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Examining agency in (second) language socialization research
... From a second language socialization perspective, agency is theorized as the capacity to make choices, take control, and self-regulate behaviors to achieve personal or social transformation (Duff, 2012), which is individualized, contextual, and subject to the interplay between learner identity and the larger social network. The theory seeks to explicate how and why certain individuals are able to leverage their agentive resources for creating learning opportunities and whether agency is transferable across contexts (Duff & Doherty, 2015. As such, it offers a heuristic lens to interpret L2 learners' decisions and behaviors while they are engaging in identity construction and social network development during SA. ...
... A view of agency in the nexus of identity and social network has therefore emerged from extant research on second language socialization, which points to the mediating role of agency as well as its socioculturally mediated nature in language socialization (Ahearn, 2001;Duff & Doherty, 2015. In light of our research aims and the aforementioned gaps in the literature, we wish to draw on the notion of agency in second language socialization theory to examine the intersection between identity transformation and social network development in the SA experiences of international students in China. ...
... Her self-positioning as an independent individual seemed to help Roza transcend the boundaries of structural ties and other-ascribed identity, facilitating her self-regulated L2 Chinese socialization (Duff & Doherty, 2015). In her second interview Roza shared how this self positioning fueled changes in her mindset, which allowed her to transform from seeing her heritage identity as a disadvantage to embracing her personal history and expressing her identity flexibly: ...
Studying abroad entails international students’ identity (trans)formation and social network development, but individuals’ decisions and choices while engaging in these processes remain underexplored. Informed by the notion of agency in second language socialization theory, this longitudinal case study examined the interplay of identity and social network in the socialization experiences of three international students learning Chinese as an additional language in China. Analysis of ethnographic interviews, a Study Abroad Network Questionnaire, observational field notes, and supplementary data revealed the role of individual agency in mediating the students’ heterogeneous ways of mobilizing linguistic and cultural resources to construct identities and build social ties. The study also illustrated that agency was not readily or equally accessible to all participants, but it was negotiated in the nexus of their identity and social network. Finally, the study discussed the issues that surfaced in students’ distinctive learning trajectories, and offered implications to inform potential stakeholders.
... In so doing, I highlight the complementary theoretical role of panopticism in second language socialization research in the context of these seven students' stories. Although recent work has discussed the role of self-socialization on the lives of second language students from both conceptual (Duff & Doherty, 2015;Lee & Bucholtz, 2015) and empirical perspectives (Newman & Newman, 2009), none thus far has studied the impact of both self and other socialization on the academic lives of foreign L2 graduate students and their abilities, desires, and opportunities to navigate their sought after discourses and communities. This chapter will address this under-researched and yet critical area. ...
... Early language socialization research typically concentrated on the dyadic relationship between "newcomers" and "oldtimers" and the primary role the latter (more knowledgeable member) had in socializing the former into socially and culturally situated language practices, such as children learning interactional routines from caregivers or young students learning IRE (initiation-response-evaluation) sequences from their teachers (Duff, 2007a). The role of selfsocialization-the self-directed and self-mediated role of an individual's enculturation into behaviours, identities, discourses, and communities-has been a much less discussed phenomenon, and that which exists has come primarily from the field of psychology (Duff & Doherty, 2015). Arnett (2007), for example, researched the role of socialization during emerging adulthood from ages 18 to 25 where people typically experience profound shifts in personal freedoms, life trajectories, sexuality, cohabitation, and career development (for example), all of which "lay the foundation for their adult lives" (p. ...
... 323) due to its lack of explicit focus on social and cultural factors that mediate language learning and use. Considering the role of self-socialization from a contemporary LS perspective, which highlights the role of agency (Duff & Doherty, 2015) and the occurrence of bidirectional enculturation in the language socialization process, better allows for consideration of the omnipresent sociocultural factors impacting and mediating newcomers' integration and negotiation into their language practices and communities (see Duff & Doherty, 2015 for an extended discussion of the role of agency in language socialization research). According to Ahearn (2001), agency refers broadly to the "socioculturally mediated capacity to act" (p. ...
This dissertation explores the academic discourse socialization of seven foreign Chinese PhD students in the faculties of arts and education at a major Canadian research university. This study draws on the theoretical frameworks and constructs of language socialization (Duff, 2007a, 2010a; Ochs, 1986; Ochs & Schieffelin, 1984, 2012), transnationalism (Duff, 2015; Ong, 1993, 1999; Vertovec, 2009), internationalization (Altbach & Knight, 2007; de Wit, 2002; Marginson, 1999), and panopticism (Foucault, 1995). A multiple case study method was used to address the various sources of socialization and their outcomes in terms of the students’ academic trajectories. The primary data sources include semi-structured interviews conducted near the start and end of the study period, narrative accounts produced by each participant charting their academic writing experiences, and voluntarily submitted academic texts that contained varying degrees and types of written feedback.
... Recent research has explored the role of academic socialization in the linguistic practices of L2 students from conceptual (e.g.,: P. A. Duff, 2007; P. Duff & Doherty, 2015) to empirical (e.g.,: Kobayashi, 2016;Yim, 2005) perspectives. For evaluating the role of socialization and academic outcomes in individual academic experiences, researchers assess not only language learners' linguistic competence, but also their cultural knowledge, and interactive capability in order to become a full member of the academic community. ...
... o more experienced members who value newcomers who ask for language help and display willingness to improve linguistic compentence (Surtees, 2018). As such, the process of academic socialization in linguistic practice are portrayed as bidirectional or even multidirectional when multiple models of expertise exist at the same time (P. A. Duff, 2007a;P. Duff & Doherty, 2015). ...
Despite several attempts made to analyze students’ socialization into academic discourse in relevant reviews, we still lack a topical study providing an overview of how students are apprenticed into academic communities through oral activities at post-secondary institutions. This study aims at contributing to a comprehensive overview of both theoretical and empirical studies in the field of academic discourse socialization (ADS). A systematic review approach was adopted due to the qualitative and quantitative research design and connections between theory and evidence. The material search of ADS literature published between 2000 and 2022 resulted in 72 studies in total. While the synthesis of theoretical studies reveal the extant definitions, categorization of characteristics and theoretical orientations, the empirical study findings compare differences in participants and contexts, research approaches, communication events, and academic outcomes. This review also discusses major areas of research concerning ADS, mainly types of socialization agents, students’ feedback, learners’ identity construction, and assessment of consequences of ADS. With limitations concluded, the review encourages further focused investigation into micro-macro connections, application of digital technologies, a wider range of participants, disciplines and contexts, multiple types of oral activities and perspectives, learners’ linguistic production as well as correlation of oral and written texts, and joint efforts from multiple sides.
... The notion of agency has also been taken up by several scholars and researchers interested in better understanding the teaching and learning practices occurring in multilingual language learning contexts (e.g., Douglas Fir Group, 2016;Duff & Doherty, 2015;Gao, 2013;Larsen-Freeman, 2019). Larsen-Freeman (2019) has long been concerned about the portrayal of multilingual learners as "nonagentive" in the teaching and learning process and points out that several second language research agendas have implicitly represented learners in this way (e.g., universal acquisition order, comprehensible input, etc.). ...
... Agency has been defined in diverse ways, and conceptions overlap with other influential concepts in language teaching and learning such as investment, intentionality, motivation, and locus of control, among others (Duff & Doherty, 2015). Ahearn (2001) described agency as the "socioculturally mediated capacity to act" (p. ...
Most universities in English-dominant countries have been competing to attract multilingual learners for some time, inspired by the dual need for brain power and income generation (Lee, Maldonado-Maldonado, & Rhodes, 2006). In the Canadian context, this has resulted in rising international student populations (Anderson, 2015) and the expansion of increasingly sophisticated academic language programs (Fox, Cheng, & Zumbo, 2014). Despite this, external research into the effectiveness and appropriateness of these programs from the perspectives of the students enrolled remains scarce (Keefe & Shi, 2017).
This multiple case study involves six multilingual learners enrolled in a newly-designed academic language program in a Canadian university. This first-year program provided content and academic language courses in two disciplinary areas (Arts and Sciences), which upon successful completion, qualified students for their second year in the university mainstream. In this study, I investigate how students responded to program design features and academic writing instruction. I incorporate multiple interviews with students, collection of their written assignments and feedback, observations of classrooms and other educational events, interviews with other program stakeholders, and collection of program documents.
Of the six student participants in this study, four were successful and two were less successful. For the four successful students, participation in the sheltered program was perceived as an overall beneficial experience that helped them make a positive transition to mainstream studies. However, responses to academic writing instruction and practice were highly variable and influenced by students’ backgrounds and their educational or disciplinary beliefs. For two less successful students, notions of agency, identity, and appropriation became influential in their transitions as they increasingly reported confusion, frustration, and conflict in meeting academic expectations. Results suggest there are several opportunities and challenges involved in the integration of sophisticated theoretical and pedagogical approaches, some of which may not be realized for some time after instruction has ceased. The study highlights an ongoing need to: 1) (re)consider the time needed and the degree of complexity involved in academic writing instruction and, 2) maximize alignment of pedagogical objectives with multilingual learners’ backgrounds as well as their perceived academic and disciplinary writing needs.
... The implementation of such transformative practices is certainly a welcome development as Duf and Doherty (2015) report that students increasingly refuse to be passive reproducers of the rhetorical norms of their disciplines and venture to use their agentive resources to participate in more selfdirected socialization. Thus, as educators, we need to foster and develop this approach to academic writing and provide opportunities for students' agentive participation to thrive (see also Lillis, 2019;Lillis & Scott, 2007). ...
Our purpose in this paper is to throw light on the tension, or even internal conflict, tertiary-level students experience when they struggle to negotiate the rhetorical norms of disciplinary writing and the changes in their authorial voice that necessarily occur in this socialization process. With this goal in mind, we designed and conducted the study to gain insights into the perceptions Management and English Philology students have as to what constitutes a convincing authorial voice and the discourse-level features employed to realize this. Twenty-six study participants created a diverse group with regards to nationality, gender, study level, disciplinary affiliation and cultural and linguistic background. Their evaluations of voice were first analyzed from their responses to a questionnaire and then expanded through interviews. The findings reveal that a reader-inclusive voice, which requires the use of de-jargonized language, clear purpose and structure, and creates room for reader’s own interpretation, is crucial for a text to be convincing. We also argue that students’ preference for reader-sensitive academic writing should be supported and encouraged through the provision of strategic academic writing pedagogy.
... Learners are also agentive in this process (DFG, 2016). Learners' motivation drives participation in real and imagined L2 communities (Block, 2014;Lam, 2000), in turn providing greater language learning opportunities that further reinforce and impact on the development of language identity (Duff & Doherty, 2015;Zappa-Hollman & Duff, 2015). Learners also exercise agency in the expression of multiple language identities that respond to the diverse contexts through which they move and as they make choices to refashion relationships by taking on alternative identities, thus opening new interactional opportunities (Higgins, 2015;Rampton, 2013). ...
... A review of research on language learners' identity suggests that relevant studies have focused on three major issues. The first issue has to do with the interrelationship among identity, agency, and discourse (Deters, Gao, Vitanova, & Miller, 2014;Duff & Doherty, 2014;Fogle, 2012;McKay & Wong, 1996). Researchers seem to agree that language learners as complex social beings are willing and able to exercise their agency in a certain context through discursive discourse. ...
Informed by the theory of identity in practice, this study examined an immigrant student’s (Yulia’s) language learning experience. A narrative analysis of Yulia’s personal stories reveals that her perceived identities as an intelligent, different, and special multilingual speaker have isolated her from her communities. She desperately tried to fit in with various groups in multiple communities of practice. Unfortunately, although she felt a sense of belonging, she became a modified version of herself. Shuttling among languages, cultures, and groups, Yulia found that her true self was invisible in any culture in which she found herself. Moreover, positioned as her parents’ secretary and translator, Yulia believed that her lived experiences have shaped her as a resilient, mature, and independent immigrant who shouldered many familial responsibilities at a young age. Her reversed role as a parent deprived her of time and joy to be a child. Yulia’s multilayered and complicated identities interacted with her actions and perspectives on herself and experiences as an immigrant. Findings indicate that this immigrant’s self-formation in action at times matches and mismatches her self-conceptions based on her learning trajectories and unique situations. Thus, the researcher argues that linguistic competence does not necessarily facilitate community membership establishment.
... The importance of agency for theories on language learning is highlighted by Duff and Doherty (2015), who claim that processes and outcomes of language learning may be better understood through the theorizing of agency and of language learners as agents, experiencers and beneficiaries. Relationships between agency and literacy may be perceived as directed both ways; people use written language resources in relation to agency, while their agency simultaneously influences how they develop their understanding of literacy. ...
In this article, relations between agency and literacy are analysed focussing on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children’s literacies. A dialogic perspective on agency is used, with agency defined as dynamic, and with attention paid to the parameters time, culture, semiotic resources, and physical space and position. The material used for the analysis are interviews with five young adults. Interviews revealed the conflicting positions of the young persons in focus here, as agents acting to position themselves while simultaneously being in a vulnerable position. The social uses of written language resources outside school in this case turned out to be especially important for interaction with peers, relatives and acquaintances. The analysis also showed the importance of support for the development of multilingual literacies, and it identified restrictions at the social level that may be the result of monolingual literacy for the individual.
... When supervisors and students become coauthors, the reconfiguration of power challenges the binary of novice/expert. Students cease to be passive recipients of others' agency, and are able to leverage their own agentive resources and participate in more self-directed socialization (Duff & Doherty, 2015). Negotiating identities, ideologies, and capital, novices in the academic community are able to invest in their own academic socialization with greater agentive power so that they can shape their own professional trajectories. ...
In this chapter, Darvin and Norton examine the potential of collaborative writing between student and supervisor as a means of academic socialization. Drawing on the model of investment (Darvin and Norton in Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35: 36–56, 2015), they discuss how investing in socializing practices within the academic community is located at the intersection of identity, capital and ideology. By challenging assumptions of academic roles and existing norms of scholarly publishing, student and supervisor can reframe their identities (Norton in Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, 2013) and recognize the cultural capital that each one brings. This reconfiguration of power constructs a space where authentic collaboration can begin and where ideas are mutually valued and exchanged to produce a work that bears the inscription of both identities.
... This alignment with a white norm (i.e., "White Prestige Ideology"), according to the authors, resulted in the two focal students' construction of inferior identities as racialized, Taiwanese, nonnative writers of English not yet able to produce the kinds of lengthy, sophisticated texts they associated with American writers. These acts of resistance and acceptance can be viewed as displays and exertion of agency, which mediates ADS and other kinds of language socialization (Duff and Doherty 2015;Haneda 2009;Ochs and Schieffelin 2012). ...
Research on academic discourse socialization (ADS), a form of language socialization, examines the social, cognitive, and cultural processes, ideologies, and practices involved in higher education in particular. ADS is concerned with the means by which newcomers and those they interact with learn to participate in various kinds of academic discourse in their communities and other social networks.
In this chapter, we discuss recent developments in scholarship on ADS, following on earlier such reviews (e.g., Duff 2010; Morita and Kobayashi 2008). We describe the challenges faced by some students (and sometimes their mentors) in relation to intertextuality
, unfamiliar or evolving academic genres, and social stratification and marginalization, which may be exacerbated by students’ proficiency in the language of education. We review research examining the linguistic and rhetorical demands of academic texts in diverse disciplines, noting the complexities, contingencies, and hybridity of ADS. We also discuss problems with research that assumes a prescriptive, deterministic view of ADS instead of an innovative, transformative, and sometimes contested process. We conclude by identifying areas for future studies in ADS, emphasizing fertile research possibilities associated with technology-mediated socialization (e.g., i-clickers, Skype, Google Docs, and course-related discussion platforms), new forms of assessment (e.g., portfolios), the inclusion of a wider range of oral, written, and multimodal learning activities, and a more diverse range of contexts, both disciplinary and geographical. Finally, we suggest that longitudinal studies of ADS across learners’ academic programs (i.e., within and across courses) over an extended period are needed.
Despite the recent growth of research on language teacher educators’ (LTEs) professionalism,
little research is available on their agency. In response to this gap of knowledge, this study drew
on an ecological theoretical framework and explored the agency and identity construction of
Iranian LTEs. Grounded in a narrative inquiry methodology, data were collected from narrative
frames and semi-structured interviews. Analyses of the data revealed that power and interpersonal
relationships were key to the LTEs’ constrained and facilitated agency, respectively.
Collectively, the findings show that although power ecologies perform negatively in sanctioning
LTEs’ agency and identity, such ecologies motivate LTEs to strive toward becoming more caring
through enacting agency strategies that build on discursive meaning-making processes among
LTEs and teachers. Based on the findings, we provide implications for policymakers and teacher
educators in regard to how partnership initiatives could be established so that a more professional
environment is provided for teachers and LTEs, especially in relation to the role of language in
such partnerships.
Despite the developments on the contributions of native speakerism (NS) for the professionalism of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs), little is known about how NS influences NNESTs' agency and identity construction. The present study draws on an ecological-poststructural lens and explores such a contribution through critical incidents that happened to 15 Iranian NNESTs. Data were collected from a questionnaire, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the data revealed three major themes: (1) native speakerism as a source of NNEST marginalization, (2) the role of school policymakers in NS-induced inequality, and (3) native speakerism as a source of pedagogy of doubt. The findings showed that NS not only serves as a discourse that transcends geographical borders to shape NNESTs' agency and identity, but institutional participants also add to the negative effects of NS on NNESTs' professional practice. The study concludes with implications for institutional policymakers and teacher educators to revisit their understanding of NS and the ripple effects that NS bears for NNESTs’ agency and identity construction.
This article starts with an introduction of language socialization theory, followed by an illustration of the five main research themes in research of language socialization in foreign language classrooms with brief comments and future directions. These themes include language indexicality, power and agency, culture adaptability, ideology and identity, and academic literacy socialization. It is hoped that it will provide literature for relevant research at home.
This qualitative study explores Korean high school students’ exercising of agency in processing and producing L2 writing. Data were collected from off-line and online interviews, field notes, and other written materials over the course of two years and analyzed from a social view of agency (Ahearn, in: Jaspers, Östman, Verschueren (eds) Society and language use, John Benjamin Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 2010; van Lier in Sociocult Theory Teach Second Lang 163:186–193, 2008). The students’ engagement in varied L2 writing projects and their writing artifacts consistently showed their enhanced awareness of linguistic and other semiotic resources which resulted in their frequent and continuous use of multiple languages and other placed resources. Meanwhile, they developed their strategies and reshaped their L2 writing practices considering the given context, placed resources, and their funds of knowledge. Findings from this study provide valuable insights into the open possibilities of EFL students’ exercise and development of agency, which is an increasingly necessary feature of life-long learners in the post-pandemic era.
Resistance is a common issue in academic discourse socialisation (ADS), especially for learners who study in their second language. How learners enact agency to negotiate their resistance can largely determine the outcomes of their ADS. In this article, we report the findings of a case study on four Chinese undergraduate students' experiences of an English-for-Academic-Purposes course in an EFL setting. Data sources of the study consist of individual and group interviews with students, observation notes of students' learning processes, students' written reflections, and instructors’ teaching journals. By comparing the four individual cases, we analyse the processes and conceptual basis for learners to enact their agency in ADS, underlying their resistance and negotiation of resistance. Specifically, we unravel how their existing conceptions of learning objectives and of learning processes frame their enactment of agency, including their identification of affordances and resources, their formation and development of present-directed intentions, and possibilities for them to construct new future-directed intentions.
The chapter presents the challenges and struggles as well as strategies and successes experienced by a multilingual junior scholar in writing for scholarly publication over the past 15 years. Using an auto-ethnographic lens, the author maps out his experiential trajectory and explicates how he has transitioned from being a novice Iranian writer interested in getting published to a published author and an early-career scholar in Canada. Theoretically, the author draws from the notions of academic discourse socialization (Duff,.Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 30:169–192, 2010; Kobayashi, M., Zappa-Hollman, S., & Duff, P. A. (2017). Academic discourse socialization. In P. Duff & S. May (Eds.), Language socialization, Encyclopedia of language and education (3rd ed.) (pp. 239–254). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.), and identity and investment (Darvin and Norton,.Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35:36–56, 2015) to analyze how his ongoing investments in writing for publication have contributed to and constructed his nascent scholarly identity, and increasingly facilitated his socialization into scholarly publication. The author concludes by foregrounding the more generalizable socio-cultural aspects of his writing-for-publication trajectory and forefronts the intricate complexities of writing for publication for junior multilingual academics.
This article investigates second language socialization of three international students in a tertiary institute in New Zealand. To understand the experiences of international students, the article draws on the theoretical framework of the production of space to examine how the students experienced their new social space. The article uses multiple sources of data including video/audio recordings of the classroom interaction, field notes, interviews with the focal students/teachers/tutors/lecturers, diaries, and institutional documents to provide a thick description of students’ participation, language socialization, and identities. It does a within and across case analysis of the students’ experience to situate the learning experiences but at the same time to highlight the role of space as a participating social being in the socialization process. The concepts of language socialization and identities are reconceptualized as ever-evolving and ever-changing phenomena, whose production depends on the social conditions and relationships in the social space.
The field’s current understanding of L2 motivation is largely reliant on explicit self- reports (e.g. questionnaires and interviews). While such means have provided the L2 motivation field with a wealth of understanding, the underlying assumptions are that such attitudes take place in a conscious manner and that such representations are adequate. Recent developments have discussed these limitations and have called for a more in-depth and holistic understanding of the motivational psyche of L2 learners (e.g. Al-Hoorie, 2016a; Dörnyei, 2020). This thesis seeks to address this research lacuna by arguing for the inclusion of an implicit dimension into L2 motivation research, using the case of Hong Kong as an illustration. This thesis is first made up of a systemic literature review which provided an empirical understanding of the unprecedented boom in published studies that occurred between 2005 – 2014. Studying the dataset that was made up of 416 publications allowed for an understanding of the L2 methodological and theoretical trends in the literature. While there were several key findings from this empirical review, specific to this thesis, the most significant lies in the identification of the lack of an implicit dimension in the field. Consequently, this shaped the premise for this thesis, namely to set forth the case for a subconscious dimension of L2 motivation research. The selection of Hong Kong as a research location was motivated by its unique linguistic landscape. In order to better understand the situation, a qualitative pilot study that sought to determine Hong Kong’s viability as a location for unconscious motivation research was carried out. The qualitative results show that indeed, Hong Kong is loaded with ethnolinguistic tension. Regarding the participants’ attitudes towards the three languages, Cantonese was found to be synonymous with the Hong Kong identity and English was seen as a superior language that was associated with prestige and professional opportunities. In comparison, Mandarin held little relevance to the participants’ everyday lives. Upon further investigation, it was found that Fear of Assimilation was the main reason behind the participants’ lacklustre attitudes towards Mandarin. Overall, this qualitative pilot study offered an insight into the complexities underscoring Hong Kong’s unique, and loaded, linguistic environment; confirming Hong Kong’s suitability as a research location for this implicit line of research.
In order to obtain qualifications to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL), teacher candidates often need to commit themselves to writing a master’s (MA) thesis. In efforts to shed light on how MA thesis supervisors can support supervisees in the writing process, drawing on the theoretical framework of language socialisation, this article presents part of an ongoing action research study, exploring how MA TEFL students perceived technology-enhanced socialisation, i.e., developments in their competence, beliefs and practices, into disciplinary writing in English. Six first-year Polish MA TEFL students enrolled in MA thesis-oriented courses reflected on the process of becoming more competent MA thesis writers by answering online survey open-ended questions. The study reveals that thesis writing in L2 can be an overwhelming process, during which the students struggle emotionally, but which they are determined to complete. The results suggest that MA supervisors can support the socialisation of MA TEFL students – novice disciplinary L2 writers – by mindfully providing the students with guidance on and access to relevant and quality materials, by allowing for regular writing opportunities, as well as making space for supervisor–students and student–student interaction and feedback. As digital tools mediate the relationship between individual students and their social–material learning environment, technology is an important element of this environment and course design needs to include blended learning experiences to enhance the process of socialisation into disciplinary writing in L2.
This study explored oral academic discourse socialization experiences of doctoral students at an English-medium tertiary institution in Northern Cyprus. It was a qualitative study involving audio-recording of a graduate class oral academic discourse and conducting interviews with the graduate candidates. Analysis of the oral academic discourse data showed that through participation in academic discussions the students negotiated their knowledge, constructed identity and agency. Analysis of the interview data also suggested the graduate candidates’ identity and agency co-construction as well as the novelty of the graduate candidates’ challenging socialization experiences over their academic studies in the graduate context. Overall, the study seemed to indicate that the participants’ socialization experiences facilitated their academic learning and development of academic discourse competence. The results of the present study are discussed in relation to the pertinent research to date.
Based on an ethnographic study of recently-arrived refugee children and their participation in a video-gaming community, this study explores second language socialization among three children (6-9 years old) in relation to multimodally-mediated activities. The children in this study played video games on a daily basis and they were encouraged to make sense of digital modes via video game genres and interactions with other gamers who lived in the same neighborhood. The data analysis contributes to an understanding of second language socialization that is shaped and promoted by access to technology advancement, multimodality, and the desire for social engagement. This study has implication for pedagogy that creates educational and social opportunities for refugee and immigrant children, who live with scarce resources and might feel or be marginalized in their new host communities.
Those who have advocated social approaches to applied linguistics have often been critical of the individualism of second language acquisition (SLA) research. This paper identifies the emergence of a more balanced view of the social and individual in recent work. Adopting Berger's (1972) metaphor of ‘ways of seeing’, it offers a history of applied linguistics based on three eras: the era of ‘the invisible learner’, the era of ‘learner-centredness’, and the era of ‘person-centredness’, which we may now be entering. It suggests dominant research methodologies have led to the particular ways of seeing language learners that are characteristic of each of the three eras. In spite of the critique of individualism, the preference for individual case studies in social approaches is leading to a new theoretical focus on the individual that may be best captured by the term ‘person-centredness’.
This chapter focuses on language socialization and the ways in which language development and culture are tied in bilingual and multilingual family contexts. A brief overview of language socialization theory and methods is presented. We then examine major contributions to language socialization in contexts of migration, colonization, globalization, and other situations of language contact. While much of the early work in language socialization focused on family language and literacy practices in a single first language to demonstrate the close connections between culture and language learning, by the 1990s researchers began to consider bi- and multilingual language socialization in the family. These studies focused on the ideological and interactional aspects of developing competence in more than one language in childhood and have shed light on the complex processes associated with language maintenance and shift as well as heritage and second language learning. Further, as highlighted below, bi- and multilingual family language socialization emphasizes the processes of hybridity and cultural transformation as well as the agentive role of children and other novices in language socialization processes. We discuss how language socialization has provided alternate ways of understanding bilingual, heritage, and second language development; code-switching; and language shift that highlight the discursive, social, political, and relational aspects of these phenomena. Ongoing scholarship in this area expands on earlier work by taking scalar approaches to better capture language socialization in contexts of mobility, new family formations, and complex negotiations of identity and belonging.
Research on academic discourse socialization (ADS), a form of language socialization, examines the social, cognitive, and cultural processes, ideologies, and practices involved in higher education in particular. ADS is concerned with the means by which newcomers and those they interact with learn to participate in various kinds of academic discourse in their communities and other social networks.
In this chapter, we discuss recent developments in scholarship on ADS, following on earlier such reviews (e.g., Duff 2010; Morita and Kobayashi 2008). We describe the challenges faced by some students (and sometimes their mentors) in relation to intertextuality
, unfamiliar or evolving academic genres, and social stratification and marginalization, which may be exacerbated by students’ proficiency in the language of education. We review research examining the linguistic and rhetorical demands of academic texts in diverse disciplines, noting the complexities, contingencies, and hybridity of ADS. We also discuss problems with research that assumes a prescriptive, deterministic view of ADS instead of an innovative, transformative, and sometimes contested process. We conclude by identifying areas for future studies in ADS, emphasizing fertile research possibilities associated with technology-mediated socialization (e.g., i-clickers, Skype, Google Docs, and course-related discussion platforms), new forms of assessment (e.g., portfolios), the inclusion of a wider range of oral, written, and multimodal learning activities, and a more diverse range of contexts, both disciplinary and geographical. Finally, we suggest that longitudinal studies of ADS across learners’ academic programs (i.e., within and across courses) over an extended period are needed.
This article examines the internal and external academic discourse socialization of seven Chinese PhD students at a large Canadian university. Through the use of interviews, participant-generated written narratives, and discussion of written feedback, this longitudinal multiple case study uncovered multiple and complex factors facilitating students’ socialization into local practices, discourses, and communities during their doctoral study. This article highlights the disciplinary role of internal and external socialization in mediating behaviours, affective stances, and (in)action, a process referred to as the doctoral gaze, conceptually drawn from Foucault's (1995) notion of panopticism. Students’ self- and other-mediated and directed forms of socialization comprised a recursive process where they learned to do being PhD students through the use of internal and external sources and resources. Their relative abilities to become active agents in the process, and effectively self- and other-socialize into practices, behaviours, and positionalities conducive to success, were key aspects in the broader socialization process.
Documenting how in the course of acquiring language children become speakers and members of communities, The Handbook of Language Socialization is a unique reference work for an emerging and fast-moving field. Spans the fields of anthropology, education, applied linguistics, and human development. Includes the latest developments in second and heritage language socialization, and literary and media socialization. Discusses socialization across the entire life span and across institutional settings, including families, schools, work places, and churches. Explores data from a multitude of cultures from around the world.
The theoretical concept of self-socialization suggests that an individual is able to reflect on the self, formulate a vision of a future self, set goals, and take actions that create or alter the developmental trajectory. This case study of a parachute child illustrates how a person constructs her life from a very young age, drawing on a profound capacity for personal agency to overcome obstacles, identify resources, and internalize values to build a life structure. A model of the psychosocial process of self-socialization emerges from this case. Following the disruption of a well-defined trajectory, self-socialization is observed as a sequence of actions, reflection, correction, and new actions. Self-socialization is possible when a strong sense of self-efficacy is applied to attaining internalized values and goals.
