A nine-week empirical study of 25 adults in a second language (L2) Spanish phonetics course explored whether students' participation in service-learning language exchange sessions with native Spanish speakers outside of class influenced learners' (1) motivation for foreign language learning and (2) phonemic perception in Spanish. Divided into service-learning and non-service-learning groups, participants overall showed a significant pre- to post-study improvement in phonemic perception as well as a substantial decrease or increase on four L2 motivational factors. However, no significant differences surfaced between the experimental and the control groups.