Acquiring Sociolx variation in Interlg

Variability among L2 learners has mixed origins and external sociolx factors play a relatively restricted role

L2 learners may also become sensitive to sociolx variation in the target LG

L2 learners adapt their usage patterns over time to accommodate the variation norms of the target community

Mougen et al. (2004, 2010)

Among Canadian-French immersion students, researchers found that:

• Immersion students rarely or never used 'vernacular' variants

• They do make use of 'mildly marked' variants

• L2 choices were influenced of both gender AND social class

• The limited stylistic variation among immersion students reflected the 'formal' variants used in classroom speech and teaching materials

Li (2010)

Li (2010)

Among Chinese L2 intermediate-advanced learners, Li found that:

• Learners used de more frequently overall than native speakers

• They distinguished systematically how they omit de mong the optional contexts

• Use of de was influenced by length of residence in China, proficiency level, and gender

• Advanced L2 learners used de at a similar level with their teachers 

These studies confirm that:

• L2 learners have an emerging awareness of sociolx variables
• LX and social factors combined influence the selection of different variations
• Classroom learners prefer more formal variants

Developmental links between l1 & Culture

Linguistic knowledge is embedded in sociocultural knowledge.

- Ochs, 1988

Grammatical forms are inextricably tied to, and hence index, culturally organized situations of use...

- Ochs & Schiefflin, 1995

LG socialization aims to take systematic account of the wider frameworks and socially recognized situations within which speech acts are performed.

There will be a structured strategic relationship between LG development and 'culturally organized situations of use'.

Talk as culturally organized practice

• North America: Caretakers engage with infants one-to-one from birth and engage in clarification routines

• Papua New Guinea: Caretakers use direct teaching of interactional routines (elema); no clarification

• Samoa: Infants are 'overhearers' of social interactions and children engage in different types of interaction; no clarification

In all of these cultural settings, children learn successfully to talk.

Grammatical development per se cannot be accounted for in terms of single set of speech practices involving children

- Och & Schiefflin, 1995

influence of cultural experiences on LG Acquisition

• Samoa: Infants' first word is generally claimed to be tae (=sh*t)
  • Considered symbolic of the naughtiness and wildness expected of little children
  • Ochs documented instances of infants' early vocalizations being interpreted this way

influence of Social & Gender roles on LG Acquisition

• Papua New Guinea: Elema (=say like that) used by female caregivers
  • Girls: quickly learn and use elema from age 2 onward
  • Boys: never produce this form and use other forms of the verb
  • Children's LG choice: influenced by socialization into gender-appropriate behaviour

LG Socialization in the L2 Classroom

A LG socialization perspective allows SLA researchers to develop a more integrated perspective on LG learning

A teacher's language behaviour is culturally motivated to an extent not generally acknowledged in most L2 literature

- Poole, 1992

Describe the picture and see if we can make a story out of it.

Good work, you guys! That's hard! You -- you did a good job.

(Progressive shift of attributing success to individuals rather than groups)

How do learners acquire and achieve Japanese-style conversational 'alignment' with interlocutors?

ohta (1999): use of ne/na through socialization

NS-NS

L2 Students + Teacher

Candace (novice) - Student

Candace (intermediate) - Student

Speech events vs. Communities of practice

Introduction

The ability to participate appropriately in relevant speech events is central to communicative competence.

In contrast to the stability of well-established and stable L1 speech events and communities, studies by L2 ethnographers have been more fluid and transitory.

A more flexible alternative concept to the speech event is the community of practice. 

CommunitY of

practice

An aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavor. ... it is defined simultaneously by its membership and by the practice in which that membership engages.

- Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992

(CofP)

learning is:

CofPs:

Talmy (2008): The classroom as a cofp

empirical studies of l2 learning as a situated social practice

Increased Participation

Higher/Easier access to Resources & Increased CofP Membership

Lack of L2

Limited Access to Resources & Limited CofP Membership

• Some children were more successful than others in establishing themselves as legitimate peripheral participants in the classroom community

• Participation affected the extent the children gained conversational and other LG learning opportunities

Julie

Polish L1 Girl

Surjeet

vs.

Punjabi L1 Girl

bremer et al. (1993, 1996): L2 encounters w/ gatekeepers

power, ideology, & opportunities for l2 learning

Relations of power impact LG learning and teaching.

How far would adult migrants succeed in developing and maintaining mutual understanding with NS gatekeepers from moment to moment?

pon et al. (2003): inter-group tensions & stereotyping

Seriously, I don't think half of those people in that class should be in a Grade 12 Advanced class. They shouldn't, they can't speak proper English.

- Indian-Caribbean student

... if I put my hand up and then say, ‘Sir, I understand’ and then answer the questions, right? They [other Hong Kong peers] will, they may think I am showing off. So it's really hard.

- Hong-Kong student

Not only racial and linguistic difference, but different cultural values and stereotypes (and in particular differing values attached to the dominant language, English), combined at this particular high school to keep student groups apart.

Inter-group tensions and stereotyping can affect learners' participation in an L2 CofP.

Social identity

That part of an individual's self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the emotional significance attached to that membership

- Tajfel, 1974

Introduction

1.

2.

A sense of belonging to a particular social group

I use the term identity to reference how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future.

- Norton, 2000

3a.

3b.

It is through language that a person negotiates a sense of self within and across different sites at different points in time, and it is through language that a person gains access to or is denied access to powerful social networks that give learners the opportunity to speak.

- Norton, 2000

Adult transformations of identity

Norton (2000): longitudinal changes in identity

They talked to each other and they thought that I had to do everything. And I said ‘no’. The girl is only 12 years old. She is younger than my son. I said ‘No, you are doing nothing. You can go and clean the tables or something’.

- Martina, Czech L1 immigrant

bremer et al. (1996): learner face & self-esteem

L2 speakers' self-esteem can arise when misunderstandings are too frequent in interactional data. 

L1 speakers in service encounters are often not very cooperative with L2 learners; the major burden of achieving understanding thus rests with the L2 learner.

L2 learners may respond with either:

Resistance-Reassertion

Assertion-Affirmation

• Complete withdrawal from L2 interactions
• Reassertion of the speaker's L1 identity

• Assertion of NS-like identity
• Explicit affirmation of understanding L2 interaction

Adolescents & L2 identities

mckay & wong (1996): conflict in identity

& Lam (2004): identity development

• Chinese L1 immigrant adolescents in US high schools were 'caught in the [conflicting] demands made by multiple discourses in their environment
  • Colonialist/racialized discourse
  • 'Model minority' discourses
  • Chinese cultural-nationalist discourses
  • Social and academic discourses
  • Gender discourses

... we feel that they're [American Born Chinese] like white people or other people. So even though they have a Chinese face, we don't feel like they are Chinese.

- Yu Qing, Chinese L1 immigrant female adolescent

After talking more in the chat room, I feel like making mistakes is, well, people joke a lot there, and if I don't know a word, I would just sound it out. I use a lot of wrong words there too, so I feel maybe it's ok to say something wrong. ... Even though you may not feel as comfortable speaking in other places, you get into the habit. It's like as you become more open, you feel it's no big deal, and I can talk to you a bit more.

-Yu Qing

Use of code-switching and lingua franca English, mediated by online chat rooms, facilitated the development and sharing of a transnational identity.

life histories of l2 learners

pavlenko (1998): relationships between l2 learning & identity formations

'Language learning in immigration' involves a first stage of continuous losses and, only later, a stage of gains and (re)construction.

pavlenko (2001): evolution of gendered identities

Many female L2 users chose or accepted L2 English as 'the language that gives them enough freedom to be the kind of women they would like to be'.

English L1 learners regard L2 Japanese with ambivalence due to cultural/societal norms for Japanese 'feminine' identity.

motivation/investment

L2 learners' attitudes, feelings, and motivation towards L2 learning may be dynamic, fluid, and negotiable.

L2 learners may also be inspired by imagined communities where learners aspire to join in the future.

Investment is a sociolx alternative to the traditional social psychological concept of motivation that considers the presence of affect/emotion in L2 learning

For adult migrant learners, the L2 is the only available communicative option in many difficult encounters with the powerful. 

then yes he went because i did not have the/have the + that i was angry for/i forget the words in french to say + i did not/ did not find + nothing of words to say the things which/ which i tell him because it is not good the manner he said goodbye to me

- Berta, Spanish L1-French L2 Woman