ABSTRACT:Research has shown that immersion in the target culture is of great value to learners’ second language acquisition (SLA). Nowadays, more and more college students choose to participate in some programs which can offer them the opportunities to go abroad to work and travel to improve their English proficiency and to know western culture. Therefore this research adopted narrative inquiry to understand the effect of two different students’ experiences on their studies in College of Foreign Language of Honghe University. They took part in 2010 Summer W&T project in the United States. This study aims to answer the two problems: (1) What different experiences the two students have in the United States? (2) What effect the experiences had on language acquisition? 

After interviewing the two students and knowing their experiences, through analyzing their experiences, the research shows that their different experiences influence their development. Alice’s experience has a positive impact on her. It improves her English proficiency and makes her more interested in learning English. But Lisa is not the same as Alice. She even feels disappointed about her experience in America. The research found that their adaptability, confidence and attitude influence their living experiences. In order to reduce negative impacts and make participants’ acquiring more efficiently, the research gives 5 suggestions.

Keywords: English learner; living experience; acquiring effect

摘要:研究证明目标文化环境对第二语言习得有很高的价值。现在，越来越多的大学生选择参加一些能提供到英语国家去旅游和工作的国际交流项目，以提高自己的英语能力和了解英语国家文化。为了深入了解和理解相关工作学习经历对英语学习者的影响，本研究采用叙事研究对参加过红河学院外国语学院Summer W&T 项目的两名同学在美国的不同经历进行研究。该研究旨在通过回答一下两个问题：（1）这两名学生在美国有哪些不同的经历？（2）这些经历对两个人的语言学习造成了哪些影响？以期给相关的英语学习者提出建议。

通过对两位同学访谈，了解了她们的经历，并对她们的经历进行了分析，研究表明两个同学的不同经历对她们的成长造成了不同影响，Alice同学受到了较为积极的影响，这段经历不仅使她的英语水平有了较大的提高，而且大大增加了她在英语学习上的兴趣。而Lisa同学的经历则没有产生同样的效果，不仅如此，还使她对美国之行很失望，几乎没有明显的收获。研究发现她们的适应性、信心和态度三个方面影响了她们的经历，为了能将项目中这些消极的影响最小化，使参与者获得一个更佳的学习效果，本文有针对性地给出了五条建议。

关键词：英语学习者；生活经历；学习效果