The idea that living or studying in the target language country is essential in order to improve linguistic knowledge and understand its culture is widespread. Since the 1980’s, a large amount of research has been conducted in order to describe empirically the linguistic benefits gained from the study abroad context. However, over the last decade researchers have expanded research fields and studied important aspects such as the development of intercultural competence and the influence of extra-linguistic factors during study abroad. The aim of this paper is to present a review and synthesis of the most relevant research projects undertaken during the last decade, highlight the different research lines that have been recently utilized, and comment on their findings. This paper also proposes new research directions that could allow us to understand the deeper complexities of the study abroad learning context.

中文翻译：

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国外研究环境中的第二语言习得：发现和研究方向

在目标语言国家生活或学习对于提高语言知识和理解其文化至关重要。自1980年代以来，进行了大量研究，以便从经验上描述从出国学习的背景中获得的语​​言收益。然而，在过去的十年中，研究人员扩大了研究领域，并研究了重要方面，例如跨文化能力的发展以及出国留学期间语言外因素的影响。本文的目的是对过去十年中最相关的研究项目进行综述和综合，重点介绍最近已被利用的不同研究领域，并对他们的发现进行评论。