International students’ language socialization in New Zealand tertiary institutions: A spatial analysis

Abstract

<p>Student mobility is part and parcel of internationalization of higher education in this globalizing world. Although previous research in language socialization has examined international students’ socialization at a discoursal level, this research drawing on Lefebvre’s (1991) triads of space, investigates the socialization of three international students who speak English as a second language (L2) at a New Zealand university at a spatial level. Students’ investments, positionings, negotiations in the perceived, conceived, and lived aspects of space are analyzed by taking into account these students’ challenges on a day-to-day basis in their new social spaces. Data are presented from diaries, interviews, class observations, field notes, video/audio recordings, class materials, and institutional documents. This research analyzes how the students negotiate discourses as they participate in the oral practices of their university courses. It further investigates how they construct their identities and how others construct these students’ identities in their classroom communities of practice. In addition, it examines these students’ imagined social space and its effect on their learning trajectories. The theoretical frameworks of language socialization (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986a), the production of space (Lefebvre, 1991), second language learning as identity construction (Norton, 2010), and the community of practice concept (Meyerhoff & Strycharz, 2013; Wenger, 1998) are drawn upon to present an ecological perspective of the identity construction of such students into their new, complicated academic spaces. By triangulating the data and bringing together the constructs mentioned above, this study provides us with analytical generalizations (Duff, 2008a) and sheds light on our conceptualization of experiences of second language learners’ identities in their new academic social spaces by introducing a novel way of looking at the theory of language socialization. Finally, this study compares the cases and makes suggestions for present and future international students, instructors, institutions that admit international students, and mentions future research pathways. </p>

International students' employability: a language socialization perspective

“…Hence, employability refers to a socialization process through which individuals in their academic and workplace spaces participate in the practices of their multiple CofPs and not only express knowledgeability of the complex and varying regimes of competence in their study and work communities but also demonstrate a capable identity as a trustworthy practitioner in familiar and unfamiliar contexts across the study and work LofP. Students are not neutral beings, but rather they use their agency to appropriate their social space (Soltani, 2016(Soltani, , 2018Soltani and Tran, 2023). In so doing, they enhance their resources and imagine employable selves for themselves so that they add to their emerging trajectories (Tomlinson, 2023), which could shape their future employment.…”

“…To bridge this gap and to understand international students' employability, this paper draws on the language socialization of these students in their tertiary landscapes of practice (Soltani and Donald, 2024). The paper argues that without considering agentic capacities (i.e., individuals' ability to exercise their intentionality, including their desires, aspirations and imagined selves) (Soltani, 2016;, individuals are unable to fully understand their labour market potential and their ability to act with their own volition. The socialization of students into labour market practices helps learners develop a sounder understanding of their positioning in the labour market.…”

Examining space, silence, and agency in language socialization of an international student in the EAP and mainstream courses

“…Academic social space. To understand the focal student's experience and silence, the theoretical framework of academic social space (Soltani, 2015(Soltani, , 2018 was used. This framework drew on language socialization (Ochs & Schieffelin, 2008), agency, and production of space (Lefebvre, 1991) to situate the students' experiences in an ecological perspective (Steffensen & Kramsch, 2017;Van Lier, 2006).…”

“…She showed how her participants employed their agency to negotiate their second language learning and participation in their new second language contexts. The current study used an academic social space perspective (Soltani, 2015(Soltani, , 2018 to interpret the verbal non-participation of a Japanese student in a second language space.…”

“…Socialization is of two types: people are socialized either through language or to use language so that they become experienced members of their relevant communities and social groups (Kulick & Schieffelin, 2004, p. 350). Second language (L2) researchers have used this theory to examine the L2 and social development of learners within the context of L2 culture (Duff & Doherty, 2019; Kobayashi, Zappa‐Hollman, & Duff, 2017; Soltani, 2015, 2021a, 2021b; Soltani & Tran, 2021; Soltani & Zhang, 2021). The cultural, social, and political context where people learn a language determines not only what linguistic forms they hear and use but also how socially significant are the linguistic and cultural forms they are exposed to and use (Watson‐Gegeo, 2004, p. 334).…”