24.2609, Review: Applied Linguistics; Japanese: Kurata (2012)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-24-2609. Wed Jun 26 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.2609, Review: Applied Linguistics; Japanese: Kurata (2012)

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Reviews: Veronika Drake, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Mateja Schuck, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:04:36
From: Ashlie Henery [ahenery at andrew.cmu.edu]
Subject: Foreign Language Learning and Use

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-4053.html

AUTHOR: Naomi  Kurata
TITLE: Foreign Language Learning and Use
SUBTITLE: Interaction in Informal Social Networks
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2012

REVIEWER: Ashlie N. Henery, Carnegie Mellon University

SUMMARY

Many foreign language educators encourage their students to find opportunities
to use the target language outside of the classroom, in particular, because of
the belief that foreign language skills will improve through social
interaction. However, very little is known about the opportunities and
affordances that second-language (L2) social network contacts provide for
learners, especially in foreign language (FL) settings. Naomi Kurata’s book,
“Foreign Language Learning and Use: Interaction in informal social networks,”
addresses this gap and aims to examine what opportunities and challenges arise
for learners to use their L2 with their social network contacts. Centered on a
longitudinal case study of six intermediate learners of Japanese at an
Australian university, this book highlights that establishing and maintaining
these contacts is not always easy for learners and that they do not always
provide the assumed opportunities to use the L2.

Researchers and educators alike will find this book to be useful. The book is
originally intended for researchers who are interested in second language
learning, particularly in contexts outside of a traditional classroom. Yet, in
addition, its detailed account of the learning experiences of university
language learners and the proposed pedagogical implications will be useful for
language educators and course developers alike. Following a brief
introduction, the book comprises six chapters, samples of the data collection
instruments (i.e. the initial questionnaire and interview protocol) in the
appendices, a list of references, and a subject index.

Chapter 1, “Social Contexts of Language Use and Learning,” sets the stage for
the forthcoming study. This chapter has three main goals. First, it introduces
the unique setting of learners of Japanese in Australia, as well as informal
social networks as a setting for L2 use and learning in general. The author
adopts Milroy’s (1987) definition of informal social networks, which is,
namely “the informal social relationships contracted by an individual” (7).
Second, she frames the study by laying out the theoretical framework and a
review of relevant literature regarding the social factors that affect L2
learning and L1/L2 use, both within and outside of the classroom. Regarding
the theoretical framework, this study adopts an innovative blend of
sociocultural approaches to language learning and Auer’s (1984, 1988) approach
to language selection among bilingual speakers. Finally, the second half of
the chapter discusses the methodological details of this longitudinal multiple
case study. The data include periodic interviews with the researcher, a
variety of interactional discourse data (including emails, online chat
transcripts, SMS messages, and recorded conversations between the learners and
their social network contacts), and diary entries with stimulated recall
interviews.

The second chapter, “Learners’ Bilingual Social Networks,” introduces each of
the six focal participants (Cindy, Grace, Patty, Jim, Simon, and Max). It
opens with a discussion of the group’s general background, including the
intermediate Japanese course for first-year students that they were enrolled
in together, and their relationship with the researcher. The remainder of the
chapter describes each participant’s individual linguistic background and the
social networks of Japanese speakers, both in Japan and in Australia. For each
case, Kurata provides a useful diagram of the learner’s Japanese-speaking
contacts that highlights contacts in both Japan and Australia, those who are
Japanese and those who are not, and those whom the participant met after
entering the university. In addition, the author discusses the patterns of
language use that were reported for interactions with each member of the
learner’s social network. Throughout the year, all participants were able to
expand their social networks of bilingual Japanese-English speakers. Many of
the new contacts were Japanese students or other students of Japanese studying
at the same university. Each of the female students (Cindy, Grace and Patty)
also had regular contact with current residents in Japan. Throughout the
analysis, two salient features were found concerning the overall language use
patterns with the social network contacts, each of which is addressed in the
next two chapters.

Chapter 3, “Changes in L1/L2 Use,” addresses the first of the trends
highlighted in the previous chapter, namely, that selection of language
variety changed over time and according to the situational context. In order
to make this argument the author draws on the experiences of three
participants: Grace, Jim, and Simon. The author argues that, in each case, the
dynamic patterns of language use were influenced by the learners’ histories
and goal-driven actions. One aspect that was particularly salient was the
co-construction of the participants’ self-images or identities as L2 users or
learners.

The other trend that was highlighted in the second chapter was that, despite
the participants’ eagerness to establish native speaker contacts and to use
the L2, opportunities for them to use the L2 were actually quite rare. The
fourth chapter, “Language Selection and Its Negotiation,” digs deeper into
this finding in order to explore how language selection is negotiated within
five recorded conversations between some of the participants and their
Japanese contacts. By incorporating Activity Theory and Auer’s approach to
bilingual interaction, the author argues that the rarity of opportunities to
use the L2 arises from norms and social roles within the community. In
addition, this analysis showed that the participants often used English as a
resource to elicit assistance from native speakers.

Chapter 5, “Opportunities for L2 Learning,” goes beyond the language of use in
various situations to examine the opportunities for L2 learning that arise in
different settings. The author compares and contrasts four different settings
that occur in the participants’ social networks: learner-native speaker (NS)
interactions in informal, semi-instructional and written discourse contexts,
as well as learner-learner informal written discourse. The author highlights
global differences between the four settings, such as the amount of each
learner’s assisted performance, but also concludes that within a particular
setting, differences arise based on the interlocutors’ histories, identities,
and community norms or social roles.

Finally, Chapter 6, “Access to L2 Social Interaction: Implications for
Language Teaching and Learning,” presents a summary of the study’s major
findings and implications as well as directions for future research. In
particular, the author concludes that the theoretical framework of the current
study reveals the dynamic and complex nature of language selection in
learners’ interactions with L2 speakers and that it accounts for many of the
difficulties that learners encounter in using the L2 in these interactions. In
addition, this study highlights the significant influence of social
relationships, which can be continually (re)negotiated, on L2 use and
learning. Regarding language teaching, the author argues that it is not enough
to encourage students to establish a social network of L2 speakers;
additionally, learners need to be given guidelines for how to overcome the
obstacles that they are sure to encounter. One such suggestion would be for
learners and educators alike to realize that a mixture of L1 and L2 in these
interactions is quite common and, in fact, useful for the learner.

EVALUATION 

This innovative study leads researchers in L2 acquisition to a more complete
picture of the learning experiences of traditional FL classroom students. It
expounds on learners’ out-of-class experiences, which is an aspect of the
language-learning journey that is often neglected or taken for granted in the
literature. In this study, Kurata expertly combines a model of bilingual
interaction with sociocultural and poststructural perspectives on L2 learning
to reveal the complex and dynamic nature of learners’ informal interactions.

This book will certainly benefit the intended audience of researchers and
language educators. It will be particularly useful for those interested in how
language learning occurs outside of the classroom and how to encourage and
support language learners to expand their L2 learning and use beyond the
classroom. Though it has implications for everyday language learners, the
theoretical and scholarly discussion is probably best suited for scholars and
language professionals.

In general, the writing and editing are quite clear and easy to read. In
particular, the author skillfully uses metalanguage to guide the reader
through her observations and arguments. However, at times, the meaning of the
author’s terminology is not immediately apparent or concrete. For example, it
would have been helpful if the author had foregrounded what she meant by
“learning” or “learning opportunities” in the introduction to Chapter 5,
though this issue is essentially resolved later in the body of the chapter.

Similarly, the description of the data analysis is quite short (44-45). It
would have been helpful to have more clear and concrete examples of how the
data were coded. For example, the author explains that the interview data were
coded for theoretical categories and constructs such as “discourse-related
language selection and social roles that interactants seemed to play in their
interactions” (44), but no concrete examples were given from the data itself,
nor was a comprehensive list provided for the reader. Finally, the author
stresses a few times that she used micro-discourse analysis instead of
Conversation Analysis for this study, but her plans or procedures for this
type of analysis are never explicitly described.

Overall, the strength of this study is its application of a model of bilingual
interaction to traditional university language learners, which expands our
understanding of the challenges and affordances that informal social
interactions present to learners. This study reveals that even for motivated
learners, opportunities to use the L2 in informal interactions are limited;
however, it usefully expands the discussion by proposing solutions by which
students may overcome these challenges.

REFERENCES:

Auer, J. C. P. (1984). Bilingual Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Auer, J. C. P. (1988). A conversation analytic approach to code-switching and
transfer. In M. Heller (Ed.), Codeswitching: Anthropological and
sociolinguistic perspective (pp. 115-135). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Milroy, L. (1987). Language and social networks. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ashlie N. Henery is a PhD candidate in Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie
Mellon University. She teaches French in the Department of Modern Languages
and her research interests include language acquisition in the study abroad
context and the development of pragmatic competence. In particular, her
research focuses on the ways in which learners' social interactions with
native speakers while abroad contribute to their awareness of the social
meanings behind French linguistic variations.








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