During and After Study Abroad Period: Perception and Attitudes on English Development and Maintenance

Dwi Rahayu

Abstract


This study examines the development and maintenance of English skills from the perspective of higher education alumni during and after studying abroad. The researcher consider attitudes, more specifically how, what, and to what extent attitudes could encourage development and maintenance in the context of study abroad from the 120 respondents’ perspective. This study deploys quantitative data collection in form of a survey with both multiple choice items and open-ended questions. The numeric items were analyzed with tabulation and the open-ended questions responses were analyzed with the stages of Thematic Analysis. Foremost, the findings reveal that the respondents perceive oral production and fluency as the major skills that improved during the study abroad period, followed by an increase in vocabulary knowledge and listening skills. Most respondents regarded the improvement as an influence of high exposure to spoken English. Secondly, the majority of respondents conceive that their English keeps improving after the study abroad period. The most frequent reasons for using English are social life and entertainment purposes, which are mostly individual preferences, followed by academic purposes such as joining a course or working on journal articles. Work purpose, surprisingly, is not the main reason of using English after study abroad period. The conclusion is that study abroad benefits the respondents in developing their English and that attitude on affective domain (how we perceive a language) and conative (behaviour toward a language) help to maintain the cognitive domain (knowledge on a language) and its maintenance.

Keywords


attitude; English skills; maintenance; study abroad; alumni’s perception

Full Text:

PDF

References


Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. 5th ed. s.l.:Multilingual Matters.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2),77–101.:http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Cargile, A. C., Giles, H., Ryan, E. B., & Bradac, J. J.(1994). Language attitudes as a social process: a conceptual model and new directions. Language and Communication, 14(3), 211-236.

Check, J., & Schutt, R. K. (2012). Survey research. In J. Check & R. K. Schutt. (Eds.), Research methods in education (pp. 159–185). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Cherciov, M. (2012). Investigating the impact of attitude on first language attrition and second language acquisition from a Dynamic Systems Theory perspective. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17(6), pp.716-733. http://doi.org/10.1177/1367006912454622

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluation quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Cubillos, J. H., Chieffo, L., & Fan, C. (2008). The impact of short-term study abroad programs on L2 listening comprehension skills. Foreign Language Annals, 41(1), 157–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2008.tb03284.x

Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., & Thomson, R. I. (2008). A longitudinal study of ESL learners’ fluency and comprehensibility development. Applied Linguistics, 29(3), 359–380. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amm041

Dwyer, M. M. (2004). More Is Better: The Impact of Study Abroad Program Duration. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10(1), 151-164.https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v10i1.139

Edwards, J. (1994). Multilingualism. London: Penguin Books

Freed, B.F., Segalowitz, N., & Dewey, D. (2004). CONTEXT OF LEARNING AND SECONDLANGUAGE FLUENCY IN FRENCH: Comparing Regular Classroom, Study Abroad, and Intensive Domestic Immersion Programs. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 275 - 301.

Hamers, J. and Blanc, M.H.A. (2000). Bilinguality and bilingualism (2nd ed.). Cambridge. Cambridge University Press

Hatoss, A. (2013). Displacement, language maintenance and identity: Sudanese refugees in Australia. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Jensen, J., & Howard, M. (2014). The effects of time in the development of complexity and accuracy during study abroad: A study of French and Chinese learners of English. In L.Roberts, I. Vedder & Hulstijn.J.H. (Eds.). EUROSLA Yearbook, 14, 31–64. Benjamin Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.14

King, L.J., & Young, J.A. (1994). Study Abroad: Education for the 21st Century. Die Unterrichtspraxis/teaching German, 27, 77-87. DOI:10.2307/3531477

Lafford, B., & Collentine, J. (2006). The effects of study abroad and classroom contexts on the acquisition of Spanish as a second language: From research to application. In The Art of Teaching Spanish: Second Language Acquisition from Research to Praxis (pp. 103-126). Georgetown University Press.

Llanes, À. and Muñoz, C. (2009). “A short stay abroad: Does it make a difference?” System 37 (3): 353–365. DOI: 10.1016/j.system.2009.03.001

Llanes, A., & Munoz, C. (2013). Age Effects in a Study Abroad Context: Children and Adults Studying Abroad and at Home. Language Learning, 63(1), 63–90. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- 9922.2012.00731.x

Pérez-Vidal, C., & Juan-Garau, M. (2011). The effect of context and input conditions on oral and written development: A study abroad perspective. IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 49(2), 157–185. http://doi.org/10.1515/iral.2011.008

Pellegrino, V. A. (1998). Student Perspectives on Language Learning in a Study Abroad Context. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 4(1), 91-120.

Ponto, J. (2015). Understanding and evaluating survey research. Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology,6(2),168–171.Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4601897/

Rahayu, D. (2016). Attitudes toward L1 of Two Bilingual Indonesian Siblings Residing in Australia. Studies in English Language and Education, 3(2), 112-124. https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v3i2.4959

Rahayu, D. (2020). Interaction in collaborative writing between international and domestic students in an Indonesian university. Studies in English Language and Education, 3(2), 113-128. https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v7i1.15773

SAGE Research Methods Datasets part 2 (nd). (2019). Thematic Analysis of Survey Responses From Undergraduate Students. SAGE Publications. Retrieved on February, 20th, 2020 from

https://methods.sagepub.com/base/download/DatasetStudentGuide/thematic-analysis-students-technology

Sasaki, M. (2007). Effects of study-abroad experiences on EFL writers: A multiple-data analysis. Modern Language Journal, 91(4), 602–620. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00625.x

Sasaki, M. (2011). Effects of varying lengths of study‐abroad experiences on Japanese EFL students' L2 writing ability and motivation: A longitudinal study. TESOL quarterly, 45 (1), 81-105. https://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2011.240861

Segalowitz, N., Freed, B., Collentine, J., Lafford, B., Lazar, N., & Díaz-Campos, M. (2004). A Comparison of Spanish Second Language Acquisition in Two Different Learning Contexts: Study Abroad and the Domestic Classroom. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v10i1.130

Swart, R. (2017). Critical thinking instruction and technology enhanced learning from the student perspective: A mixed methods research study. Nurse Education in Practice, 23, 30–39. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2017.02.003

Tawalbeh, A. (2019). Theoretical approaches and frameworks to language maintenance and shift research: A critical review. Journal of Applied Language Studies (Apples), 13 (2), 23–44. Retrieved from https://apples.journal.fi/article/view/97946

Tsai, Y. (2012). The effect of Intercultural learning on English learning motivation among students studying abroad. New Horizons in Education, 60 (1), 23-34. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ974076.pdf

Zhao, L. (2015). The Influence of Learners' Motivation and Attitudes on Second Language Teaching. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5, 2333-2339. DOI:10.17507/TPLS.0511.18




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21462/jeltl.v6i3.616

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




JELTL (Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics); Web: www.jeltl.org; Email: journal.eltl@gmail.com

Creative Commons License
JELTL by http://www.jeltl.org is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License


Indexed and Abstracted BY: