The social architecture of communicative competence: a methodology for social-network research in sociolinguistics

Smith, Lee

doi:10.1515/ijsl.2002.001

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Some participants’ networks provided English language support in the form of peers with whom they spoke English half of the time or more. Similar to other social network research in SLA, having several peers who regularly spoke English with the participant was more closely related to AEP than having just one or two (Smith, ; Wiklund, ). The number of English‐Oriented Peers references linguistic resources that emergent bilingual students accessed through social ties.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Social networks have also been used to understand the construction of opportunities for using and learning a new language in second language acquisition research (Kurata, ; Wiklund, ). In this research, the quality of the relationship—and the opportunities it provides for language learning—are described by the frequency of interaction between individuals and the roles of relations (Smith, ). Social networks have been underutilized to explain the relational mechanisms that underlie adolescent English language development; however, the social network lens is useful for teasing out variation in levels of resources within a group like adolescents or immigrants where traditional measures (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES]) fail to differentiate individuals (Eckert, ; Milroy, ).…”

Section: An Ecological Understanding Of Adolescent Second Language Lementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The frequency of interactions within social networks has been linked to second language acquisition for adults and adolescents learning a second or foreign language (Kurata, ; Smith, ; Wiklund, ). Studies have also shown that English learners develop higher levels of English proficiency when they have opportunities to interact with English‐proficient peers at school (Fulton–Scott & Calvin, ; Mehan et al., ).…”

Section: Peer Social Network In Second Language Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opportunities and Outcomes: The Role of Peers in Developing the Oral Academic English Proficiency of Adolescent English Learners

Carhill‐Poza

2015

The Modern Language Journal

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Although researchers often acknowledge the importance of linguistically rich interactions in the academic language development of emergent bilingual students, few studies have explicitly examined the role of linguistic peer support and the underlying structure of social relationships in the second language learning experiences and outcomes of immigrant adolescents in schooling contexts. This mixed methods study investigates the role of peers-including bilingual peers-in the development of oral academic English during adolescence. Using social network analysis, this study describes the unique contribution of peer linguistic resources to the oral Academic English Proficiency of 102 adolescent Spanish-speaking immigrant students. Findings show that having bilingual peers who collaborated on academic tasks with participants, in English or Spanish, contributed to academic English proficiency beyond individual predictors of second language acquisition (age, time in the United States, gender, and maternal education). Peer social network composition indexed the opportunities adolescent English learners encountered at school to learn and use academic English.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: An Ecological Understanding Of Adolescent Second Language Lementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Peer Social Network In Second Language Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opportunities and Outcomes: The Role of Peers in Developing the Oral Academic English Proficiency of Adolescent English Learners

Carhill‐Poza

2015

The Modern Language Journal

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“…In particular, we model the social structure as a local-world network (Li and Chen, 2003). Local-world networks integrate into a single paradigm both the random networks of Erdős and Rényi (1959) and the scale-free networks of Barabási and Albert (1999), which, together with 'small-world' (Watts and Strogatz, 1998) and other network structures, are now finding application in studies of social and sociolinguistic systems (e.g., Moody, 2001;Smith, 2002;Ohtsuki et al, 2006;Castelló et al, 2006).…”

Section: The Impact Of Social Structure On the Probability Of Languagmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling endangered languages: The effects of bilingualism and social structure

Minett

Wang

2008

Lingua

127

121

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“…In this regard, Hansen (2001a) stated that the first sign of language attrition is not the loss of certain items but rather an increase in the length of time which is needed for their retrieval. According to Smith (2002, as cited in Kopke, 2007, stages of language attrition are classified into three stages. Smith remarks that the first stage of attrition can be characterized by the deviation in performance of attriters, while their competence remains intact.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocabulary Attrition among Adult English as A Foreign Language Persian Learners

Asgari¹,

Mustapha²

2010

ELT

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This study aims to investigate the attrition rate of EFL concrete and abstract vocabulary among continuing and non-continuing Iranian female and male English language learners across different proficiency levels. They are students of a University and majored in different fields (between 20 and 25 years old). There was no treatment in this study where the researcher compared two groups on the same variables. Hence, the design of the current study is an ex-post facto design. A 40-item vocabulary test which varied across two proficiency levels are used to measure rate of vocabulary attrition as the instrument of this research. In the two stages, after an interval of three months, the students are taken the same tests. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between EFL attrition rate of abstract and concrete nouns among the continuing students across different proficiency levels. However, this hypothesis was rejected for the non-continuing learners at intermediate and advanced proficiency level. Keywords: Vocabulary attrition, Abstract and concrete nouns, Continuing and non-continuing students, Proficiency level IntroductionThe study of language attrition has recently emerged as a new field of study. The conception of loss in language skills occurred in a conference at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in 1980. This conference was dedicated to the theoretical basis of research in the field of language attrition and other related conferences that probed the process of language loss as a natural disorder from many other perspectives. Kopke (2004) stated that "attrition refers to the natural (non-pathological) loss of a language in bilinguals; generally speaking, changes in the linguistic environment and termination of an instructional program may lead to attrition"(p.15).In terms of language learning, researchers have used the same definition to develop a framework which involved divergent methods of data collection, sampling and instrumentation on language attrition in papers and publications. This taxonomical framework was the one provided by Van Els (1986, as cited in Kopke and Schimd, 2004) which was as following categories:1. L1 loss in L1 environment: Dialect loss 2. L1 loss in L2 environment: Immigrant 3. L2 loss in L1 environment: Foreign language attrition 4. L2 loss in L2 environment: Language reversion in elderly peopleThe main phases reported in the field of language attrition are the above categories as the framework has divided the field of attrition into four simple and discrete categories. But, in order to gain a better and clearer picture of the concept of attrition, other methodological issues such as the distinction between attrition in adults and children, the effect of age at the amount of attrition, the effect of age at bilingualism, the effect of gender at the amount of L2 attrition and so forth also needs to be taken into consideration. Stages in Language AttritionWeltens and Grendel (1993) suggested that in "the first stage of language attrition that it t...

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The social architecture of communicative competence: a methodology for social-network research in sociolinguistics

Cited by 13 publications

References 31 publications

Opportunities and Outcomes: The Role of Peers in Developing the Oral Academic English Proficiency of Adolescent English Learners

Opportunities and Outcomes: The Role of Peers in Developing the Oral Academic English Proficiency of Adolescent English Learners

Modelling endangered languages: The effects of bilingualism and social structure

Vocabulary Attrition among Adult English as A Foreign Language Persian Learners

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