Social Structure, Agency and Second Language Learning

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of the relationship between agency and social structure in the language learning process. It looks at the extent to which contextual conditions impact on learners’ desire to invest in language learning. It employed the critical realist lens to explore the use of English as a foreign language (EFL) amongst undergraduate students in the city of Cancun, which was consciously created as a tourist hub in Mexico. English is identified as desired linguistic and cultural capital, a product of social structure, and students’ investment in language learning as examples of agency. A critical realist theoretical and methodological approach was taken to investigate, using an ethnographic qualitative approach to collecting and collating the data. Alongside a range of data, 11 student informants were taken for in-depth analysis to explore why language learners choose to shape or resist their access to EFL.