Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Variation

Introduction: Aims and Scope of this Book

One might well ask the reason for another book on learning languages, especially one which does not exclusively focus on learning English. In our 21st century global village, are we not all traversing the globe, either physically or virtually, with English as our passport? Perhaps those of us whose first language is not English should be investing all our resources in learning English and forgetting any other languages we may happen to have. The new technologies and the role they play in our lives have surely made clear that only English matters any more. However, contrary to predictions from a few generations ago, it appears that the story is not so clear cut. In fact, language still matters, and language diversity is far more enduring than some might have thought a few decades ago. In our globalised world, greater contact with other societies and other people highlights issues of language learning and language competence.

It might have seemed that with the internet leading to global homogeneity, English, being the 'international' language, would increasingly be the only important one. However, this is turning out to be a far too simplistic view of how things are developing. The internet is global, but the content that it carries is local; if you access the internet, you receive advertisements that are adapted to local conditions and interests. The news that you receive is tailored to your locality. So that people in southeast France, for example, find advertisements on the internet tailored to their specific needs and interests, and will only be effective if the language used is appropriate. In fact, recent developments in the internet are to enable language other than English. Language diversity on the internet is only one example. In international trade, it is now clear that one must be sensitive to local conditions, needs and cultures, and this also implies local languages. This is why language competence in many languages remains important today, contrary to the dire predictions some years ago. And in the same way that communication involves specific knowledge of individual local cultures, it also involves knowledge of the detail of languages, not just a generalised 'inter-nation' knowledge of the structure and shape of those languages, but how they are embedded in use for the communities who use them. This implies knowledge of the detailed texture of the language, the sociolinguistic detail and variation which is part of every language in social use and is indeed an integral part of linguistic competence. Competence at this level of language is what permits people to communicate fully with others in a manner which respects fully their humanity as social beings, over and above what is needed for more immediate aims such as trade. This is a book about the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation in other languages, how and where it happens.

Since the beginning of research in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), we have learnt a lot about language learning, but there are aspects that have received less attention until recently. One of these is the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence. This describes the dimension of SLA which colours the way the second language (L2) speaker relates to the community or communities they are living in and may wish to be a part of in some way: how they want 'to be' in the particular group or community, what in fact is their linguistic identity within this group and how they construct this identity through language. Needless to say the effect of this dynamic is two-way: the community is affected as much by the presence of the L2 speaker as (s)he is by the community. For a long time in SLA research, this area of SLA was considered a sort of frill around the 'real' issue of learning grammar, something like icing on the cake; if indeed it was considered at all in a heavily linguistic-orientated approach which pertained for much of the beginning of SLA research. However, we are now beginning to understand that this aspect of language acquisition and its related areas is as crucial in enabling learners to communicate with other people as is grammar.

Another somewhat unexamined notion about language learning has been the assumption that the best way to learn a language was to go to the country where the language is spoken. Until recently, however, there has not been a lot of data to prove this. We are now beginning to understand more about this particular way of learning second languages such that it is increasingly clear that the context or surroundings in which people learn second languages is very important. The 'year abroad' for university students – a stay in the community of the L2 we wish to acquire – is one such context. In fact, these two dimensions of language learning are interlinked. The aim of this book is to demonstrate the link between the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence, on the one hand, and learning language by immersing oneself in another society, on the other. We aim to show that the year abroad is one context, perhaps one of the best contexts available to certain categories of second language learners, for acquiring sociolinguistic competence.

These issues have policy as well as theoretical implications. In a globalised, multicultural, multilingual world, communities are constantly shifting and coalescing, and individuals move in and out of communities and are members of multiple communities simultaneously. The vast majority of the world's population today is multilingual; the monolingual speaker is in a minority (Cook, 2002: 1, 2003: 4). L2 (or L3, L4) speakers adapt to the constant shifts in communities and identity, finding a space of their own in the speech community or communities they happen to be part of at the time. Knowledge of grammatical and structural elements of the L2 is only part of the skills and competencies which are necessary for this process of adaptation. Sociolinguistic and sociocultural competences are equally important. These competences condition the L2 speaker's view of themselves in the L2 speech community, their view of their own community as well as the way the L2 community perceives them, and this consequently affects the place they occupy in, and progress through, that community or communities. People rarely remain in one fixed community or have a fixed identity for the span of their lifetime but undergo multiple changes of...