Research on study abroad (SA) programs has focused primarily on issues of linguistic benefits (Freed, 1995; Magnan & Back, 2007) often attempting to establish the value of in-country immersion in comparison to at-home immersion or classroom foreign language (FL) study alone (e.g., Freed, Segalowitz, & Dewey, 2004). However, such research relies on several implicit premises: that SA participants automatically find themselves immersed in intense contact with native speakers once abroad; that FL learning is and remains participants' primary motive for studying abroad; and that communicative challenges encountered are at the center of participants' experiences occupying the most part of their attention. This qualitative study, informed by a Vygotskian activity-theoretic perspective (Engeström, 1999), investigates goals, motives, and self-perceptions of 19 SA participants in a seven-week SA program in France. Application essays, pre- and post-SA questionnaires, online blogs from the 7-week SA program and interviews before, during, and after SA were analyzed to chart the evolution of motives and goals for FL learning from before to after SA. Preliminary findings suggest that FL acquisition narrowly defined was not the main focus of participants' SA experience and full linguistic and cultural immersion was nearly impossible to achieve. Factors mediating participants' actions and experiences during SA included the perception of English as the lingua franca based on participants' unsuccessful attempts to interact with native speakers of the FL during SA, preoccupations with self-definition and integration into the U.S. peer group, and concerns with academic matters. These mediating factors, primarily social and self-related, powerfully influenced the evolution of participants' motives and goals during SA and how participants' agency was co-constructed. These findings lead us to reconsider how SA programs should be structured to best facilitate participants' linguistic and cultural integration during SA.