Learning the host country's language(s), a necessary step toward social and professional inclusion, is often regarded as a challenging task for migrants. Moreover, 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, what strategies do migrants resort to?
The study presented in this paper is part of a larger project in which the language practices and language learning experiences of highly educated Indonesians in Norway are examined through a variety of methods and theoretical frameworks. Following the social turn in second language learning research, the present study aims to investigate how social context influences migrants' strategies and sources of regulation in learning Norwegian. The data was collected through a mixed-method qualitative approach consisting of sequential in-depths interviews, language diary, and focus group discussions with four focal participants who recently moved to Norway. Based on the investment model (Darvin & Norton, 2015), participants' narratives of their reported language learning strategies are analyzed in relation to language ideology, identity, and capital in their language learning experience.
The findings from this study suggest an entanglement between structural and agentive factors in the participants' language learning strategies. Migrant learners' ideal learning strategies are influenced by their language ideologies. However, different structural conditions, such as migration status and the pandemic situation, 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' social and economic capital and social identities such as gender, race/ethnicity, and class, also play an important role in the (in)ability to access various learning resources such as artefacts and the target language communities (Gao & Hu, 2020).
By analyzing migrant learners' narratives, this study provides a more enriched, nuanced, and learner-centered understanding of language learning strategies and sources of regulation in the context of migration in the globalized world. This study also contributes new insights into the use of learning strategies of other languages than English by adult migrant learners inside and beyond the classroom.
References:
Darvin, R., & Norton, B. (2015). Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000191
Gao, X. (Andy), & Hu, J. (2020). From Language Learning Strategy Research to a Sociocultural Understanding of Self-Regulated Learning. In M. J. Raya & F. Vieira (Eds.), Autonomy in Language Education: Theory, Research and Practice (1st ed., pp. 31–45). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429261336
Thomas, N., Rose, H., Cohen, A. D., Gao, X. (Andy), Sasaki, A., & Hernandez-Gonzalez, T. (2022). The third wind of language learning strategies research. Language Teaching, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444822000015
