Seeking self-efficacy and proficiency in the Study abroad adventure: the case of students from University of Ghana, Legon and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

Abstract

Abstract: While strides have been made in the advancement in the science and technology of learning foreign languages and especially second languages, it is important not lose sight of the role personal motivation, self-efficacy, the role socio-economic, political and related factors play in the life of the language learner and how these factors affect the overarching language learning process. Many Ghanaian students on Study Abroad to Benin, France and Spain carry along their socio-cultural socialising traits into the foreign lands that they find themselves in, and the question which arises is how they are able to navigate this critical stage of their lives and at the same time succeed in their self-efficacy of learning a foreign language. This article seeks to analyse how these extra societal matters affect the learning experience of Study Abroad students and to determine to what extent these factors affect the acquisition of the language they are to study abroad. The study argues that these factors that are mainly glossed over in the Study Abroad literature, are a significant part of the learning process and when these are properly handled, the results would be significant, as most of the students who maintain a balance between these factors and their studies soon become more literate in the foreign languages they chose to study. Keywords: study abroad, foreign language learning, self-efficacy, zone of proximal development (ZPD)