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Second Language Identities examines how identity is an issue in different second language learning contexts.It begins with a detailed presentation of what has become a popular approach to identity in the social sciences (including applied linguistics) today, one that is inspired in poststructuralist thought and is associated with the work of.

The Douglas Fir Group (2016) sought to articulate a transdisciplinary agenda for SLA but said little about multilingualism specifically. Moreover, many multilinguals are under siege in a worrisome world where threats to human difference have risen to the mainstream in the aftermath of Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. I argue that considering multilingualism as the central object of inquiry and embracing social justice as an explicit disciplinary goal are two moves necessary to provide sustainable support for the kind of transdisciplinary SLA that the Douglas Fir Group (2016) envisioned. I examine some missing pieces of the puzzle of transdisciplinary transformation that may make it possible for SLA researchers, and particularly those who investigate linguistic-cognitive dimensions of language learning, to contribute knowledge about the human capacity for language while supporting equitable multilingualism for all. (Verlag).

Cognition is not just 'in the head'; it extends well beyond the skull and the skin. Non-Cartesian Cognitive Science views cognition as being embodied, environmentally embedded, enacted, encultured, and socially distributed. The Douglas Fir Group (2016) likewise recognizes languages as emergent, social, integrated phenomena. Language is the quintessence of distributed cognition. Language cognition is shared across naturally occurring, culturally constituted, communicative activities. Usage affects learning and it affects languages, too. These are essential components of a theory of language cognition. This article summarizes these developments within cognitive science before considering implications for language research and teaching, especially as these concern usage-based language learning and cognition in second language and multilingual contexts. Here, I prioritize research involving corpus-, computational-, and psycho-linguistics, and cognitive psychological, complex adaptive system, and network science investigations of learner-language interactions. But there are many other implications. Looking at languages through any one single lens does not do the phenomena justice. Taking the social turn does not entail restricting our research focus to the social. Nor does it obviate more traditional approaches to second language acquisition. Instead it calls for greater transdisciplinarity, diversity, and collaborative work. (Verlag).

A key insight of a transdisciplinary perspective on second language acquisition (SLA) as articulated by the Douglas Fir Group (2016) is its usage-based understanding of language. Evidence on the fundamental role that usage plays in shaping individual language knowledge is no doubt compelling. However, while the force of social interaction in shaping language knowledge is acknowledged, missing are specifications of the jointly constructed actions and courses of action comprising social contexts of use. Also missing is a reconsideration of key SLA concepts engendered by a usage-based understanding of language. The intent of this paper is to redress these limitations. First, I summarize the research programs of conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, which take as their central task the specifications of the jointly constructed actions and courses of action comprising social contexts and thus significantly enhance a usage-based understanding of language. Then, arguing that more suitable conceptual tools are needed to better capture current understandings of language knowledge and objects of L2 learning, I offer repertoire, semiotic resources, and register as alternative terms to competence and grammar. I conclude with a proposal for a Conversation Analysis/Interactional Linguistics-based research program for further advancing understandings of SLA and transforming understandings of L2 pedagogy. (Verlag).

Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden Muster des Spracherwerbs von Neuzuwanderern beschrieben, welche in jüngerer Zeit nach Deutschland gekommen sind. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem Vergleich syrischer Geflüchteter mit Migranten aus Italien, Polen und der Türkei, die als Arbeitsmigranten, im Zuge der Familienzusammenführung oder für Bildungszwecke eingewandert sind. Die theoretischen Überlegungen beruhen auf einem allgemeinen Modell des Spracherwerbs, wonach drei zentrale Konstrukte beim Erlernen einer Sprache relevant sind: Exposure, Effizienz und Motivation (bzw. Anreize). Für die empirische Studie werden Daten des ENTRA Projekts herangezogen (\"Aktuelle europäische Binnen- und Flüchtlingsmigration nach Deutschland: Zuzugsprozesse und frühe Integrationsverläufe\"), im Rahmen dessen Informationen zu etwa 4,600 jungen Erwachsenen gesammelt wurden. Die Analysen belegen, dass die meisten Neuzuwanderer ihre Sprachkenntnisse im Zeitverlauf verbessern. Der Zuwachs unter syrischen Geflüchteten fällt dabei deutlicher als in den anderen Gruppen aus. Die für den Spracherwerb gegenwärtiger Neuzuwanderer gefundenen Zusammenhänge entsprechen in weiten Teilen den Befunden früherer Studien. Es wird geschlussfolgert, dass es sich beim Spracherwerb um ein allgemeines Phänomen handelt, das sich in unterschiedlichen Gruppen in ähnlicher Weise vollzieht. Die Schlüsselrolle beim Spracherwerb spielen die Sprachgelegenheiten. Außerdem zeigt sich, dass bestimmte Arten von Exposure, etwa der Besuch von Sprachkursen, für Personen, welche ansonsten über weniger Ressourcen verfügen, besonders vorteilhaft sind. Die Befunde belegen darüber hinaus, dass syrische Geflüchtete in stärkerem Maße als Neuzuwanderer aus anderen Gruppen von Sprachgelegenheiten profitieren, die sich aus der Teilnahme an Sprachkursen, aus dem Besuch von Bildungseinrichtungen oder aus einer Tätigkeit auf dem Arbeitsmarkt ergeben. (DIPF/Orig.). This article describes new immigrants' levels of destination-language proficiency shortly after taking up residence in Germany. The focus lies on a comparison of refugees from Syria with new arrivals from Italy, Poland, and Turkey, who came as economic immigrants, for family reasons, or as students. The theoretical account builds upon a well-established model of language acquisition, according to which language fluency is a function of exposure, efficiency, and incentives. The empirical study is based on data from the first wave of the ENTRA project (\"Recent Immigration Processes and Early Integration Trajectories in Germany\") that covers about 4,600 young adults. The analyses reveal that most individuals improve their proficiency over time. Syrians' experience a faster learning curve than those of other immigrant groups. The conditions identified as relevant to language fluency largely reflect the findings of previous studies. They indicate that language learning is a general process that, for the most part, does not differ across the four groups. Exposure is the major force driving language acquisition. There are also indications that certain kinds of exposure, such as attending language classes, are especially beneficial for individuals with lower resource endowments. In addition, Syrian refugees profit more than other new arrivals from increased levels of language exposure, such as from taking language courses, pursuing education or being active on the labor market. (DIPF/Orig.).

This paper examines the distinct effects of linguistics distance and language literacy on the labor market integration of migrant men and women. Using data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2018 in 16 countries of destination mainly from Europe and more than 110 languages of origin, we assess migrant labor force participation, employment, working hours, and occupational prestige. The study finds that linguistics distance of the first language studied has a significant negative association with labor force participation, employment, and working hours of migrant women, even after controlling for their abilities in their destination language, education, and cultural distance between the country of origin and destination. In contrast, linguistics distance is only negatively associated with migrant men’s working hours. This suggests that linguistic distance serves as a proxy for cultural aspects, which are not captured by cultural distance and hence shape the labor market integration of migrant women due to cultural factors rather than human capital. We suggest that the gender aspect of the effect of language proximity is essential in understanding the intersectional position of migrant women in the labor force.

This study describes the first wave of the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP Survey on Ukrainian Refugees in Germany, a unique panel dataset based on over 11,000 interviews conducted between August and October 2022. The aim of the IAB-BiB/FReDA-BAMF-SOEP Survey is to provide a data-infrastructure for theory-driven and evidence-based research on various aspects of integration among Ukrainian refugees in Germany, the second most important destination country in the EU after Poland, hosting over a million people who arrived in Germany shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Based on the survey, this study also provides first insights into demographic, educational, linguistic, occupational, and social characteristics of this population. The analyses revealed that the refugee population comprised mostly young and educated individuals, with a significant proportion of females without partners and female-headed separated families. While German language skills were limited, about half of Ukrainian refugees had attended or were attending language courses. However, the integration process faced significant challenges, as the participation of children in day-care was relatively low, and the self-reported life satisfaction was markedly below the average of the German population. The study highlights the need for targeted policy measures to address such issues. Additionally, policies may aim at harnessing the high potential of the Ukrainian refugees for the German labor market. Given that a substantial proportion would like to stay in Germany permanently, policymakers should take note of these findings and aim to facilitate their long-term integration process to ensure that these refugees may thrive in Germany.

Social aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) and the contexts in which people attempt to learn and use languages and seek to become integrated within new and changing cultures have been examined for decades from various theoretical perspectives. In this article, I present some of the ways in which 'social' experience is being theorized in SLA and in broader fields that intersect with SLA, such as linguistic anthropology. I then discuss how the Douglas Fir Group (DFG, 2016) originally portrayed the many interlinking factors affecting SLA in our multilingual world on several analytic levels and suggest ways of perhaps reconceptualizing the model while retaining its powerful heuristic value. Next, I describe language socialization research as 1 productive social approach and provide examples of research in 2 transnational domains-study abroad and heritage language learning-that demonstrate a multiscalar approach to examining social dimensions of language development and use. The article ends with a discussion of transdisciplinarity in SLA research. I suggest possibilities for team-based research projects that aim to understand cases from multiple, integrated perspectives on different scales of analysis, and then provide a brief reflection on some of the troubling political ideologies that SLA researchers who embrace multilingualism must now confront on a daily basis. (Verlag).

Addressing themes from the Douglas Fir Group's (2016) transdisciplinary framework, this paper bridges boundaries between cognitive and social disciplines by showing how social contextual factors can affect the psycholinguistic development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in learner language. Sociolinguistic and sociocultural frameworks are blended with use of a multidimensional psycholinguistic frame, CAF, to analyze speech samples produced by 10 adult learners of English across different developmental levels as they all produced narratives containing constructed dialogue. Learners enacted imagined 'voices' that were significantly more accurate and fluent compared to their narrative baseline voices. Our findings suggest that emerging L2 proficiency consists of many distinct voices that can significantly differ in accuracy of grammatical forms and fluency; related studies show they also differ in suprasegmentals, nonverbals, discourse style, and expressed social stance. Learners' ability to produce such voices in constructed dialogue supports a view of their proficiency as heteroglossic, complex, dynamic, and holistic, and of language play as facilitative of SLA. Theoretical and practical implications for L2 learning, instruction, and assessment are considered. (Verlag).