Introduction

This chapter discusses the three theoretical pillars of my study: second language (L2) socialization, community and L2 learner agency. Social theories of learning view learning as fundamentally a social phenomenon, which is inseparable from the society or the social community of which learners are inherently part. L2 socialization theory, one of the social theories of L2 learning, understands L2 learning as a process of social participation in a local community of practice. In L2 socialization theory, L2 learning is defined as a ‘process by which novices or newcomers in a community or culture gain communicative competence, membership, and legitimacy in the group’ (Duff, 2007: 310). As they learn to participate in a local community of practice, L2 learners learn to appropriate a language in accordance with the sociocultural norms of a target language community, adopt normative practices, (re)construct identity and establish themselves as competent members of the community (Duff & Talmy, 2011; Garrett & Baquedano-López, 2002; Wenger, 1998). I begin this chapter with an introduction to language socialization theory, from which L2 socialization theory is developed, focusing on its fundamental tenets and assumptions.

Becoming Speakers of Cultures

Historically, studies on language socialization began with an inquiry into how children learn their first language. While linguists, such as Chomsky (1965), have viewed language as a linguistic competence with which children are innately endowed, linguistic anthropologists, such as Hymes (1972), have viewed language as cultural and social as well as linguistic competences – that is, an ability to use a language, participate in society and function as a competent member of a sociocultural community. Thus, language socialization research primarily addresses the acquisition of language by children, including the acquisition of culturally and socially requisite knowledge and skills for participating in a social community and using a language in socially and culturally appropriate ways.

The foundation of language socialization studies was established in the early 1970s with the proposals of the ethnography of communication by Gumperz and Hymes (1964, 1972) and communicative competence by Hymes (1972).