Study Abroad and Second Language Use: Constructing the Self

Abstract

Study Abroad and Second Language Use: Constructing the Self by Valerie Pellegrino Aveni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, xii+188 pp. Reviewed by Jing Xia Arizona State University, Arizona For many foreign language learners, the experience of studying abroad is generally regarded as extremely precious and appealing. Many believe that their foreign language proficiency will dramatically improve after such experiences. However, Valerie Pallegrino Aveni describes in her and her peers’ overseas experi- ences what she has observed in her students: “an excitement and drive to mix with native speakers that vacillated regularly with a complete avoidance of speaking, at times for no apparent reason” (p. 1). In fact, such an experience is not unfamiliar to many overseas language learners. Aveni’s book, targeted at this very learner group, analyzes extensive journal entry data and provides an elaborate account of barriers L2 learners encounter and strategies they employ in Russia. The book presents an empirical study of students’ L2 use in a one-year study abroad program in Russia program. Seventy-six students participated in the program, of which seventeen students’ data were analyzed. The aim of the book is twofold. First, it attempts to record all the variables that affect learners’ L2 use in a foreign environment. Second, it aims to analyze the role of self-presentation and self-preservation from a functional perspective in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Chapter 1 introduces the relationship between “self” (self-construction) and language use. In this chapter, Aveni sets the background of her work. Second lan- guage is perceived as a means to realize learners’ desire to present themselves in the target language environment. This is a quite broad and uncommon perspective in SLA studies, for it seems that most of the research in SLA investigates cur- riculum or pedagogy’s effect on language proficiency rather than the connection between learner’s language use and self-construction. Under such a perspective, participants’ communication with native speakers is discussed in relation to social, cultural, psychological and cognitive factors. The conflict between learners’ desire to use L2 and barriers they encountered is presented. The following two chapters provide an extensive and in-depth analysis of all the possible factors that might play a role in the conflict introduced in the previ- ous chapter. Chapter 2 addresses social factors affecting L2 use from the learners’ perspective. Aveni argues that learners need to feel secure, respected, and com- fortable before being willing to participate in an L2 interaction. Chapter 3 offers a more elaborate and in-depth account for the factors in L2 use from two angles: social-environmental and learner-internal. With regard to the social-environmental Issues in Applied Linguistics © 2009, Regents of the University of California ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 17 No. 1, 173-175