Social network analysis is an emerging field of research in Applied Linguistics; the scope and utility of mapping the social realities of language learners is yet to be determined. Although sociocultural research in language learning has long recognized the primacy of social interaction for language development, our understanding of the role of relationships in language learning is still insufficient to support our students in our classrooms and beyond. There are many questions that social network analysis can help teachers, learners, and researchers to answer agentively: How important are families, friends, acquaintances, and teachers for language learning or developing a multilingual identity? What qualities in a relationship matter most for learning a new language? How do relationships change over time and how do these changing connections affect language learning or language attitudes? These questions and many others should be asked by language teachers and language learners.
In this talk, I will consider the lessons and possibilities of social network analysis in language teaching and language learning at a time of global challenge and opportunity. Social network analysis is in many ways tailored to this moment where language learning is defined by its complexity, mobility, and innovation within an ever-expanding set of transnational and multilingual learning contexts (The Douglas Fir Group, 2016). The global COVID-19 crisis highlighted the interconnectedness of us. It is in this moment of realization that understanding the multilingual resources students recruit, accrue, and access via their social networks can contribute to understanding language learning in all the unique settings around the world, many very far from the university foreign language classroom.
The transdisciplinary nature of research on social networks in language learning and language teaching is both a strength and a hurdle. Who is utilizing this tool and how is the understanding that is generated being used? Who are the stakeholders and what form will the research take? I will argue that in the hands of teacher-researchers and students, the collaborative use of social network analysis offers language teachers an incredible tool for understanding the social support that students access within and beyond classrooms. Relationships are powerful yet underutilized assets for language learning. Current work with social networks in applied linguistics builds on our understanding of relational ties as the invisible framework that supports language learning in classrooms and other social spaces. Engaging this perspective to better understand how languages are learned can shift pedagogical focus towards the development of the social relationships that motivate and sustain language learning, including multilingual families, peers, and communities. Given the complexities of language teaching in a globally fraught political context, I will argue that social network analysis offers precisely the kind of information we need to understand student agency within the sociocultural and structural constraints (and opportunities) of classroom learning. But only, if we are able to engage in this research collaboratively.
