Recent investigations on the language travel market show that the number of students who prefer to study languages abroad has increased dramatically in recent years. One of the main reasons that lie behind the popularity of study abroad programs is the belief that participants will have a lot of  chances to use the target language and thus the study abroad process will accelerate their language acquisition (Allen & Dupuy, 2012; Freed, 1998; Zemach-Bersin, 2009). Although the number of studies demonstrating the positive outcomes of study abroad abound, there is also a considerable number of  studies that dispute the highly valued myth that study abroad will always result in benficial outcomes (Milton & Meara, 1995; DeKeyser, 1991; Collentine, 2004; Pellegrino-Aveni, 1998; Tanaka, 2007; Amuzie & Winke, 2009; Kaypak & Ortaçtepe, 2014; Güvendir, in press).

Despite the contrasting findings that study abroad literature provides, the belief that study abroad is the universal answer to second language learning still persists. Surtees (2016) stressed that students’ attitudes about learning languages abroad have broader historical antecedents created through interactions with friends, faculty, family, media, and institutional policy. Hence, further research that examines the persistence of these myths needs to deal with how language ideologies are co-constructed, rather than approaching them as products of solely learner beliefs. 

This study will examine the common dimensions of beliefs created by study abroad organizations that offer language training abroad. The study will investigate at what level these common dimensions intersect with common ideologies and myths that maintain their persistence in foreign language learning. In line with this objective, the research will examine the assurances and student opinions mentioned on Internet sites of study abroad institutions that provide foreign language education in different countries. The written texts found on the web-pages of study abroad institutions that convey their assurances and students’ experiences will be analyzed with Nvivo and categories that display the common assurances of these institutions will be formed. Findings that will be obtained from the research will create data for study abroad experts who investigate the persistence of language ideologies and study abroad myths.

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