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By Isabelle Sackville-West, CASLS Fellow

Studying abroad is an adventure. For many, it is their first leap into the arms of a new culture. Although wonderful and rewarding, an experience abroad can also be equally fraught with frustration and isolation. Navigating the process of joining a community and language socialization requires tenacity and patience. One must be willing to fail repeatedly. Through consistent observation, reflection, and engagement with experts in the community, however, one’s communicative and social competence will continually develop. More importantly, the learner’s concept of self, community, and the relationship between the two will deepen.

Joining a language community can be understood as a process of language socialization. Language socialization is the means by which novices come to participate in communicative practices informed by the social, cultural, and historical features of their environment and the expert communicators that exist within it. Key to this process is an expert-novice relationship that is formed by members in the community as novices seek to engage in “culture-building webs of meaning” and social practices (Ochs, 2011, p. 17). 

Becoming an accepted member of a given society entails the acquisition and awareness of a multitude of social and communicative structures including acquiring and displaying knowledge, expression of emotion, and establishing and maintaining relationships. Learners are able to acquire these structures implicitly through observation and interaction with expert community members in everyday life (Shively, 2011, p. 23); learners can be socialized without much awareness or effort (though a lack of awareness makes socialization far more time-intensive). However passive, it is argued that second language socialization is a much more tumultuous process for a learner’s L2 than for their L1 since it often results in the confrontation of competing roles and identities (Duff, 2011, p. 580).

My own experience studying abroad in Beijing exemplifies this process. During this time, my previously purely American identity was brought to odds with my new identity as a Mandarin speaker and the different roles I occupied in each respective society. For instance, in the American school system I was always commended for my respectful and studious behavior. In China, however, I was initially seen as an extremely confident and bold student because I did not yet understand the Chinese pragmatic intricacies of student-teacher and student-student interactions. Essentially, depending on my context, I was interpreted to have opposing personalities. This reality and my attempt to establish myself in my community of peers at my University in Beijing, a community of fellow L2 learners, and a community of Mandarin speakers was, at times, overwhelming.

Entering a new language community is complex, involving re-evaluation of one’s culture, perceived norms, pragmatic awareness, and individual identity. In this way, the development of social and linguistic competence abroad is not just pertinent to language development, but also the learner’s well-being, identity construction and negotiation.

References:

Ochs, E. (2011). The Theory of Language Socialization. The Handbook of Language Socialization, 1-21.

Duff, P. A. (2011). Second Language Socialization. The Handbook of Language Socialization, 565-586.

Shively, R. L. (2011). Learning to be funny in Spanish during study abroad: L2 humor development. The Handbook of Language Socialization, 930-946.