University residence abroad for foreign language students: analysing the linguistic benefits

This paper reviews research to date into the foreign language (FL) gains made by the large number of FL students from the UK who undertake a period of residence abroad (RA) as a component of their degree. It examines in detail the efficacy of the most common form of RA undertaken by UK students, namely the study year at a foreign university (URA). It highlights the growing body of evidence for strong general linguistic gains but also draws attention to highly differentiated progress rates. The authors then draw on quantitative data from their own longitudinal study of the progress of a cohort of students from a British university which replicates these findings of substantial general progress and large differences in individual gains. After considering a variety of potential reasons for these individual differences, they propose two hitherto unreported explanations based on qualitative data from the study: differing levels of emotional intelligence and the arbitrary nature of the URA experience for FL students. The paper concludes by discussing whether these two explanations would be helpful or harmful to the case for the continuation of URA in its present form.