Study abroad is generally thought to offer access to interaction with native speakers in a wide variety of settings, bringing students into close contact with the cultural practices of the host country, and resulting in dramatic increases in language proficiency, cultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence. However, recent literature in the field of applied linguistics shows that access to language learning opportunities in the field is anything but unproblematic. The data collection for the present study began in the fall of 2002 and continued through the fall of 2003. The...