Cover not available

Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 30:1 (2007) ► pp.5.1–5.18

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF

Language choice and second language learning opportunities in learners’ social networks

A case study of an Australian Learner of Japanese

 | Monash University
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 1 January 2007
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.2104/aral0705
This paper examines the patterns of language choice and the construction of L2 learning opportunities in foreign language learners’ social networks by focusing on how these patterns and opportunities are socially structured in a Japanese language learner’s natural interactions. It is based on a range of data, including a script of on-line chat occurring in natural environments as well interview data. Drawing on Cummins’ (1996) concept of interpersonal space, the findings indicate that there were a number of social and contextual factors that seemed to affect the learner’s language choice and L2 learning opportunities in complex ways. Most of these factors appeared to be related to the learner’s and/or his network interactants’ identity as an adequate L2 user and their perception of each other’s L2 proficiency and/or role. This paper provides insights into how to create environments that promote the learners’ opportunities for L2 use and learning.
References (35)
Angelil-Carter, S. 1997. ‘Second language acquisition of spoken and written English: Acquiring the skeptron’. TESOL quarterly 31 (2): 263–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cummins, J. 1996. Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Ontario: California Association for Bilingual Education.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000a. Language, power and pedagogy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000b. ‘Negotiating intercultural identities in the multilingual classroom’. The CATESOL journal 12 (1): 163–178.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Bot, K; Stoessel, S. 2002. ‘Introduction: language change and social networks’. International journal of the sociology of language 1531: 1–7. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duff, P.A. 2002a. ‘The discursive co-construction of knowledge, identity, and difference: An ethnography of communication in the high school mainstream’. Applied linguistics 231: 289–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002b. ‘Pop culture and ESL students: Intertextuality, identity, and participation in classroom discussions’. Journal of adolescent and adult literacy 45 (6): 482–487.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Firth, A; Wagner, J. 1997. ‘On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research’. The modern language journal 811: 285–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freiermuth, M; Jarrell, D. 2006. ‘Willingness to communicate: Can online chat help?’ International journal of applied linguistics 16 (2): 189–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodnow, J. J. 1993. ‘Direction of post-Vygotskian research’. In Contexts for learning, edited by Forman, E. A.; Minick, N.; Stone, C. A. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haruhara, K. 1992. ‘Nettowaakingu sutoratejii’ (‘Networking strategy’). Nihongogaku (Japanese language study) 111: 17–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kurata, N. 2002. ‘Communication networks of Japanese language learners and second language acquisition’. Unpublished MA thesis, Melbourne: Monash University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. ‘Communication networks of Japanese language learners in their home country’. Journal of Asian Pacific communication 14 (1): 153–178. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004b. ‘Social networks of language learners and collaborative interaction with native speakers: A case study of two Australian learners of Japanese’. ASAA e-journal of Asian linguistics & language teaching 71: 1–22. Available from: [URL].
McKay, S.L; Wong, S.C. 1996. ‘Multiple discourse, multiple identities: Investment and agency in second-language learning among Chinese adolescent immigrant students’. Harvard educational review 66 (3): 577–608. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, J. 2000. ‘Language use, identity, and social interaction: Migrant students in Australia’. Research on language and social interaction 33 (1): 69–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. ‘Identity and language use: The politics of speaking ESL in schools’. In Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts, edited by Pavlenko A.; Blackledge A. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milroy, L. 1987. Language and social networks. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neustupný, J. V. 1994. ‘Nihon kenkyuu no hoohooron: deeta shuushuu no dankai’ (A methodology for Japanese studies: a stage of collecting data). Machikaneyama Ronsoo: nihongakuhen 281: 1–24.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1997. Nihongo kyooiku to nettowaaku no kangaekata (The Japanese language education from a network perspective)’. In Kokunai no nihongo kyooiku nettowaaku zukuri ni kansuru choosa kenkyuu (Research on the creation of domestic networks in the Japanese education), edited by Nihongo Kyooiku Gakkai Nettowaaku Choosa Kenkyuu Iinkai (The Network Research Committee of the Japanese Language Education Society). Tokyo: NihongoGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nihongo Kyooiku Gakkai Nettowaaku Choosa Kenkyuu Iinkai (The Network Research Committee of the Japanese Language Education Society). 1997. Kokunai no nihongo kyooiku nettowaaku zukuri ni kansuru choosa kenkyuu (Research on the creation of domestic networks in Japanese Education). Tokyo: Nihongo Kyooiku Gakkai (Japanese Language Education Society).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nishimura, M. 1992. ‘Language choice and in-group identity among Canadian niseis’. Journal of Asian Pacific communication 3 (1): 97–113.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norton, B. 2000. Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norton Peirce, B. 1995. ‘Social identity, investment, and language learning’. TESOL quarterly 29 (1): 9–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogawa, K. 1998. ‘Impact of an interaction-oriented Japanese course on learners’. Australian review of applied linguistics 151: 123–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Preston, D. R. 1989. Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, L.R. 2002. ‘The social architecture of communicative competence: A methodology for social-network research in sociolinguistics’. International journal of the sociology of language 1531: 133–160.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Storch, N. 2002. ‘Patterns of interaction in ESL pair work’. Language learning 52 (1): 119–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tarone, E. 1997. ‘Analyzing IL in natural settings: A sociolinguistic perspective on second-language acquisition’. Communication and cognition 301: 137–149.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000. ‘Still wresting with 'context' in interlanguage theory’. Annual review of applied linguistics 201: 182–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Lier, L. 1996. Interaction in the language curriculum: Awareness, autonomy &; authenticity. New York: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1998. ‘The relationship between consciousness, interaction and language learning’. Language awareness 7 (2 & 3): 128–145. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wiklund, I. 2002. ‘Social networks from a sociolinguistic perspective: The relationship between characteristics of the social networks of bilingual adolescents and their language proficiency’. International journal of the sociology of language 1531: 53–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yanagimachi, T. 2003. ‘Sociolinguistic/interaction-analytic perspectives on AJSL research: Focus on language use and its contexts’. In An invitation to second language acquisition research in Japanese: In honour of Seiichi Makino, edited by Hatasa Y.A. Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (10)

Cited by ten other publications

Paradowski, Michał B., Nicole Whitby, Michał Czuba & Piotr Bródka
2024. Peer Interaction Dynamics and Second Language Learning Trajectories During Study Abroad: A Longitudinal Investigation Using Dynamic Computational Social Network Analysis. Language Learning 74:S2 ► pp. 58 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Yi
2024. The whole network approach to understanding language contact reporting inconsistency in peer interactions. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 3:3 ► pp. 100139 ff. DOI logo
Camus, Pablo
2023. Study abroad in the Southern Cone. In Study Abroad and the Second Language Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Variation in Spanish [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 37], ► pp. 174 ff. DOI logo
Marijuan, Silvia & Cristina Sanz
2018. Expanding Boundaries: Current and New Directions in Study Abroad Research and Practice. Foreign Language Annals 51:1 ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Hung, Yu-Wan & Steve Higgins
2016. Learners’ use of communication strategies in text-based and video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication environments: opportunities for language learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning 29:5 ► pp. 901 ff. DOI logo
Baker‐Smemoe, Wendy, Dan P. Dewey, Jennifer Bown & Rob A. Martinsen
2014. Variables Affecting L2 Gains During Study Abroad. Foreign Language Annals 47:3 ► pp. 464 ff. DOI logo
Dewey, Dan P., Jennifer Bown & Dennis Eggett
2012. Japanese Language Proficiency, Social Networking, and Language Use during Study Abroad: Learners’ Perspectives. The Canadian Modern Language Review 68:2 ► pp. 111 ff. DOI logo
Freiermuth, Mark R. & Hsin-chou Huang
2012. Bringing Japan and Taiwan closer electronically: A look at an intercultural online synchronic chat task and its effect on motivation. Language Teaching Research 16:1 ► pp. 61 ff. DOI logo
Kurata, Naomi
2012. Social Networks in Second Language Acquisition. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, DOI logo
Mori, Yoshiko & Junko Mori
2011. Review of recent research (2000–2010) on learning and instruction with specific reference to L2 Japanese. Language Teaching 44:4 ► pp. 447 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue