Effects of Early Language Stays Abroad on the Foreign Language Proficiency of German High School Students

Abstract This study examines the potential effects of language stays abroad, specifically student exchanges and language courses, on the foreign language proficiency of lower secondary students, in particular on their listening and reading comprehension. Using data from a nationwide, large‐scale study on German high school students (academic school track) in Year 9, we focused on students who learned either English ( n = 13,073) or French ( n = 3,261) as their first foreign language. To account for selectivity bias, we estimated the effects of student exchanges and language courses on the receptive language skills by employing propensity score matching, controlling for a comprehensive set of covariates. Our results indicate that student exchanges significantly enhance foreign language proficiency in both languages, especially in listening comprehension. The effects were more pronounced for French learners than for English learners. No significant results were found for language courses.