Beyond Immersion: Language Learning Strategies for Study Abroad Students

Undergraduates from the U.S. who study abroad often return from their programs without the foreign language skills they hoped to acquire. Part of the reason why this occurs is many students do not know strategies they can use to improve their language skills while in an immersive environment. The Beyond Immersion course seeks to address this problem. Beyond Immersion is a fully mobile course that teaches study abroad students the strategies they need to be their own language teachers. To evaluate the course, usability and learning evaluations were conducted. Fifteen participants (n = 15) completed the course for the evaluation. The results suggested participants would use the strategies learned in the course while studying abroad to improve their language skills. In addition, many participants said they would use the language learning plan they built in the course. While this course does not resolve the entire problem of lack of student support in learning languages abroad, it does give students more resources they can use to improve their outcomes.