The Social Lives of Adolescent Study Abroad Learners and Their L2 Development

Abstract

This article reports a longitudinal case study of two German high‐school exchange students’ 5.5‐month study abroad (SA) in New Zealand, examining their social lives and oral second language (L2) development. Six informal interviews, weekly diary entries, and monthly summaries were used to elicit data about their overseas experiences and reflections associated with them. The qualitative analysis investigated the nature of the students’ social lives at school, in their homestay, in their hobbies, and during their free time. The results demonstrated that opportunities for L2 engagement varied considerably with context—some affording and others restricting interaction. Especially the presence of co‐nationals impeded L2 interaction and required the students to seek out opportunities themselves—an effort that the students were not always willing to make. For the quantitative analysis, the interview data were coded using multiple measures of complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency (CALF). Compared to previous studies, the results showed that all CALF dimensions improved during SA, but just for one student and not in a linear fashion. The two learners’ L2 profiles varied considerably, demonstrating that development is dynamic and unique and that interpretations of it need to take account of the learners’ social contexts and what they make of these.

Learning from Locals: The Impact of Social Networks with Target-Language Speakers During Study Abroad

“…Additional studies, such as Shiri (2015) on L2 Arabic and Sauer and Ellis (2019) on L2 English have used questionnaires, diary entries, and participant interviews to gather primarily qualitative data about learner socialization, social networks, and integration into the TL community during SA. This research demonstrates a correlation between social networks and global oral proficiency gains during SA (Shiri, 2015) and highlights the impact of social networks on the L2 development of grammatical complexity and accuracy, lexical diversity, and fluency (CALF; Sauer & Ellis, 2019). These studies are further supported by complementary research that provides detailed examinations of learner-TL speaker L2 Journal Vol.…”

Returning to a new normal

“…Similarly, an interview study by Ehrenreich (2008) among 22 former German language assistants who taught German in English-speaking countries revealed that, for more than half of the assistants, interactions with the local population were rare. These findings can be partially accounted for by contextual constraints, such as students' accommodation or type of university program (Bracke & Aguerre, 2015;Mitchell, 2015), the sociolinguistic context (e.g., the presence of many other students from one's own country or with similar linguistic backgrounds; Mas-Alcolea & Torres-Purroy, 2022), or the availability of opportunities to invest in a hobby, such as in a local sports club (Sauer & Ellis, 2019). Individual factors can also contribute to this phenomenon.…”

Bilingual heritage language learning in China: Applying the Douglas Fir Group's transdisciplinary framework

“…As shown in a study by Sauer and Ellis (2019), two German‐speaking students learning English in New Zealand assumed different identities in homestay, the SA program, and outside school. Accordingly, their social affordances and learning opportunities were differentially presented in different contexts, leading to distinctive learning trajectories.…”