The effect of “at home” network communication, off-site travel, and extracurricular activity on longitudinal social network development in study abroad

Abstract

The nature of second language acquisition (SLA) in study abroad hinges on the type and quality of social relationships that sojourners develop. Social network analysis is now frequently used to describe this development, and to quantify its relationship with SLA outcomes. However, little is known about how different experiential components in study abroad affect sojourners' social network development and, consequently, language learning. The present study examines the effect of three aspects of the study abroad experience – travel outside of the study site; maintenance of “at home” social network communication; and participation in volunteer and workplace internship placements – on the longitudinal social network development of 28 U.S.-based sojourners studying abroad in Spain for one semester. Results identify four social network patterns, which for most students emerged in the first weeks of the semester and remained stable at the middle and end of the sojourn. This social network development was not greatly affected by communication with at-home networks, or by participation in internship placements; however, frequent travel outside the study site was shown to considerably hinder sojourners’ ability to develop social networks that were rich in target language use, or that reflected social “immersion” into the host community.