience are aligned with at-home (AH) curricula, a topic that has not been fully discussed in SA literature. The conclusions offer suggestions for keeping pace with the broader field of applied/educational linguistics.

The goal of this study is to describe the acquisition rate for gender acquisition in Spanish and to show whether individual variability and language contact may affect this rate. The participants were intermediate second language Spanish (first language English) learners in the study abroad and at‐home contexts over a 4‐month period. The participants received grammaticality judgment tests coded for morphological class of the modified noun as well as attributive and predicative adjectives. Data were also collected on social behavior and language contact in Spanish and English in order to explain data outcome. The findings suggest that no difference exists between the two learning contexts and that social behavior and language contact abroad have minimal influence on acquisition rate.

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