After decades of refining the Arabic study abroad experience, this BYU researcher helped identify two factors that shape a language student’s time abroad.
Professor Kirk Belnap (Arabic) designed and led BYU’s first-ever intensive Arabic program in 1989. Since then, he has led a number of these programs, working with fellow faculty to tweak the experience each time to better help students reach proficiency in the language. Throughout decades of programs, Belnap and his colleagues have observed students as they face the challenges and stressors of going abroad. His work over the years has aimed to combat this stress, and his most recent study focuses on understanding specific factors that can impact how much students’ language skills improve while abroad.
Beyond Classroom Walls
Because Arabic has different origins from English, it takes time for students to gain proficiency and prepare for practical use of the language. Most students studying Arabic aspire to use the language in professional settings, but their vocabulary sometimes lags behind that of native speakers. A study abroad offers students an opportunity to develop proficiency in an immersive environment, but the increased stress of living abroad can cause students to struggle.
In anticipation of this, Belnap and fellow faculty have worked to equip students with coping methods that can help prevent and combat stress on study abroad programs, like getting enough sleep, exercising, eating well, and writing in a journal. In a recent study, Belnap partnered with Linguistics Professor Dan Dewey (Second Language Acquisition and Teaching), Professor Patrick Steffen (Psychology Department), and others to further their work and research in preparing students to go abroad.
A Healthy Heart
In the study, titled “Heart Rate Variability and Personality Traits as Predictors of Arabic Language Proficiency and Gains During Study Abroad in Jordan,” the researchers set out to better understand the student experience abroad, including the impact of stress on language acquisition. The first component the group studied, heart rate variability (HRV), looks at patterns of timing between heartbeats. A higher HRV means the time in between beats varies more, whereas a lower HRV means the time in between stays consistent. “A healthy heart is able to jump into gear at a moment’s notice,” Belnap explains. Having a higher HRV with more varying heartbeats shows “a heart that’s responsive,” which Belnap says indicates good overall health and helps when it comes to regulating stress.
While in Jordan, Belnap and his colleagues measured the HRV of 21 students on an intensive Arabic study abroad. Students also took the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) at both the beginning and end of the program. “We found that students whose heart rate variability was higher made more progress in speaking,” Belnap says. Their hearts were more adaptable in stressful situations, which allowed them to self-regulate, apply their classroom instruction, and better take advantage of the immersive environment.
The Power of Personality
In addition to HRV, the researchers also studied how personality affected the students and their relationship to stress. Early in their program, each student took a survey that measured certain personality traits, including openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—commonly known as “the Big Five.” Of the five personality traits tested, conscientiousness and neuroticism seemed to have the most significant impact on how students handled stress.
Students who scored high on conscientiousness tended to experience higher increases in language proficiency. These students were intentional about coping with stress in healthy ways—like going to bed on time, getting exercise in the morning, and eating well throughout the day. On the flip side, students who scored high on neuroticism had a tendency to experience negative emotions and therefore saw lower increases in proficiency. These students were less able to regulate stress, which negatively impacted their interactions abroad. Both heart rate variability and personality, Belnap says, “turned out to be pretty powerful predictors.”
Persevering Under Pressure
The study contributes to broader efforts to understand how students experience and manage stress abroad, especially while learning languages. The group’s findings suggest that students who learn to self-regulate under pressure may be better positioned to gain proficiency despite stressful situations. Belnap says that learning a language is an opportunity for students to experience Christ’s enabling power as they strive to overcome stress and reach their proficiency goals. While learning a language is difficult, students who seek learning by study and by faith are engaging in personal development that Belnap says is exactly “what a BYU education is about.”
Read more about his study on the Studies in Second Language and Teaching website.
Throughout his career, Belnap has worked alongside others to collect resources and share stories from those who understand the need to manage stress when learning a language, especially abroad. These resources, titled Project Perseverance, can be found at projectperseverance.byu.edu.