International students’ language socialization in an English-medium university

Abstract

This article investigates second language socialization of three international students in a tertiary institute in New Zealand. To understand the experiences of international students, the article draws on the theoretical framework of the production of space to examine how the students experienced their new social space. The article uses multiple sources of data including video/audio recordings of the classroom interaction, field notes, interviews with the focal students/teachers/tutors/lecturers, diaries, and institutional documents to provide a thick description of students’ participation, language socialization, and identities. It does a within and across case analysis of the students’ experience to situate the learning experiences but at the same time to highlight the role of space as a participating social being in the socialization process. The concepts of language socialization and identities are reconceptualized as ever-evolving and ever-changing phenomena, whose production depends on the social conditions and relationships in the social space.