Adult second language learners’ social network development and perceived fluency gain in an intensive English program abroad (original) (raw)
Related papers
Relationships between social networks and language development during study abroad
Language, Culture and Curriculum, 2019
The current study examined second language (L2) learners' social networks during study abroad and how they changed over time. Participants were 29 British undergraduates majoring in French who were spending an academic year abroad in France. Social network data were collected three times during study abroad (beginning, middle, and end of a nine-month stay) using the Social Networks Questionnaire. Results showed that large proportions of learners' social networks included L1-using contacts, with little change over time. Analysis of social networks according to social context indicated that work/university and organized free time contexts appeared to favour L2 use, whereas virtual contexts (e.g. Facebook, Skype) appeared to favour L1 use. Correlations between aspects of learners' social networks and language development (lexical complexity scores in oral interviews) indicated complex and changing relationships over time, indicating that frequent amounts of L2 use during study abroad were associated with high lexical complexity scores.
Michał B. Paradowski, Andrzej Jarynowski, Magdalena Jelińska, Karolina Czopek (2021). Out-of-class peer interactions matter for second language acquisition during short-term overseas sojourns: The contributions of Social Network Analysis. Language Teaching, 54(1)., 2021
Social networks play an important role in the behaviour and attainment of individuals. This study investigates how interactions with peer L2 learners catalyse or inhibit second language acquisition, and constitutes one of the first applications of computational social network analysis (SNA) to investigating the phenomenon in unregulated conversational interaction. Unlike some previous notable studies (Dewey et al., 2012; 2013; Zappa‐Hollman & Duff, 2015; Gautier, 2019), we do not limit the scope of enquiry to individual (ego-)networks, which only investigate the links between the individual and her/his alters, but we set out to examine the full L2 learner network in its entirety, where knowledge of the links between (almost) all network members enables a reconstruction of the connected social graph of the complete learner group. In a sample of participants in two editions of a 4-week-long intensive summer course of the Polish language and culture (n=332), we find that peer learner networks can have both a positive and a negative impact on L2 acquisition. Among others: i) a positive predictor of L2 improvement is reciprocal out-of-class interactions in the language being acquired, ii) outgoing interactions in the L2 are a stronger predictor than incoming interactions, iii) there exists a clear negative relationship between performance and interactions with same-L1 speakers, iv) there is a clear negative relationship between L2 performance and weighted in-degree centrality in total communication, v) fluency in lingua-franca English tends to significantly impede progress in the (non-English) L2. While the link between social relations and language acquisition has been universally acknowledged by SLA scholars, social network analysis offers not only a novel methodology, but a whole new insight into the language learning process, demonstrating how network structure and the dynamics of interaction are stronger predictors of TL performance than many individual factors such as attitude or motivation. The findings may deliver practical recommendations for language teachers as to how, by first identifying students’ and groups’ communication profiles and social interaction patterns, and subsequently seeking ways to reinforce and promote advantageous educational behaviours while discouraging or inhibiting deleterious ones, they could aid learners in their quest to acquire the L2.
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad
In this paper, we explore language use, social network development, and language acquisition by second learners of Arabic in Jordan and Morocco. Students in these programs reported speaking, listening to, and writing as much English as Arabic during study abroad, but they reported reading more Arabic than English. While patterns indicated similar levels of use of English and Arabic in general, questions focusing on learners' use of language with more familiar friends and acquaintances indicated learners thought they used Arabic more than English with these native friends. Regarding English language use, learners felt that speaking English with natives often created opportunities to interact in Arabic as well. Students’ Arab social networks tended to be small, but there was considerable variation in these networks. The closer their friendships with natives, the more likely students were to report gains in Arabic. English proficiency of friends and acquaintances in one’s social...
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
In: Mitchell, Rosamond & Henry Tyne (Eds.), Language, Mobility and Study Abroad in the Contemporary European Context. Oxon: Routledge., 2021
This chapter introduces the rationale behind a social network analytic (SNA) approach in the context of second language acquisition (SLA). The conceptual overview presents ways of operationalising social graphs and common metrics used in the calculations, supported by illustrative examples. We then argue for merging quantitative SNA with qualitative data. Subsequently, we showcase findings from the PEERLANG project (Paradowski et al., 2021) investigating the influence of peer out-of-class interactions on SLA in two different contexts: among international participants in intensive summer language courses (multilingual “immersion” scenario), and stationary foreign language majors (“no immersion”). We reveal patterns emerging from both contexts, demonstrating the role that mobility plays in network dynamics, and how both factors together moderate language attainment. We show that the impact of peer learner networks on L2 acquisition can be both positive and negative, depending on the context and the network layer involved. Computational and anthropological SNA offers a novel methodology for investigating the link between social relations and language acquisition (especially L2 production).
The Modern Language Journal, 2022
This longitudinal study of 17 American learners of French lies at the intersection of 2 complementary fields of inquiry in second language acquisition (SLA): language variation and change (LVC) and language acquisition during study abroad. Studies in LVC examine the nature and use of linguistic features that have more than 1 possible realization in native-speaker speech (i.e., variable features). Conversely, investigations into language acquisition during study abroad have primarily focused on the acquisition of categorical features that have only 1 possible, grammatical realization in the target language, or on the acquisition of global oral proficiency and fluency. Moreover, while studies in LVC have long relied on social network theory to predict language performance, existing research on language acquisition during study abroad provides conflicting results and explanations for learner gains during study abroad. The current study bridges this research gap by providing empirical evidence for the critical role of social networks with target-language speakers in the acquisition of stylistic variation by French learners during study abroad. Additionally, because this study includes both semester and year-long learners, results demonstrate the significant impact of time on task, which, when combined with network strength, negates the role of individual learner characteristics previously shown to influence acquisition during study abroad.
2011
Social network development has been studied in the social sciences for the last several decades, but little work has applied social network theory to study-abroad research. This study seeks to quantitatively describe factors that predict social network formation among study-abroad students while in the host countries. Social networks were measured in terms of the number of friends the students made, the number of distinct social groups reported, and the number of friends within those groups. The Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire was compared against these pre-trip factors: intercultural competence, target-language proficiency, prior missionary experience, gender, study-abroad program, neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, openness to new experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Results showed that pre-trip oral proficiency in the target language was the strongest predictor of the number of friends made in-country. Certain programs showed stronger predictive ...
Second Language Acquisition in a Multicultural Group and Social Network Effects
The 21st-century research strives to integrate different scientific domains, in order to better understand the world and the laws governing its existence. The project combines the idea of social networks with the process of second language acquisition (SLA) and investigates the influence of network structure and peer interaction dynamics on the learning outcomes in the setting of face-to-face interaction. The analyzed group was formed by 39 Erasmus exchange students at a German university. In the project, an attempt was made to meet three objectives: a) to grasp individual, social and interactional factors impacting the acquisition process, b) to follow the way in which language development is affected by the dynamics of peer interaction, and c) to trail the impact of social network topology on motivation and learning outcomes.