Social Factors and Language Proficiency in Postsecondary Spanish Immersion: Issues and Implications

Abstract

A number of SLA studies indicate that social factors play a crucial role in the language use and performance of second-language learners participating in immersion experiences. Tarone and Swain (1995) described the impact of social pressures in the language choice of primary-level learners, indicating that is- sues of identity and group acceptance may impede use of the immersion language in informal interactions since learners lack a socially-appropriate vernacular. We suggest that social factors conditioning language use and performance are very important at the postsecondary level as well, but the impact of these factors on adult- age learners is of a quite different nature. The diglossic situation created in many primary-level immersion classrooms appears not to be characteristic of immersion learning among adults. For adults, target language use appears to be the most acceptable norm in encounters both inside and outside of the classroom, leading to immersion societies which benefit those participants who already demonstrate higher levels of proficiency in both academic and non-academic interactions. Learners at lower levels of L2 proficiency may be excluded, either voluntarily or involuntarily, from the social community of higher-level learners, thus depriving them of potentially beneficial interactions with more advanced learners and, on socio-psychological grounds, imped- ing their L2 acquisition. Theoretical and pedagogical implications for postsecondary level immersion programs are addressed.