2ND LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN A STRATIFIED MULTILINGUAL SETTING

This paper discusses the ethnographic investigation of a multilingual adolescent peer group in which various forms of second/other language learner status had considerable social significance.The paper describes the learning and use of minority languages by youngsters from other language backgrounds, and begins by discussing the role of Panjabi as a language learner language within jocular abuse. This is compared with other Punjabi second language socialising contexts, and brief reference is made to the ways in which language learner English is symbolically invoked in peer group discourse. The aim is to illustrate the ways that a repertoire of languages and language learner statuses serve as differentiated resources which adolescents draw on in efforts to define community and affirm or contest social structure.In the light of this evidence, the paper then examines possible extensions in second language acquisition (SLA) discussion of communication strategies and the social and affective influences on language learning. The social symbolic aspects of language are stressed and a shift in methodological emphases is suggested. Finally, questions are raised about the manner in which SLA research often seeks educational relevance. Interactional sociolinguistics is identified as a particularly useful approach to SLA research and application. © 1991 Oxford University Press.