Over the 21st century, European governments have introduced language and civic knowledge-tests as requirements for integration stages such as permanent residency and citizenship. Such requirements have been justified as a tool to incentivize host-language acquisition among immigrants and improve integration. By applying the newly developed Language Policy Index for Migrants to recent rounds of the European Social Survey, we explore whether these desired effects exist. We focus on the economic integration of non-EU migrants, for whom these requirements mainly apply. In a logistic multilevel model with ESS-data from 18 countries, no support is found that stricter requirements improve employment for non-EU migrants in general. However, there is no pattern suggesting that chances of employment are higher in lenient settings either. When incorporating a gender dimension, results suggest that strict requirements may have excluding effects on the employment of male non-EU migrants, while they could benefit that of female non-EU migrants. We relate this to gender-based differences in labor market attachment, occupational choice, and the importance of language proficiency in working tasks. This study joins a rather limited literature evaluating civic integration requirements and makes a contribution regarding the gender aspect, further underscoring the complexity of the effects of these policies.

This chapter concerns methods used in research on individual differences and second language (L2) French learning. The importance of individual differences for L2 learning is increasingly recognized in the SLA literature (e.g., Dewaele, 2009, 2011; Moyer, 2014; Douglas Fir Group, 2016), and a relatively large number of studies focus on L2 French. In this chapter, we first make an account of the existing research, starting with the research contexts that are represented and the methods that have been used. Then, we provide an overview of the linguistic variables and the individual differences that have been investigated. We then describe existing study designs and data collection instruments, as well as some ethical considerations related to participant recruitment, data elicitation, data storage, and data sharing. Finally, we discuss the existing research methods from a critical point of view, highlighting their contribution to and limitations within research on individual factors and second language acquisition in general. This leads us to identify areas that remain to be investigated and to suggest ways to advance the study of individual differences and L2 French learning from a methodological point of view.

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It is well-known that adults vary to an important extent with regard to L2 learning outcomes. One apparent reason is the degree of exposure to the target language. Furthermore, it has been suggested that adult learning is more affected by social and psychological variables than in younger learners. This could be expected to be more salient in a context of migration, where individuals are highly affected by individual driving forces, opportunities, and social circumstances. Some recent studies have indeed shown that such factors can explain the variation in certain linguistic subcomponents of adult L2 learning, but studies on general measures of specific L2 competences are still quite scarce. The present study investigated the impact of social and social-psychological variables on a general measure of L2 writing in the Netherlands. Participants (n = 44) were intermediate, educated learners of Dutch with mainly a non-European background. They completed a writing task designed for the Dutch national civic integration exam, as well as a questionnaire targeting social and social-psychological factors. A multiple regression analysis of the writing task showed that social and social-psychological background is not associated with overall writing proficiency in L2 Dutch. Instead, the results seem to suggest that these factors are indirectly associated with L2 exposure. The degree of L2 use was found to be affected by cultural identification and social networks. We highlighted a need for measures related to subcomponents of L2 writing, rather than using a general proficiency measure, to further investigate the impact of social and social-psychological factors.

Het is bekend dat volwassen L2-leerders aanzienlijke onderlinge variatie in taalprestaties laten zien. Een belangrijke reden hiervoor is te vinden in de verschillende mate van blootstelling aan de doeltaal. Verder wordt L2-verwerving bij volwassen leerders meer beïnvloed door sociale en psychologische factoren dan bij jongere leerders. Deze impact komt duidelijk naar voren in een migratiecontext waarin leerders sterk beïnvloed worden door leerderskenmerken, kansen en sociale omstandigheden. Recente studies hebben getoond dat zulke factoren inderdaad variatie in prestaties op specifieke taalkundige componenten van volwassen L2-verwerving in een migratiecontext verklaren. Echter, studies die zich op generieke maten van L2-vaardigheden richten zijn zeldzaam. Deze studie onderzoekt onder immigranten de impact van sociale en sociaal-psychologische factoren op algemene L2-schrijfvaardigheid in Nederland. De deelnemers (n = 44) waren gemiddeld-gevorderde, geschoolde leerders van het Nederlands, met voornamelijk een niet-Europese achtergrond. Zij voltooiden een schrijftaak uit het Staatsexamen Nederlands als Tweede Taal en vulde een vragenlijst in waarin sociale en sociaal-psychologische factoren in kaart werden gebracht. Een meervoudige regressie-analyse van de schrijftaak toonde dat de sociaal en sociaal-psychologische achtergrond van leerders niet direct gelinkt is aan algehele schrijfvaardigheid in het Nederlands als tweede taal. De resultaten lijken echter wel te tonen dat deze factoren indirect gelinkt zijn aan blootstelling aan de L2. De mate van L2-gebruik wordt beïnvloed door culturele identificatie met de L2-gemeenschap en de grootte van sociale netwerken. We benadrukken het belang van metingen op het niveau van componenten van L2-schrijfvaardigheid, in plaats van metingen op het niveau van een generieke taalvaardigheidsmaat, om de invloeden van sociale en sociaal-psychologische factoren te onderzoeken.

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions:Previous studies have investigated if quantity of target language (TL) use predicts second language (L2) learning. The aim of this study is to understand what kind of TL use promotes host language proficiency among adults in the context of migration, operationalized as productive collocation knowledge.

Design/Methodology/Approach:The study takes a cross-sectional quantitative approach to explore what clusters of TL activities predict language proficiency among 63 first language (L1) French L2 Swedish long-term residents in Sweden.Data and Analysis:Data were collected within a larger project. Productive collocation knowledge was assessed by a collocation test and participants’ TL use through the Language Engagement Questionnaire. We conducted a factor analysis to identify patterns of TL use. We then used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationship between TL use and productive collocation knowledge.

Findings/Conclusions:Two factors emerged from the factor analysis: “Everyday Interactive Target Language Use” and “Non-interactive Target Language Use.” Only the former was related to productive collocation knowledge as evidenced by the structural equation modeling. “Everyday Interactive Target Language Use” included using the TL at the workplace, in conversations and service encounters, through text messages and emails, participating in online social network platforms, and browsing the internet.

The present study investigates the possible impact of language ideologies on second language proficiency. Based on interviews and a thematic analysis, we explored language ideologies among French long-term residents in Stockholm, Sweden. The participants had contrasting proficiency levels in the host community language: five were categorised as low-performers of Swedish and five as high-performers of Swedish, based on two linguistic measures. Overall, low-performing and high-performing language users in this sample of French long-term residents in Sweden appear to hold different ideologies related to mobility and language learning. While the low-performers tend to adhere to efficiency-related ideologies and a universalist cosmopolitan worldview, where English as a lingua franca is the most significant capital, the high-performers adhere to ideologies that are more identity-based and closer to assimilationist or nationalist views, where the participants see themselves as joining a majority culture into which they should adapt. High host language proficiency is seen as necessary capital for this. All in all, the study makes a clear case for further studies exploring language ideologies in relation to second language acquisition. 

The present paper responds to calls for more interdisciplinary research within applied linguistics by critically examining and illustrating how the crossing of perspectives and methods can shed light on new dimensions of second language learning. To do so, we present an ongoing research project investigating the role of linguistic resources in the development of interactional competence in second language French. We examine the benefits and challenges associated with combining longitudinal Conversation Analysis – a qualitative approach – and quantitative lexical bundle analysis, a corpus linguistics method sometimes used with Usage-Based Approaches to Second Language Acquisition. We describe and exemplify through empirical work-in-progress how these approaches and methods complement each other, and we discuss ways of addressing conceptual and practical challenges associated with the combined framework. We hope that the paper can serve as a useful practical resource for researchers and students within applied linguistics.

The present paper responds to calls for more interdisciplinary research within applied linguistics by critically examining and illustrating how the crossing of perspectives and methods can shed light on new dimensions of second language learning. To do so, we present an ongoing research project investigating the role of linguistic resources in the development of interactional competence in second language French. We examine the benefits and challenges associated with combining longitudinal Conversation Analysis – a qualitative approach – and quantitative lexical bundle analysis, a corpus linguistics method sometimes used with Usage-Based Approaches to Second Language Acquisition. We describe and exemplify through empirical work-in-progress how these approaches and methods complement each other, and we discuss ways of addressing conceptual and practical challenges associated with the combined framework. We hope that the paper can serve as a useful practical resource for researchers and students within applied linguistics.