PATTERNS OF SOCIAL IDENTITY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AMONG FIVE VENEZUELAN GRADUATE STUDENTS IN WASHINGTON, D.C

This study is an investigation of the social interactions in English and the evidenced improvement in spoken English of five Venezuelan graduate students enrolled in a university English as a second language program. It shows that five individuals differed in both the frequency and the kind of social interactions engaged in during a ten month period, and that these patterns of social interactions are reflected in the linguistic data. The five Venezuelans were in their twenties, from Caracas and of similar middle-class background. All had limited English skills upon arrival in the U.S., which had occurred no more than three months before the study began. Data were collected over two consecutive university semesters, and consisted of twelve taped interviews that recaptured accounts of the five students' social interactions, as well as less systematic participant-observation, journals, and other data sources. Three kinds of social interactional identities are presented: anonymous, where interactants act impersonally; anchored, where interactants disclose some information about themselves; and personal, where interactants disclose considerable personal information. Varying reported participatory styles or superficial behaviors are identified which serve to achieve, impede or by-pass social contact with Anglo-Americans. Several reported participatory strategies or systematic behavior styles are discussed including interacting with the "right" Americans; offering to help an American; and establishing interactional identities with interactants to change anonymous to anchored, and anchored to personal indentities. Linguistic data analyzed are participants' use of parenthetic expressions (qualifiers and hedges) and evidenced mastery of three morphemes in obligatory contexts: the plural noun ending, past tense irregular forms, and third person present tense verb endings. Comparison of the five participants' use of morphemes and hedges shows sufficient differences in evidenced mastery by the participants to allow the conclusion that the impact of social interaction on evidenced L2 learning is stronger than previously believed because patterns of individuals' social interactions are shown to co-occur with linguistic patterns. The thesis ends with a presentation of recommendations for English as a second language programs that grow out of these research findings.