Study Abroad and the Dynamics of Change in Learner L2 Self-Concept

The origins of this chapter lie in our ongoing attempts as classroom teachers to make sense of some of the great changes we frequently observe in those learners who venture abroad to study a language. We often hear comments from teachers, and we have probably made similar comments ourselves, about how certain students appear to come back from a period of study abroad ‘a completely different person’. Our primary aim here is to unpack this observation in a way that may help us to integrate the idea of ‘abroad’ more effectively into the home classroom.