Adult migrants’ Norwegian language learning investment strategies in the workplace

Nuranindia Endah Arum
University of Oslo
Abstract

Learning the host country’s language(s) is a necessary step toward social and professional inclusion for migrants. However, it is often regarded as a challenging task that depends heavily on the sociocultural context in which migrants are situated. This study explores the Norwegian language learning strategies of highly educated Indonesians outside the classroom, particularly in the workplace, in Norway. Following the social turn in second language learning research, the study aims to investigate how social context influences migrants’ strategies for learning Norwegian. The data were collected through a combination of qualitative methods consisting of sequential in-depth interviews, language diaries, and focus group discussions with four focal participants, including both recently arrived and long-term migrants. Based on Darvin and Norton’s (2015) investment model, participants’ narratives of their reported language learning strategies are analyzed in relation to language ideology, identity, and capital in their language learning experiences. The findings from this study suggest that migrant learners’ ideal learning strategies are influenced by their language ideologies. However, different contextual factors, such as work tasks and roles, have a considerable impact on their learning opportunities, and consequently, on why and how they end up using certain learning strategies but not others. Migrants’ professional identities also play an important role in their strategy choice and use. By analyzing migrant learners’ narratives, this study provides a nuanced and learner-centered understanding of language learning strategies in the context of migration in the globalized world. This study also contributes new insights into the use of learning strategies of languages other than English by adult migrant learners inside and beyond the classroom.

Keywords:
Publication history

Date received: 31 July 2024

Date accepted: 7 October 2024

Published online: 18 November 2024

Table of contents

Learning an additional language is a demanding task regardless of the circumstances. It becomes a complex issue especially for adults who move across borders due to the expectations to quickly adapt and integrate both socially and professionally into the host country’s society. Adult second language learners encounter different expectations in regards to employment, education, and other social domains. Moreover, language learning in the migration context often takes place under significant social, economic, and legal pressure (Carlsen et al., 2023). For adult second language learners, language learning occurs mostly in a variety of everyday life situations rather than exclusively in a classroom setting. Participants’ social roles and positionings in different social situations, from casual interactions with friends to work meetings, are not always those of language learners explicitly because learning is not the main goal of the interaction (Firth, 2009; Kurhila et al., 2023; Ruuska, 2020). This complexity highlights that the language learning process, including learning strategies, depends heavily on the sociocultural context in which migrants are situated (Gao & Hu, 2020; Thomas et al., 2022). Do all migrants have the same conditions and opportunities to learn the host country’s language(s)? In the lack or absence of learning access, which strategies do migrants resort to? Social contexts must be taken into account to understand migrant learners because, as Miller (2014) remarks, “situations or spaces, and the ideologies that are constructed in making such spaces recognizable, render some forms of linguistic expertise as legitimate and others as non-legitimate” (p. 20). These social contexts and language ideologies have a significant impact on how migrants perceive themselves as either passive or agentive in their language learning narratives (Miller, 2014).

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