Recurrent Multiword Sequences in L2 English Spoken Academic Discourse: Developmental Perspectives on 1&lt;sup&gt;st&lt;/sup&gt; and 3&lt;sup&gt;rd&lt;/sup&gt; Year Undergraduate Presentational Speech

Nicole Baumgarten

doi:10.35360/njes.318

Abstract

Little is known about the development of second language (L2) capacities in L2 users located in multilingual environments where more than one language is a viable communication tool and users can decide which to use for which purpose. Adopting a socially-grounded perspective on L2 learning, this study explores university-based L2 English learning in a multilingual learning context in Denmark. 46 academic presentations from first and final year undergraduate students were analysed for the users’ use of recurrent multiword sequences as a measure of development of routinized discourse production. This analysis was complemented by an analysis of the users’ language use habits and socialization patterns. The analyses revealed a negative development in pre-patterned L2 use between first and final year students. These results call for a reconsideration of academic L2 English instruction in multilingual environments outside native English-speaking settings, where L2 learning trajectories appear to be able to be stunted by L2 users’ overall language use habits.

Highlights

Socially-grounded theories of second language (L2) learning have promoted conceptual shifts from a focus on the L2 learner to the L2 learner as an L2 user and from an exclusive focus on the L2 as solely located in an individual’s mind towards the systematic recognition of the situatedness of the L2 learning and usage process in very specific social environments which interconnect in various ways with the affective and cognitive aspects of L2 learning (e.g. Kramsch, 2000; Firth and Wagner, 1997, 2007)
L2 learning becomes a factor of the sociocultural context in which it occurs, i.e. the setting, people, purposes, topics, registers, genres and other languages involved as well as the interactional norms that regulate the communicative encounters L2 users find themselves in
Focusing on the students’ L2 academic English, the purpose of the investigation is to verify whether development in L2 use can be meaningfully linked to individual users’ subjective perceptions of what their L2 learning context is like and to what extent information about this context can serve as an explanation for L2 development

Summary

Introduction

Socially-grounded theories of second language (L2) learning have promoted conceptual shifts from a focus on the L2 learner to the L2 learner as an L2 user and from an exclusive focus on the L2 as solely located in an individual’s mind towards the systematic recognition of the situatedness of the L2 learning and usage process in very specific social environments which interconnect in various ways with the affective and cognitive aspects of L2 learning (e.g. Kramsch, 2000; Firth and Wagner, 1997, 2007). The L2 users investigated are enrolled in an undergraduate trilingual (Danish, English, German) Humanities programme at a university in Denmark This university is characterized by a high number of international staff and students and international study programmes. To the local language Danish, English and German are regularly used by students and staff; a variety of other languages are used for non-official purposes among ethnic student groups In this space, languages are in constant competition regarding their usefulness for individual speakers. The socialization process results in multilingual persons who are members of more than one speech community Their community affiliations may be only partial, resulting in less than full adoption of community-specific interactional practice and native-like acquisition and control of the relevant linguistic and socio-pragmatic knowledge.. L2 socialization into English might be substantially different from socialization into other L2s because English is currently caught up in both localizing and internationalizing processes (cf. Crystal, 2010) which lead to a considerable variability of forms and usage conventions in the language (cf. Seidlhofer, 2004; Canagarajah, 2007)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion