The short- and long-term effects of a short study abroad experience: The case of children

This study examines to what extent L2 gains obtained during a study abroad (SA) experience are durable. Participants were 16 Catalan/Spanish bilingual children, learning English as an L2, who were distributed into two groups depending on their learning context (SA vs. at home [AH]). Participants completed a pre-test before the SA participants' departure to the L2 country, a post-test on their return from the L2 country (2 months after the pre-test), and a delayed post-test 12 months after the post-test. Results indicate that SA participants scored significantly higher in the post-test and that their results were even higher (although not significantly so) in the delayed post-test for most of the measures. Moreover, size effects in the post-test were large for all the oral measures and small for the written ones, and several size effects were still large or moderate in the delayed post-test. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.