Life post-study abroad for the Japanese language learner: Social networks, interaction and language usage (original) (raw)
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In R. Mitchell, N. Tracy-Ventura & K. McManus (Eds.), Social Interaction, identity and language learning during residence abroad (pp. 241-262). Rome: The European Second Language Association., 2015
Over the past two decades, there has been a steady increase in studies concerning language learner’s out-of-class interaction and social network development in study abroad contexts. However, to date, there has been very little research into the ongoing impact of study abroad on learners’ target language (TL) speaking networks once they return to their home countries. Do they maintain these newly developed networks and/or demonstrate an enhanced ability to expand TL networks once removed from the study abroad environment? Moreover, do these networks continue to provide opportunities for TL usage, or, does frequent contact with TL speakers, and opportunities for language use and learning, become but a lingering memory of the study abroad experience? These questions have become the focus of the present research, which, based within a larger doctoral project, investigates the impact of various university-level study abroad programs on Japanese language learners’ social networks with Japanese speakers after they returned to Australia.
2015
A significant number of studies highlight the importance of informal interaction and social networks for second language acquisition and social support during study abroad. Many also indicate the importance of study abroad for providing language learners with opportunities to meet, interact, and establish social networks with other target language (TL) speakers. However, although an increasing amount of research has investigated the development of language learners’ social networks during study abroad, research examining learners’ ongoing network maintenance and development with TL speakers after their program completion remains scarce. The current study aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating the impact of study abroad on language learners’ engagement with the host country, its language and its speakers. In particular, focus is placed on interaction and social networks with TL speakers during study abroad and onwards throughout their life trajectories. The study...
The Canadian Modern Language Review, 2012
This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels of the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines and the least in novice and superior-level abilities, largely because of a ceiling effect-learners were highly capable of novice-level tasks before study abroad and therefore had little to gain. Regression analysis indicated that self-reported pre-departure proficiency level, dispersion (number of social groups in which a learner participated), time spent in Japan, total time spent speaking Japanese, time spent speaking with native-speaker friends, and time spent speaking English with native speakers of Japanese predicted 44.6% of the variance in the perceived gains of study abroad in speaking proficiency. Self-reported pre-departure proficiency level and time spent speaking English with native speakers of Japanese were negative predictors.
Open Research Exeter, 2019
It is broadly accepted that even short-term study abroad can lead to language gains, can provide gains in cognitive and affective development, and that longer-term programs and residence abroad may benefit the foreign language learners more. In the age of advanced IT, connectivity and accessibility, how crucial are intensive short stays abroad? The current study, which takes place in higher education in Japan, answers in what way social experiences and networks can be associated with linguistic outcomes during short stays abroad. Learners of English as a foreign language spent between 3 and 5 weeks in universities in New Zealand or Australia. I investigated both linguistic gains before and after short programs and the community of learning a foreign language while overseas with others. In particular, using mixed methods data collection of pre- and post-tests, questionnaires, interviews, and observations, I examined the amount of contact the learners had with co-nationals, other foreign students, with locals, and with family and friends back home. I also delved into a few cases in which homestay environment appeared to influence their perceived success in benefiting from the short program. This paper shows that presenting linguistic gains for short-term study abroad is difficult, but that learners gain sociocultural skills, both physically and verbally, which shapes the way they construct their network of friendship both on-site and at home during short-stays abroad. It is my hope the findings help instructors and program coordinators plan or improve similar programs. It will also add to the existing knowledge on how short-stays abroad work or do not work for Japanese students seeking opportunities to learn and practice English. It also suggests ways how students and administrators can utilize IT and virtual social networks to connect with the target language community as well as their cohorts.
Language Learners' Social Interaction during Study Abroad
Handbook of Research on Study Abroad Programs and Outbound Mobility
There is a common belief that one of the best methods for learning a foreign or second language is to develop social relationships with native speakers and to communicate with them using that language. In order to increase such interactional opportunities, participation in study abroad programs where the target language is spoken is frequently recommended. However, language learners often report disappointment in their degree of interaction and friendship development with native speakers while abroad. With a focus on learners of Japanese, the study reported in this chapter examines the contexts in which study abroad students in Japan find opportunities to interact and establish friendships with native Japanese speakers, and discusses the participants' satisfaction with and benefits of such interaction and friendships. The results draw upon 36 questionnaire responses, as well as in-depth interviews with four focal informants, all of who experienced a study abroad in Japan between...
Comparative and International Education, 2016
This article explores the post-study abroad life trajectories of learners of Japanese. Drawing upon data collected from eight interviewees, it presents the experiences of study abroad returnees’ ongoing engagement with Japan and Japanese speakers once they were removed from the study abroad environment. In particular, it focuses on the impact of study abroad on ongoing studies and career trajectory, and examines ongoing interaction with Japanese speakers throughout these key life stages. Through the lens of possible selves theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986), this study also examines how the informants’ ongoing engagement with the target language is reflected in their post-study abroad L2 self-concepts. It was found that although the experience of studying abroad in Japan presented a critical incident in each of the informants’ future life trajectories, and each of them remain connected to Japan in various ways, their patterns of engagement with Japanese speakers after returning home dif...
L2 Journal, 2023
Social network analysis (SNA) examines the relationships that an individual speaker creates and maintains with others in order to explain and predict language behavior. Over the past 20 years, SNA has been used by a growing number of researchers to better understand the language learner and the language learning process, especially in the context of study abroad (SA) in the target-language (TL) environment. Some of the earliest applications to L2 acquisition operationalized SNA through primarily qualitative data about learners' attitudes toward the target culture and their interactions with TL speakers (Isabelli-García, 2006; Lybeck, 2002), while later studies have focused on developing quantitative measures of network strength based on criteria such as network density, multiplexity, and dispersion (Baker