Chapter 7. Short-term study abroad and dialect acquisition

Abstract

The growth in the popularity of studying abroad has led to the proliferation of programs of various lengths, among which is the short-term study abroad (SA), typically lasting around one month. Much needed investigation remains regarding the effectiveness of short-term SA programs, and this study aims to understand the level of effectiveness through the lens of dialect feature acquisition. Specifically, in southwestern Andalucía, there exists a phenomenon in which local speakers of Spanish employ the 3rd person plural pronoun ustedes with 2nd person plural morphosyntactic realizations. The current study examines whether adult second-language learners become sensitive to these regional variants through a one-month SA program. Results show individual variation with more proficient learners moving toward the regional norm.