This book is designed to help educators equip students to navigate the cultural, linguistic and academic challenges of studying abroad. By addressing the common barriers to meeting learning outcomes when studying a foreign language abroad, the author demonstrates how successful interventions using the GearUp! Virtual Exchange have enabled students to collaborate online before embarking on mobility programmes. With a firm basis in the research literature, the book aims to stimulate innovation in study abroad programmes’ curriculum and structure to optimise learning, and to broaden accessibility to international education in general. The rigorous analysis in each chapter is supported by a comprehensive set of guidelines on implementing study abroad preparation, as well as a supplementary task dossier, student handbook, reflective e-portfolio, and video. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in foreign language education and virtual exchange (or computer-assisted language learning) as well as study abroad and the internationalisation of higher education.

Ángela M. Alonso Morais is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Studies at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain. She obtained her PhD in English Studies in 2025 from the University of León (ULE), where she held a research fellowship from 2021 to 2026. She holds a BA in Modern Languages (ULE, 2019) and an MA in Teacher Training for Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching (ULE, 2021). She has experience teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Her research primarily focuses on Virtual Exchange, exploring how this pedagogical approach can prepare students for the challenges of studying abroad. She collaborated on the Erasmus+ European Policy Experiment Virtual Innovation and Support Networks for Teachers (VALIANT, 2021–2024). Her main research interests lie in the areas of pre-mobility Virtual Exchange, Study Abroad, task-based language teaching, intercultural learning, and the development of foreign language teaching and learning materials.