Cover not available
Part of
Study Abroad and the Second Language Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Variation in Spanish
Edited by Sara L. Zahler, Avizia Y. Long and Bret Linford
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 37] 2023
► pp. 54–81

Chapter 2
Limited gains, restricted access

Student insights from study abroad in Peru

 | University of Oregon
This chapter explores how limited gains in the L2 acquisition of sociolinguistic variation relate to particularities of the program and host community where students study abroad. An ethnographic case study finds that learners’ access to input during one program was constrained by a number of interrelated factors, which extended beyond student-related variables to include the programming and policies of their SA school and presence of international tourism in the host community. These findings aid in explaining students’ limited development of local sociolinguistic variants and demonstrate that immersion in SA program cannot be conflated with ample access to sociolinguistic input. Understanding how SA affords the development of sociolinguistic competence requires consideration of programmatic factors in assessing individual differences in language learning outcomes.
Keywords: study abroad, access to input, study abroad context, individual differences
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Data and methodology
    • Students
    • Setting
    • Positionality
  • Findings
    • L2 acquisition of sociolinguistic variants
    • Tourism in Cuzco
    • Study abroad programming and policies
    • Students’ social circles
  • Discussion
    • What major factors did students identify as having negatively impacted their access to input during SA in Cuzco?
    • In what ways do these factors relate to students’ social networks, identities, and attitudes?
    • How do these factors aid in explaining students’ limited acquisition of sociolinguistic variation from the local variety of Spanish?
  • Conclusions and implications
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.37.02gra
References (36)
References
Anya, U. (2016). Racialized identities in second language learning: Speaking blackness in Brazil. Taylor & Francis. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Babel, A. (2018). Between the Andes and the Amazon: Language and social meaning in Bolivia. University of Arizona Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bernard, H. (2017). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Blommaert, J., & Jie, D. (2010). Ethnographic fieldwork. Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boersma, P. & Weenink, D. (2022). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.2.08, retrieved 5 February 2022 from [URL]
Caravedo, R. (1992). ¿Restos de la distinción /s/ /Ɵ/ en el español del Perú?. Revista de Filología Española, 72(3/4), 639–654. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coleman, J. (2013). Researching whole people and whole lives. Social and cultural aspects of language learning in study abroad, 37, 17–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Copland, F., & Creese, A. (2015). Linguistic ethnography: Collecting, analysing and presenting data. Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dankel, P., & Maté, M. G. (2020). Vuestra atención, por favor ‘your attention, please’. Some remarks on the usage and history of plural vuestro/a in Cusco Spanish (Peru). In M. Hummel & C. dos Santos (Eds.), Address in Portuguese and Spanish: Studies in Diachrony and Diachronic Reconstruction (p. 317–360). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delforge, A. M. (2012). ‘Nobody wants to sound like a provinciano’: The recession of unstressed vowel devoicing in the Spanish of Cusco, Perú 1. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16(3), 311–335. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, P. (1989). The whole woman: Sex and gender differences in variation. Language Variation and Change, 1(3), 245–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eguren, L. (2016). The Spanish doubled possessive construction from a cross-linguistic perspective. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 9(2), 243–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geeslin, K., & Gudmestad, A. (2008). The acquisition of variation in second-language Spanish: An agenda for integrating studies of the L2 sound system. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 137–157.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K., Gudmestad, A., Kanwit, M., Linford, B., Long, A. Y., Schmidt, L., & Solon, M. (2018). Sociolinguistic competence and the acquisition of speaking. In R. A. Alonso (Ed.), Speaking in a second language (p. 1–25). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
George, A. (2014). Study abroad in central Spain: The development of regional phonological features. Foreign Language Annals, 47(1), 97–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
George, A., & Hoffman-González, A. (2019). Dialect and identity: US Heritage language learners of Spanish abroad. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 4(2), 252–279. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grammon, D. (2018). Acquiring Cuzco: Marginalized language, ideology, and study abroad in Peru (Doctoral dissertation). The Ohio State University, Columbus.
(2021). Consequential choices: A language ideological perspective on learners’ (non-)adoption of a dialectal variant. Foreign Language Annals, 54(3), 607–625. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kinginger, C. (2009). Language learning and study abroad: A critical reading of research. Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013a). Identity and language learning in study abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 46(3), 339–358. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013b). Introduction. In C. Kinginger (Ed.), Social and cultural aspects of language learning in study abroad (p. 3–16). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LeVelle, K., & Levis, J. (2014). Understanding the impact of social factors on L2 pronunciation: Insights from learners. In J. M. Levis & A. Moyer (Eds.), Social dynamics in second language accent (97–118). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipski, J. (1994). Latin American Spanish. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Lybeck, K. (2002). Cultural identification and second language pronunciation of Americans in Norway. The Modern Language Journal, 86(2), 174–191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Michelson, K., & Alvarez Valencia, J. A. (2016). Study abroad: Tourism or education? A multimodal social semiotic analysis of institutional discourses of a promotional website. Discourse & Communication, 10, 235–256. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mori, J., & Sanuth, K. K. (2018). Navigating between a monolingual Utopia and translingual realities: Experiences of American learners of Yorùbá as an additional language. Applied linguistics, 39(1), 78–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moyer, A. (2017). Autonomy in second language phonology: Choice vs. limits. Language Teaching, 50(3), 395–411. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pope, J. (2016). The role of social networks in the acquisition of a dialectal features during study abroad. In S. Sessarego & F. Tejedo-Herrero (Eds.) Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis (p. 177–196). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quan, T. (2018). Language learning while negotiating race and ethnicity abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 30(2), 32–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quan, T., Pozzi, R., Kehoe, S., Menard-Warwick, J., & Morales Front, A. (2018). Spanish heritage language learners in study abroad across three national contexts. In C. Sanz & A. Morales Front (Eds.), Routledge handbook of study abroad research and practice (p. 437–451). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Regan, V., Howard, M., & Lemée, I. (2009). The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a study abroad context. Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ringer-Hilfinger, K. (2012). Learner acquisition of dialect variation in a study abroad context: The case of the Spanish [θ]. Foreign Language Annals, 45(3), 430–446. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salgado-Robles, F. (2018). Efectos del contexto de inmersión en la competencia sociolingüística de EL2: La adquisición del laísmo madrileño. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación, 74, 307–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salgado-Robles, F., & George, A. (2019). The sociolinguistic impact of service-learning on heritage learners sojourning in Spain: Vosotros versus ustedes. Heritage Language Journal, 16(1), 71–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trentman, E. (2015). Negotiating gendered identities and access to social networks during study abroad in Egypt. In R. Mitchell, K. McManus, & N. Tracy-Ventura (Eds.), Social Interaction, Identity and Language Learning During Residence Abroad (p. 263–280). European Second Language Association.Google Scholar
van Lier, L. (2000). From Input to Affordance: Social Interactive Learning from an Ecological Perspective. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning: Recent Advances (p. 245–259). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Grammon, Devin
2024. Inappropriate Identities: Racialized Language Ideologies and Sociolinguistic Competence in a Study Abroad Context. Applied Linguistics DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.