Interactive Contact as Linguistic Affordance during Short-term Study Abroad:  Myth or Reality?

This study took a sociocultural theory perspective and investigated interactive contact with French by 18 participants in a short-term study abroad (SA) program and the degree to which interactions with homestay families, U.S. peers, and other French speakers in the local community were perceived as valuable affordances for language learning. Findings demonstrate that whereas contact in French with host families was viewed as a valuable affordance for cultural and/or linguistic learning, participants' interactions in the local community were infrequent and viewed less positively. Peer-to-peer interaction in French was construed by some students as useful for developing confidence with interacting in French whereas others saw the SA group as a motivational constraint. Implications of this study include the notion that interactive contact is not inevitable during short-term SA, therefore the SA curriculum should respond by assisting students in devising strategies to nurture interaction, particularly between students and speakers of the foreign language in the local community.