Effects of Varying Lengths of Study-Abroad Experiences on Japanese EFL Students' L2 Writing Ability and Motivation: A Longitudinal Study.

The present study investigated the effects of varying lengths of overseas experiences on 37 Japanese students' English writing ability and motivation over 3.5 years. The students were observed at the beginning of their first year and in the middle of their second, third, and fourth years at their university. During the 3.5-year observation period, 28 of the 37 students spent 1.5 to 11 months in English-speaking countries. The results revealed that (1) students' second language (L2) writing ability did not change in a linear way; (2) over the 3.5 years, students who spent some time abroad significantly improved their L2 writing ability whereas those who stayed in Japan did not; (3) many of those students who went abroad formed L2-related imagined communities that possibly motivated them to improve their L2 writing ability; (4) those students who spent more than 4 months abroad improved their L2 writing ability significantly more than the other students; and (5) only those students who spent more than 8 months abroad became intrinsically motivated and voluntarily practiced to improve their L2 writing.

[1]  D. Nunan,et al.  Learners' Stories: Difference and Diversity in Language Learning , 2005 .

[2]  Martha C. Pennington,et al.  Comparing writing process and product across two languages: A study of 6 Singaporean university student writers , 1993 .

[3]  H. Jacobs.  Testing Esl Composition: A Practical Approach , 1981 .

[4]  Celeste Kinginger,et al.  Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore: Foreign Language Learning and Identity Reconstruction , 2004 .

[5]  Ann M. Johns,et al.  Text, Role and Context: Developing Academic Literacies , 1997 .

[6]  A. Pavlenko,et al.  Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts , 2001 .

[7]  Alister Cumming,et al.  Goals for academic writing : ESL students and their instructors , 2006 .

[8]  Claire J. Kramsch.  Language acquisition and language socialization : ecological perspectives , 2002 .

[9]  Christina Isabelli,et al.  Study Abroad Social Networks, Motivation and Attitudes: Implications for Second Language Acquisition , 2006 .

[10]  Abdolmehdi Riazi,et al.  Acquiring disciplinary literacy: A social-cognitive analysis of text production and learning among Iranian graduate students of education , 1997 .

[11]  Leslie Dickinson,et al.  AUTONOMY AND MOTIVATION A LITERATURE REVIEW , 1995 .

[12]  T. Yashima,et al.  The impact of learning contexts on proficiency, attitudes, and L2 communication: Creating an imagined international community , 2008 .

[13]  Miyuki Sasaki,et al.  Explanatory Variables for EFL Students' Expository Writing , 1996 .

[14]  Hiroe Kobayashi,et al.  FACTORS RELATING TO EFL WRITERS' DISCOURSE LEVEL REVISION SKILLS' , 2001 .

[15]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[16]  B. Norton,et al.  Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities: Introduction , 2003 .

[17]  Miyuki Sasaki,et al.  Effects of Study‐Abroad Experiences on EFL Writers: A Multiple‐Data Analysis , 2007 .

[18]  Alister Cumming,et al.  WRITING EXPERTISE AND SECOND LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY , 1989 .

[19]  Barbara A Lafford,et al.  THE EFFECT OF THE CONTEXT OF LEARNING ON THE USE OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES BY LEARNERS OF SPANISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE , 2004, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[20]  C. Kinginger.  Language Learning in Study Abroad: Case Studies of Americans in France , 2008 .

[21]  Robert L. Linn,et al.  Range restriction problems in the use of self-selected groups for test validation. , 1968 .

[22]  Ann Raimes,et al.  Composing in a Second Language@@@Techniques in Teaching Writing , 1985 .

[23]  Z. Dörnyei.  Motivation in second and foreign language learning , 1998, Language Teaching.

[24]  Miyuki Sasaki,et al.  A Multiple‐Data Analysis of the 3.5‐Year Development of EFL Student Writers , 2004 .

[25]  Ilona Leki,et al.  Coping Strategies of ESL Students in Writing Tasks Across the Curriculum , 1995 .

[26]  Masakazu Iino,et al.  Norms of interaction in a Japanese homestay setting: Toward a two-way flow of linguistic and cultural resources , 2006 .

[27]  Robert C. Gardner,et al.  Expanding the Motivation Construct in Language Learning , 1995 .

[28]  Amel Shoaib,et al.  3 Affect in lifelong learning : Exploring L 2 motivation as a dynamic process , 2007 .

[29]  Antônio R. M. Simões.  Phonetics in Second Language Acquisition: An Acoustic Study of Fluency in Adult Learners of Spanish , 1996 .

[30]  Eton Churchill,et al.  1. Evolving Threads in Study Abroad Research , 2006 .

[31]  Dan Dewey.  A COMPARISON OF READING DEVELOPMENT BY LEARNERS OF JAPANESE IN INTENSIVE DOMESTIC IMMERSION AND STUDY ABROAD CONTEXTS , 2004, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[32]  Zoltán Dörnyei,et al.  Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation , 1998 .

[33]  Christina L. Isabelli-García,et al.  9. Study Abroad Social Networks, Motivation and Attitudes: Implications for Second Language Acquisition , 2006 .

[34]  Anne Barron,et al.  3. Learning to Say ‘You’ in German: The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Study Abroad Context , 2006 .

[35]  María de la O López Abeledo.  Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development , 2008 .

[36]  Susanne Ehrenreich.  Chapter 9. The Assistant Experience in Retrospect and its Educational and Professional Significance in Teachers’ Biographies , 2006 .