Language learning and residence abroad: how self-directed are language students?

This article discusses the extent to which language learners exploit the possibilities for language learning when they go to study for a year in a foreign country. It outlines the experience of a typical cohort of students, notes the difficulties experienced and highlights a lack of awareness among many learners of how to exploit to the full the possibilities of the residence-abroad context, although they are frequently conscious of weaknesses in their performance on their return. Possible answers are discussed and a specific response is proposed, based on a method for raising learners’ strategy awareness and thus helping them to maximise the language gains they make.