Discourses of foreign language development in study abroad: Social networks and other intervening factors

Abstract

Many scholars have highlighted the great variability of second language acquisition outcomes and, thus, the inconsistencies and inconclusiveness in the study abroad literature. These have called for longitudinal, case-based research that focuses on the students’ processes (rather than outcomes) and that showcases the heterogeneity of experiences in two ways: by pointing at students’ socialization abroad as a key aspect affecting outcome and by accounting for other interlinking factors that may affect the students’ different trajectories. From a discourse-analytic approach, this article presents a longitudinal, qualitative multiple-case study of the Erasmus experience of nine Catalan-Spanish undergraduate students in Italy, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The focus will be on the reported linguistic impact of their sojourn abroad; how this is related to the social networks formed abroad; and the factors that shaped the participants’ socialization patterns and ultimately their second language learning and use trajectories.