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Article published In:
Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education
Vol. 6:1 (2021) ► pp.59–90

Who do you hang out with?

How Chinese students’ social networks relate to their perceived oral proficiency gains during study abroad experiences

| University of Cambridge
| University of Cambridge
Social interactions that take place during study abroad in linguistically rich settings are important for oral proficiency development; however, few studies have explicitly examined the underlying network structure of students’ social experiences in study abroad contexts and its role in oral proficiency development. This mixed-methods research examined the relationship between self-reported social network structures and self-perceived English oral proficiency gains among 88 Chinese international students at a UK university. While the majority of participants’ networks consisted of Chinese-speaking peers, most of them managed to develop strong and frequent relations with English-speaking peers. Students reported gains in oral proficiency, especially in areas related to language use that require higher levels of proficiency. Diverse networks with significant and high-frequency English-speaking relationships were more likely to be associated with L2 oral proficiency gains, while dense networks with only frequent and strong in-group relationships could potentially limit L2 development.
Keywords: social network analysis, social relations, oral proficiency gains, Chinese international students
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Social network analysis
    • 2.2Social network analysis and language learning
    • 2.3Assessing language development in study abroad settings
  • 3.The current study
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Study design
      • 4.2.1Quantitative measures
      • 4.2.2Quantitative data analyses
      • 4.2.3Follow-up interviews
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Social network structures
    • 5.2Oral proficiency gains
    • 5.3The relationship between network structure and oral proficiency gains
    • 5.4Follow-up interviews
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Implications and limitations
  • References
Published online: 12 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.18014.xie
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