Exchange students creating target language social …office.nanzan-u.ac.jp/ncia/about-cia/item/pdf_17/kenkyu...social networks may, in fact, be a better measure of the L2 use than

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Exchange students creating target language social networks ininternational dormitories during short-term study abroad sojourns

Robert CROKER, Nanako MACHIDA

Abstract

　 During short-term study abroad language programs, exchange students actively

search for opportunities to use the target language but often find it difficult to enter

existing host national social networks. This paper reports on a case study of two female

foreign exchange students, one eastern European and the other southeast Asian,

studying at a Japanese private university, who created target language social networks in

the international dormitory where they were staying. The two participants were asked

to keep a language diary for one week, detailing where, with whom, and about what they

spoke in Japanese outside the language classroom. Both participants also completed a

short questionnaire and were interviewed in person. Results showed that their main

interlocutors were not only host national (Japanese) students but also other foreign

students sharing their dormitories; also, these dormitory-based social networks

facilitated the development of language skills and also provided significant cultural,

emotional, and social support. This paper is in response to the numerous calls for more

detailed, qualitative accounts exploring the experiences of exchange students while they

are on their sojourn abroad, particularly of under-represented groups such as European

and Asian women studying in Japan, and in under-researched spaces such as

international dormitories.

Keywords：Japan, study abroad, language use, social network, investment

Introduction

　 “What language students learn during study abroad depends upon the kinds of access to

learning opportunities that they are able to negotiate” (Kinginger, 2013, p. 352). Newly arrived

foreign students imagine having many opportunities to interact with host nationals in the target

language. However, outside the university these students have only relatively superficial

contact with host nationals (Brown, 2009; Hendrickson, 2016; Schartner, 2015). In the case of

foreign students studying in the UK, these interactions “remained largely restricted to brief

service encounters which made conversation beyond standardised, formulaic interaction

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国際教育センター紀要　第17号

difficult” (Schartner, 2015, p. 232).

　 Particularly on short-term study abroad programs, foreign students initially expect the host

institution to provide opportunities to interact with host nationals (Bartram, 2007). Recognizing

the difficulty that students have joining existing host national language communities, almost all

host institutions offer chances for foreign students and local students to meet and interact.

These range from facilitating language exchanges between foreign and local students to more

structured activities such as field trips and service learning encounters and introductions to

university clubs and circles (Coles & Swami, 2012). For many foreign students, these organized

opportunities to interact with host nationals represent important chances to speak the target

language outside the classroom.

　 A number of foreign students choose to do a homestay, hoping that this will enable

substantial daily use of the target language and afford privileged access to the target culture.

Some homestay families take their responsibilities seriously, providing a socially warm and

supportive, linguistically rich environment. However, research has shown that staying with a

family during a sojourn abroad does not necessarily guarantee significant target language

improvement (Magnan & Back, 2007). This is due to both social and linguistic reasons. The

primary locus of social interaction for foreign students is often limited to the host mother, as

other family members are busy working or studying, offering few chances for target language

use with extended family social networks (Shiri, 2015). Other foreign students experience

silent dinners as their host family watches television as they eat. Furthermore, target language

interaction in homestays may not be linguistically beneficial. This interaction often provides

only lexically, grammatically, and pragmatically simplified input; a predominance of a simple

display question-answer-response structure rather than deeper, more complex discussion; a

restricted range of topics and limited information exchange; limited corrective feedback; and

asymmetrical conversational patterns giving students few opportunities to initiate and control

conversations (adapted from Pryde, 2014).

　 Other students choose not to do a homestay, preferring the relative freedom of a dormitory.

For these students, one option is to seek to use the target language extensively there. In the

U.K., Coles and Swami (2012) found that foreign students “generally saw student

accommodation as one of the best places to meet British [host national] and other international

students. ... [as] the proximity involved in being neighbours and sharing a kitchen helped build

connections” (p. 94). In the U.S., Martinsen, et al. (2010) found that foreign language housing

on American university campuses provided learners with opportunities for frequent, informal

interactions in the target language with other language learners, and that this significantly

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Exchange students creating target language social networks in international dormitories during short-term study abroad sojourns

increased their use of the target language. However, some foreign students staying in dorms

during their sojourn abroad prefer not to use the target language there, particularly with other

students speaking the same first language (Pyper & Slagter, 2015), or because their main

priority is to travel and learn about the target culture rather than develop their target language

proficiency (Allen, 2010), and this is often a major impediment to target language acquisition

(Pyper & Slagter, 2015).

　 To overcome this barrier, motivated foreign students seek to create social networks in their

dormitory where target language use is the social norm. “[P]ast research (e.g., Hillstrom,

2011) suggested that those who make significant L2 gains abroad may start off with relatively

large social networks but fairly weak ties (Granovetter, 1982), then gradually decrease the size

of their networks while increasing the intensity of their relationships (i.e., they become

emotionally closer to a smaller number of individuals). ... [H]aving deeper conversations with

close friends is more important than the amount of time spent speaking the L2. ... [L]earners’

social networks may, in fact, be a better measure of the L2 use than mere quantity, because they

could be a better indicator for quality of L2 use as well” (Baker-Smemoe, et al. 2014, pp. 478―9).

　 In dormitories for exchange students on short-term study abroad sojourns, social networks

are initially relatively large, open and dynamic as students get to know each other, seek friends

and find study partners. Particularly if the dormitory itself has an open architectural design,

with students in single rooms sharing common kitchen, dining, and bathroom facilities, social

networks may continue to be relatively open and dynamic for much of the semester. However,

smaller, higher intensity social networks will also form around shared experiences, classes,

majors, interests, and first languages (Gomes et al., 2014), and language use preferences. That

is, students who prefer to mainly or only use the target language tend to create their own social

networks, and students who do not will do likewise, creating often quite distinct language

communities. On the other hand, if the dormitory has an apartment design, with groups of

three or four students sharing one apartment, smaller, higher intensity social networks are

likely to form quickly, based around each shared residential space. Depending upon the

motivation of the residents, these apartments may also offer foreign students significant target

language learning opportunities, particularly if there is also a local student living there.

　 However, spatial proximity alone is insufficient to create and sustain a target language social

network; people must also invest in relationships with other people in the network (Trentman,

2013). These investments are reciprocal (Montgomery & McDowell, 2009); each person’s

investment impacts other people in the community (Matsunaga, 2013). In their social

networks, foreign students can build and maintain their relationships by supporting each other

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in five different ways. The first is by providing linguistic support. Through extensive collective

use of the target language in the familiar surroundings of the dormitory and university and also

when out and about exploring or travelling together, foreign students can share sustained

periods of target language practice. The second type of support is cultural support, helping

each other to understand and explore the host country and its culture. The third is emotional

support, helping each other adjust psychologically to the new environment and overcome

feelings of loneliness (Sawir, et al., 2008). The fourth is social support, or providing access to

one’s social networks and the target language use opportunities therein (Hendrickson, 2016;

Pyper & Slagter, 2015). A fifth form of support is practical academic support, such as providing

notes for missed classes and sharing study notes for tests (Montgomery & McDowell, 2009).

These different types of support from other foreign students are “considered important by

students and appear to be one of the factors that help them to function effectively in their new

environment” (Montgomery & McDowell, 2009, p. 460), and to access the learning opportunities

that will facilitate their target language acquisition.

The Present Study

Research Focus:

This study seeks to understand how exchange students on short-term language programs at

Japanese universities use Japanese outside the language classroom. We particularly wanted to

understand how students staying in international dormitories create opportunities to use the

target language there, even in the absence of host national Japanese students. Four research

questions guided this study:

1. Where and with whom do exchange students on short-term language programs use Japanese

outside the language classroom?

2. Which of these are the most useful language learning experiences?

3. Who helps these students the most to speak Japanese?

4. What types of social networks do exchange students have access to in which they can use

Japanese outside the classroom?

Research Site:

The Center for Japanese Studies (CJS) at Nanzan University in Nagoya has offered a Japanese

program for over 40 years. The CJS Japanese program has five academic components: intensive

Japanese language courses divided into six levels; Japanese language seminars (Japanese for

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special purposes); courses in Japan area studies taught in English; open courses (cross-listed

courses offered to both regular Nanzan University students and CJS students) taught in English

or Japanese; and practical courses in the Japanese arts such as calligraphy and wood-block

printing.

　 Approximately 140 students enroll in the CJS each semester. About half stay for just one

semester and about half continue on to the next semester. A handful stay for a third or a fourth

semester; two years is the maximum students can enroll in the CJS. Half of the exchange

students are from the U.S., Canada and South America, a quarter from Europe, and another

quarter from Asia. Most students at the CJS stay either in university dormitories or with a

local family in a homestay. In recent years, approximately 40% of students have been placed

with host families. Most of the rest stay in a university dormitory. One is the Nagoya Koryu

Kaikan (NKK) for female students with a capacity of 56 students and the other is the Yamazato

Koryu Kaikan (YKK) for male students with a capacity of 20. These two residence halls were

founded to promote international understanding and cooperation through live-in experiences, so

both international students and local (Japanese) students live together. Some students also stay

in smaller, privately managed dormitories run by local business and international organizations,

such as the Ogawa International Residence (OIR)(the name has been changed).

　 The university organizes many extra opportunities for exchange students to use Japanese

outside the language classroom. In particular, during a regular event called Coffee Hour local

and exchange students meet and chat together over snacks and drinks, and in the Japan Plaza, a

Japanese-language-only room staffed with teaching assistants (TAs), exchange students can do

their homework, chat, play games, and hang out with Japanese and other exchange students.

Research Methodology:

Permission to conduct this research project was obtained from the Nanzan University

Committee for Research Screening (approval numbers: 16―012, 16―050) and the Center for

Japanese Studies. All 140 CJS students enrolled in the fall 2016 semester were invited to

participate in the study. A written invitation was placed in their CJS mailboxes about eight

weeks after they had arrived in Japan, and an explanation meeting was held the next week at

which participants were given a detailed written explanation of the study in both Japanese and

English. Those students who agreed to participate then signed a written consent form, which

was also in both languages. In total, twenty students signed on; this paper reports on the

experiences of two (see the section ‘Participants’ below).

　 All of the participants were asked to keep a daily language diary for one week in mid-

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November 2016, about ten weeks after they had arrived in Japan, detailing where, with whom,

and about what they had spoken in Japanese outside the language classroom that day. They

were also asked to note which of these exchanges was the most useful for their language

learning that day, and which person had helped them the most (see Appendix A). When they

submitted their language diaries at the beginning of the following week, participants completed

a short questionnaire. The language diary and questionnaire data were analyzed by summarizing

each participant’s language use over the week; these language diary entries were then

discussed in an interview in late November in which participants’ social networks were

explored in depth. These interviews took about one to two hours each, and were conducted in

English or Japanese or both, depending upon each participant’s preference. The interviews

were recorded with the permission of the participants and then transcribed. A summary of the

interview was then emailed to each participant so they could check its accuracy; follow-up

questions were also asked at this point.

Participants:

The study abroad literature “has significantly overrepresented the experiences of American

students for whom study abroad does not typically represent a significant investment of time or

effort” (Kinginger, 2013, p. 342). In response, there have been numerous calls for more

detailed, qualitative accounts exploring the experiences of foreign students while they are on

their sojourn abroad, particularly of under-represented groups such as European and Asian

women studying in Japan and in under-researched spaces such as university dormitories. This

study seeks to address these gaps.

　 The two participants are female exchange students, Adriana from Europe and Shinta from

south-east Asia. Both are Japanese majors on their first sojourn in Japan and arrived at the

beginning of the fall semester in early September. Both are staying in dormitories, Adriana in

the university’s dormitory for women (NKK) and Shinta in a company dormitory for both

women and men (OIR). Both students were in level 500 in the fall semester, and are planning

to stay on and move up to level 600 in the spring semester. In total, Both Adriana and Shinta

plan to be in Japan for nine months, from September 2016 to May 2017. In this paper, their

names have been changed, and their real names not used.

Results

　 In this section, we present the data from the language diaries, questionnaires and interviews,

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illustrating where and with whom Adriana and Shinta spoke Japanese outside the classroom

over seven days, which of these were the most useful language learning experiences, and who

helped them the most in speaking Japanese. These results are summarized after each

participant’s data are presented, and discussed in the next section.

Participant 1―Adriana

Adriana is from a small country in eastern Europe. She started learning Japanese two and a half

years ago when she entered university, and is now majoring in Japanese. After graduating from

university, she would like to become a university lecturer of Japanese culture, art, history, or

literature, so she is planning to come back to Japan to study again in the future, hopefully with a

government scholarship. She is quite motivated to speak Japanese outside the classroom - that

is one reason why she came to study in Japan. She was chosen to be the first student to study

at Nanzan University from the Japanese program at her university. She is happy to be here as

she finds the language courses at the CJS to be very good, and she can travel a lot as Nagoya is

close to the Kansai and Kanto regions. Adriana lives in a four-bedroom apartment at NKK just

outside the main gates of Nanzan University. Adriana has three dorm mates in her apartment,

one each from Japan, Germany, and the U.S.

　 Adriana’s Japanese dorm mate, Haruna, is a fourth-year anthropology student. She plays an

important role for Adriana as they talk a lot together in Japanese, particularly about their

common interests, anime and food. “If I don’t feel like I have spoken enough Japanese then

sometimes I’ll just go to the living room and the conversation always happens,” Adriana

explained in her interview. Haruna often helps Adriana with her Japanese; she also helped

Adriana get rid of her fear of speaking in Japanese. Adriana has also become very good friends

with her German dorm mate, Johanna. Although Johanna is in level 400, one level below

Adriana, they have almost the same level of Japanese and they often chat together in Japanese.

“If it’s just like a normal conversation every day then we can do it comfortably in Japanese,” and

in fact it is often easier for them to speak in Japanese than English. However, if the topic is

more difficult then they switch into English. Johanna has more Japanese friends than Adriana,

and Adriana sometimes joins them when they go out.

　 Adriana spends a lot of time with her Japanese and German dorm mates. “I don’t spend that

much time in my [own] room actually because I’m always with either the German girl or

together with the Japanese and German girl in the [living] room.” These three dorm mates

usually speak 90% to 95% in Japanese and the rest in English. Adriana is responsible for

cooking as the other two cannot cook well, but they sometimes help prepare the ingredients.

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When the three come home from school they usually chat together, and the conversations “just

start naturally.” They talk about “all those basic conversation starters” like where they went

that day, how was school, what they are cooking, or why someone woke up so late. They also

often talk about food; “It’s food all the time!”

　 The fourth dorm mate, the American student, does not spend much time with Adriana and

the other two, even though she is also in level 500. Rather, she prefers to spend time with her

group of American friends in the community room, speaking mostly English there.

　 This next section explains where and with whom Adriana spoke Japanese outside the

language classroom each day over the seven days, about ten weeks after she arrived in Japan.

In total, she used Japanese for about 22 hours over the week (see Table 1 for a summary).

Table 1　Japanese use outside the classroom over seven days (minutes) (A: Adriana, S: Shinta)

Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Total

Name A S A S A S A S A S A S A S A S

dorm friends inside dorm

15 60 45 15 60 40 90 30 70 60 60 90 40 60 380 355

dorm friends outside dorm

20 15 120 180 20 120 335 140

dorm admin

120 120

students, teachers at

school5 5 5 31 8 5 49

at Japan Plaza

45 40 40 125

Coffee Hour,

field trips120 5 120 5

at CJS office

3 5 8

shop/café/onsen

2 1 2 5 3 10 4 17 10

part-time job (A)

240 240 480

Indonesia Club (S)

120 120

Total (mins)

262 128 61 65 302 165 95 101 253 78 324 210 40 185 1337 932

Source: Language diaries

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Monday: (total time spent speaking Japanese outside class: 262 mins)

The main opportunity that Adriana had to speak Japanese outside her language class on Monday

was surprisingly at her part-time job, where she teaches English at a small conversation school.

“It is very useful for me because I have to explain words and easy grammar in Japanese. I teach

various groups divided by age and level so I get to listen to various kinds of Japanese. The

hardest ones to teach are the littllest ones (5―6 years old), because they speak very fast

Japanese and their pronunciation is not always clear. The easiest ones to teach with my level of

Japanese are 12―13 year old kids, because they pay attention and the grammar points we are

covering in class are not that difficult to explain ([they are] basic everyday conversation).”

Interestingly, the pupils at her part-time job were also the ones who helped Adriana most to

learn Japanese that day. “They ... explain Japanese vocabulary to me so it is always very fun.”

Here, Adriana used Japanese for four hours on Monday.

　 Back at her dorm, after work Adriana chatted for fifteen minutes with her Japanese and

German dorm mates in Japanese about her part-time job and classes before going to bed. Also,

during the day, Adriana chatted for five minutes with an American male classmate at school who

had decided to speak only in Japanese with everyone he met while in Japan.

Tuesday: (61 mins)

Tuesday’s main Japanese speaking practice for Adriana was at her dorm. For 45 minutes, she

chatted with her Japanese and German dorm mates about choosing clothes for the CJS program

closing ceremony and about food. This was the most useful language learning experience for

Adriana that day “because we were comparing different patterns and colours and it was a good

practice. Also I was explaining ... how to make spaghetti carbonara and it was a good単語復習

[word review].” The most helpful person was her “Japanese dorm mate. She is very patient

and fun and explains new words to me.”

　 During the day, Adriana had lunch with her German dorm mate in the school cafeteria and

with a Chinese friend, and they chatted in Japanese for fifteen minutes about food, class, and

their home countries. “I used grammar we recently learned at class and it made me happy.”

Wednesday: (302 mins)

On Wednesday, Adriana had no classes in the afternoon, so she could have three long

opportunities to use Japanese. Firstly, for two hours after lunch Adriana participated in ‘Coffee

Hour’, an event for Japanese and foreign students to meet and chat together. It is organized by

a circle at Nanzan University that supports the CJS students. Adriana has been to three Coffee

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Hour events. Each time, the CJS students introduce themselves in Japanese to the Japanese

students. “By now I have become good at introducing myself,” she noted wryly. This time,

Adriana also chatted about her own university, home country, games and hobbies.

　 After Coffee Hour, Adriana headed into town to an anime goods shop with her Japanese and

German dorm mates. For two hours, they chatted about anime and the Japanese Emperor. “I

learned many new words,” Adriana commented. Then, in the evening, Adriana spent more

time with her Japanese and German dorm mates at the dorm, chatting for an hour about anime

and food. “I managed to use words that I learned from an app,” she reflected. Rather than

Coffee Hour, hanging out with her dorm mates was Adriana’s most useful language learning

experience that day, as “my Japanese dorm mate always helps me express my thoughts in

simple words.” This dorm mate was also the person who most helped Adriana speak Japanese

this day.

Thursday: (95 mins)

After classes on Thursday, Adriana watched anime at the dorm for one and a half hours with her

Japanese and German dorm mates, chatting about it. This was the most useful language

learning experience that day as her Japanese dorm mate “taught me some interesting

expressions ... [but] Sometimes I had to ask her to explain stuff in simpler words.” Adriana also

had a number of very short service encounters in Japanese in a cafe and a shop.

Friday: (253 mins)

When she was not in class Adriana spent much of Friday with her two dorm mates. In the

morning before school, Adriana chatted for twenty minutes with her Japanese dorm mate about

anime and their plans for the evening. Then, in the afternoon after class, Adriana joined her

Japanese dorm mate and one of her Japanese friends and her German dorm mate to chat and

gossip in a café for three hours about boys and food. This was Adriana’s most useful language

learning experience that day, and the two Japanese women helped her the most. “I was actually

amazed that I could understand a whole casual full speed 会話 [conversation] between two

Japanese. ... it helped me to gain a tiny bit of confidence. It was helpful for me to see the pace

and expressions used.” After their café chat, Adriana chatted with her Japanese and German

dorm mates for twenty minutes on their way home about travelling and friends, happily noting,

“I used grammar that I learned at class recently.” Finally, back at the dorm, Adriana continued

to chat with her Japanese and German dorm mates for another thirty minutes, planning a trip an

onsen the following day.

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Saturday: (324 mins)

Adriana and her German dorm mate went to the onsen on Saturday, and there Adriana had her

most useful Japanese learning opportunity, chatting for twenty minutes with an elderly lady

about the exchange program, food, and differences between countries and customs. “It was the

first time for me to speak with an elderly person for such a long time and it was very nice.”

Adriana understood 90% of what was said. Later that day, Adriana chatted with her Japanese

and German dorm mates for an hour in the evening about part-time jobs and figure skating.

“The use of わけじゃない is becoming more clear,” she wrote. Another useful Japanese

learning opportunity Adriana had this day was the four hours she spent at her part-time job.

Her students again were the ones who most helped her learn Japanese that day “because I

always learn new words while teaching them,” even though “little children speak too fast for

me.” Adriana also used Japanese briefly twice at a convenience store, noting, “I am not sure if I

use the right words for refusing something (e.g. putting things in a plastic bag, point card ...).”

Sunday: (40 mins)

Adriana had a quiet day in the dorm, but chatted with her Japanese and German dorm mates for

forty minutes about anime. “Sometimes my Japanese dorm mate used Internet slang which I

am not familiar with,” she noted. However, this was a useful language learning experience as

she “could practice describing situations happening in the anime and saying my impressions of

them.” The most helpful person of the day was “As always, my Japanese dorm mate.”

Adriana―summary: (1337 mins over 7 days)

Over the week, Adriana used Japanese outside the class for over 22 hours, or about three hours

per day on average. Of those 22 hours, Adriana spoke with her dorm mates for almost twelve

hours, or over half the total time. For five of the seven days, chatting with her dorm mates was

the most useful language learning experience for Adriana. Each time, Haruna, Adriana’s

Japanese dorm mate, was the person who most helped Adriana speak Japanese. The second

longest and second most significant opportunity was at her part-time job (eight hours), where

her young students helped her to learn Japanese. Coffee Hour, an event organized by students

at the university on Wednesday afternoon, was also an important opportunity for Adriana to use

Japanese outside class (for two hours). On the other hand, although service encounters were

numerous but relatively brief they were still useful language learning opportunities.

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Participant 2―Shinta

Shinta is a third-year Japanese major at the University of Indonesia. She began her Japanese

studies in senior high school, and then continued at university. She was selected by her

university to study abroad at Nanzan University. This is her first time in Japan. Before she

arrived, Shinta hoped to use Japanese in her everyday life while at Nanzan University; at her

university in Indonesia, she had only used Japanese in the classroom during class time. Shinta’s

first language is Javanese, her second Indonesian, her third English, and Japanese is her fourth.

When she is speaking with someone in Japanese and cannot think of the word, she tends to

codeswitch into English and then back into Japanese.

　 Shinta was assigned to stay in a small, privately-run dormitory operated by a large

manufacturing company, Ogawa International Residence (OIR) (the name of this dormitory has

been changed), located about 20 minutes from the university. Shinta feels that it is a wonderful

place to live. There are no Japanese students living there; rather, all nine of the residents are

foreign students studying at public or private universities in Nagoya. Including Shinta, there

are two students each from Indonesia, Brazil, and China and one each from Taiwan, Hong Kong,

and South Korea. Altogether, there are five women and four men. Foreign students can stay at

OIR for free; however, they are expected to participate in Ogawa company events such as

dinners, company tours of factories, the company marathon, and dormitory cleaning.

　 Unlike the apartment design of YKK where Adriana stays, OIR has an open design; all of the

students stay in their own single rooms, with men on the first floor and women on the second,

with a shared kitchen and living room on the first floor, the communal heart of OIR. Shinta

tends to spends most of her time in her own room, except when she is using the kitchen.

There, she often hangs out with the Brazilian students and sometimes cooks with the Chinese

students. At times, all nine of the students are there at the same time, particularly when they

are cooking or eating together, cleaning the apartment, or assembling to attend company events

together.

　 Although there are only foreign students staying at OIR, they try to speak only in Japanese

with each other, as they all want to improve their language skills. In her interview, Shinta

noted, “できるだけ、日本語で話します” (“As much as possible, we speak in Japanese”). The

only person she tends not to speak in Japanese with is the other Indonesian student (a male

student from Bali) as he prefers to speak in Indonesian with Shinta. At the beginning of the

semester when everyone first arrived they could not speak Japanese well, but slowly the nine

students are all becoming more proficient.

　 This next section explains where and with whom Shinta used Japanese outside the language

13


classroom each day over seven days, about ten weeks after she arrived in Japan. In total, she

used Japanese for about 16 hours over the week (see Table 1 for a summary).

Monday: (total time spent speaking Japanese outside class: 128 mins)

At university on Monday, Shinta spent 45 minutes in the Japan Plaza. Here, she did her

homework, introducing a recipe from her home country in Japanese. At the Japan Plaza, Shinta

first chatted with a teaching assistant (TA) from Indonesia for thirty minutes to prepare the

basic script. Although they were both from Indonesia, they spoke 90% in Japanese; the other

10% was Indonesian food and food preparation terms that they needed to translate. Then, for

fifteen minutes a Japanese student in the Japan Plaza checked the grammar in Shinta’s recipe.

This student was the most helpful person for Shinta on Monday.

　 Later that afternoon on their way home from school, Shinta chatted with a Chinese dorm

mate for twenty minutes about homework, tests, schedules, and friends, as they often do. Back

at the dorm in the evening, Shinta spoke for an hour with a Japanese cooking teacher as they

ate dinner together, understanding 80% of what was said in Japanese. This was the most useful

language learning experience for Shinta that day, as she could “learn how to make Japanese

food, the name of ingredients, and make me understand the word that I should use when I’ll talk

about Japanese food in another chance.” At the end of the day, Shinta wrote, “I’m getting better

to use the right grammar when I talk with another person.”

Tuesday: (65 mins)

On Tuesday morning before class began, Shinta chatted in Japanese for fifteen minutes with a

Japanese class volunteer and a classmate about her trip the previous weekend. Later, Shinta

went to the Japan Plaza for forty minutes. Here, she practiced her recipe presentation with two

Japanese students and then chatted about their friends. This was the most useful language

learning experience for Shinta this day, as she learned how to use cooking vocabulary correctly.

In the evening, Shinta chatted with two Chinese dorm mates over dinner for fifteen minutes

about dinner and dorm events. They spoke 95% in Japanese, and 5% in English. Her dormitory

friends helped Shinta the most to speak Japanese this day, as “they always have interesting

topics to talk with me, especially about Japan.” At the end of the day, Shinta noted, “I got more

brave to talk with another person in Japanese.”

Wednesday: (165 mins)

On Wednesday, Shinta began her day chatting for ten minutes with a Brazilian dorm mate in

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Japanese at breakfast about food and an upcoming tour. At school in the classroom, she chatted

for five minutes with the Japanese teacher about class and Japanese bottles. Then, after classes

in the afternoon were two one-hour seminars by the fire and police departments in Japanese for

the dorm residents. Shinta understood most of these seminars. For Shinta that day, the police

department seminar was the most useful language learning experience, as she learned

vocabulary to use in urgent situations in daily life. Also, the policeman asked Shinta to

volunteer to practice enacting the situation when there is a criminal and they need to contact

the police department for assistance. “I got more information and words to use.” Later that

day in the evening, Shinta chatted to a Korean dorm mate for thirty minutes about food and

their schedule the next day as they cooked and ate dinner together.

Thursday: (101 mins)

Shinta went to the Japan Plaza for forty minutes on Thursday to prepare for her presentation

that afternoon. She also chatted about graduation and class with a Japanese TA and a Japanese

student. This was the most useful language learning experience for Shinta that day, and these

two Japanese people were the most helpful as they corrected the grammar in her presentation.

Shinta also had many chances to chat in Japanese throughout the day at school. For example,

she chatted to a Japanese student on the way to class for a few minutes. Later, in the classroom,

Shinta chatted to some foreign students from France and India about their class for a few

minutes, and then also chatted to the Japanese teacher for ten minutes about her presentation

and test. Shinta also chatted to two Japanese students studying Indonesian about her

presentation that day, mostly in Japanese. Shinta finished her day chatting to a Chinese dorm

mate for thirty minutes about their day, classes and friends as they cooked dinner together.

Friday: (78 mins)

The main opportunity Shinta had to use Japanese on Friday was at the dorm, chatting for an

hour with a Brazilian dorm mate about education and travel in Japan as they ate dinner together.

Shinta wrote that “we enjoyed to talk and comfort to speak Japanese with him. ... He always

use easy word when he talked so it easily to understand. ... I learned about many tourist’s place

especially in Nagoya.” Chatting over dinner was the most useful learning experience for Shinta

that day, and her Brazilian dorm mate was the most helpful person.

　 Also, earlier in the day, Shinta chatted for ten minutes to a man selling kimonos at Osu

Kannon about places in Indonesia after he asked her about her nationality. She also chatted to

her Japanese teacher on the way to class for a few minutes, and then to a classmate in the

15


classroom before the class began.

Saturday: (210 mins)

On Saturday morning, Shinta spent two hours at the Indonesian Club chatting with the

Indonesian teacher there (who is Japanese), his Thai wife and two Japanese students about

Indonesian culture, history and ghosts. They spoke 90% in Japanese. This was Shinta’s most

useful language learning that day, as she “learned what word that I should use to translate

Indonesia’s language to Japanese. ... He revised my wrong grammar that I translated from

Indonesia’s language to Japanese. ... I realized I must develop my ability of Japanese and

Indonesia’s language.”

　 As they ate lunch together, Shinta chatted for an hour with her Brazilian dorm mate. Later,

with two dorm mates, one Brazilian and the other Indonesian, Shinta chatted about meeting the

Indonesian teacher. Then, she spoke only 80% Japanese, as she spoke some Indonesian with

the other student from her home country.

Sunday: (185 mins)

With her two dorm mates from Indonesia and Brazil, Shinta joined a field trip to Shirotori Teien,

a famous landscaped park in Nagoya. There, the three dorm mates chatted for two hours about

the park, photos, and food. This was Shinta’s most useful language learning experience that

day, as her dorm mates knew a lot about Japan and Shinta enjoyed talking with them. At the

park, a Japanese man also talked with Shinta for five minutes about the park and the water

system there. Sunday was also cleaning day at the dorm. Shinta chatted for an hour with her

Chinese, Brazilian and Indonesian dorm mates as they cleaned, about cleaning, sewing and

cakes.

　 Shinta’s comment at the end of Sunday, and the end of her week, was “I felt more comfort to

speak Japanese than English.”

Shinta―summary: (932 mins over 7 days)

Over the seven days, Shinta spoke Japanese outside the class for almost 16 hours, or about two

hours per day on average (see Table 1). Of those 16 hours, Shinta spoke with her dorm mates

for over eight hours, or more than half her total time. Additionally, for two of the seven days,

chatting with her dorm mates was the most useful language learning experience for Shinta, and

her dorm mates were her most useful interlocutors. For two more of the seven days, dorm-

related events were the most useful language learning experience - dinner with the Indonesian

16


teacher on Monday evening and the police department seminar on Wednesday afternoon. For

Shinta, the second longest and second most significant opportunity to use Japanese was at the

Japan Plaza on Tuesday and Thursday (about two hours in total), where the TAs and Japanese

students helped correct her Japanese grammar. The third most important opportunity was at

the Indonesia Club on Saturday morning (two hours). Interactions at school in the CJS Office

and in the classroom before and after class with her Japanese teachers and classmates also

provided almost an hour of speaking practice over the seven days.

Discussion

　 After only about ten weeks in Japan, Adriana and Shinta had both found ways to speak

Japanese for a significant period of time each week outside their language classes. However,

they had created two quite different types of social networks. Adriana had developed a small,

deep and intense social network whereas Shinta’s network was larger, more dispersed, and less

intense. Moreover, in both cases they spent considerable time speaking Japanese with other

foreign exchange students, who were important members of their social networks.

Adriana: a small, intense, and concentrated social network

After ten weeks in Japan, Adriana’s main target language social network outside the Japanese

language classroom was small, comprising of two of the dorm mates sharing her four-bedroom

apartment. It was also intense; Adriana spent a lot of time with them. Of the 22 hours Adriana

used Japanese outside the language classroom, she spoke with her dorm mates for almost

twelve hours, or over half the total time. Moreover, the three dorm mates were always

together; Adriana did not spend time only with one or the other that week. Finally, Adriana’s

social network was not dispersed but concentrated on this primary social network. Looking at

the data makes that clear. Adriana had two other main opportunities to use Japanese over the

seven days; at her part-time job (eight hours) and at Coffee Hour (two hours). At her part-time

job, she was a teacher and spoke mostly to her students, with whom she had not a social

relationship but a work relationship. At Coffee Hour, the students Adriana met just happened to

be there, and she did not make plans to meet them again. So, Adriana’s social network can be

characterized as being small, intense, and concentrated, and it provided her with about three

hours of Japanese language practice a day, both inside and outside the dormitory.

　 The narrow and intense nature of Adriana’s social network can also be illustrated by the

types of support the members provided each other. The primary support was linguistic, as

17


hanging out with Haruna and Johanna provided many opportunities for Adriana to speak in

Japanese. The most helpful person was “[a]s always, my Japanese roommate,” Haruna.

Johanna and Adriana also provided significant linguistic support to each other, because as

Adriana was in a higher-level Japanese class she could help Johanna with her grammar, and as

Johanna picked up new words more easily she could help Adriana with her Japanese vocabulary.

　 Adriana’s dorm mates also helped develop Adriana’s cultural knowledge, as they often talked

about topics like anime and travelling in Japan, and practical issues such as what clothes to wear

to the closing ceremony and how to prepare Japanese food. These three dorm mates also

provided emotional support for each other almost every evening, reflecting about what had

happened that day in classes and at Adriana’s part-time job and preparing and eating dinner

together. Finally, they also provided social support to each other, inviting one another out to

meet each other’s friends. For example, Haruna invited both Adriana and Johanna to the café

on Friday to chat with her Japanese friend; Adriana and Johanna went to the onsen together on

Saturday; and the week before Johanna had invited Adriana to a barbeque party at her Japanese

friend’s house on Sunday. One form of support that was not apparent was practical academic

support, such as providing notes for missed classes and sharing study notes for tests, because

these three dorm mates were not taking classes together that semester.

　 By the tenth week of her sojourn abroad, Adriana had not joined a host national social

network. Rather, her case represents a clear example of a short-term exchange student in

Japan creating her own target language social network in a dormitory, one that incorporated

both Japanese and other foreign exchange students. This network can be characterized as

being relatively small (three main members) with close and intense personal relationships, that

facilitated daily, long, deep conversations across a variety of topics. This is consistent with the

social network that one might expect to find in a close-knit apartment in a dormitory.

Shinta: a larger and more dispersed, less intense social network

As with Adriana, dorm mates were the most important social network for Shinta to speak

Japanese outside the classroom, as they hung out together both inside and outside the

dormitory. However, Shinta’s social network was different from Adriana’s in three important

ways - it was larger, it was more dispersed, and it did not have the same intensity of personal

relationships.

　 How was it larger and more dispersed? At the dormitory, Shinta hung out with almost all of

her other eight dorm mates rather than just with two. Outside the dormitory, Shinta spent

more time than Adriana at school chatting to her Japanese teachers and a variety of other

18


students before and after class, including Japanese students studying Indonesian. At the Japan

Plaza, she sought the assistance of the Indonesian TA and also Japanese students there. She

also went to the Indonesia Club on Sunday morning and talked with the Indonesian teacher

there. So, Shinta sought to use Japanese with a much larger and more dispersed group than

Adriana. How was Shinta’s social network less intense? Shinta shared her time with more

people from the dorm than Adriana, so spent less time with each person. Whereas Adriana

spent all of her time with both of her dorm mates together, Shinta did not, spending the most

time with a Brazilian dorm mate (220 mins), a Chinese dorm mate (105 mins), her Indonesian

dorm mate (90 mins), and her Korean dorm mate (30 mins). So, Shinta’s social network after

about ten weeks in Japan could be characterised as larger, more dispersed, and less intense than

Adriana’s.

　 This more open and dispersed social network was also characterized by different patterns of

support. Shinta sought and found assistance for her Japanese language development from a

wider array of people. Shinta’s dorm mates provided a chance to practice listening to and

speaking Japanese, and she found that very helpful. However, it was at the Japan Plaza that she

had her Japanese checked and corrected, and it was the Japanese teacher of Indonesian in the

Indonesia Club who aided her with her translations to and from Indonesian; both of these

opportunities were also very helpful for Shinta.

　 Shinta’s cultural knowledge of Japan also came from a broader group. Again, her dorm mates

were her primary source, particularly her Brazilian dorm mates who knew more about Japan,

but Shinta also learned about Japan from her cooking teacher, her Japanese teachers, and other

students. Another form of support study abroad social networks often provide is practical

academic support, such as providing notes for missed classes and sharing study notes for tests

(Montgomery & McDowell, 2009), and helping each other prepare for presentations. More than

her dorm mates, Shinta sought this support from her teachers, other students in her classes,

and the TAs and students in the Japan Plaza.

　 Shinta’s dorm mates were a valuable source of emotional support in Japan. Almost every

evening, Shinta and her dorm mates chatted with each other as they cooked and ate dinner

together, about how their day had gone, their classes and friends, and their plans for the days

ahead. This support was important for Shinta. However, Shinta reported that she also chatted

almost every day with her boyfriend back in Indonesia, and conferred with him if she was facing

a problem. It could be that Shinta still sought the emotional support of her social network in

her home country partly because she had less intense personal relationships in Japan.

　 Although Shinta’s dorm mates were her primary social network, she also sought to create

19


her own opportunities outside that network to use Japanese. For example, she went to the

Japan Plaza and the Indonesia Club on her own initiative, and at school chatted with a variety of

different students and teachers. Conversely, Adriana sought opportunities to use Japanese by

meeting people through her dorm mates’ social networks. In other words, Adriana sought the

social support of her primary social network to find occasions to use Japanese, but Shinta

tended to do so more independently.

　 Like Adriana, by the tenth week of her sojourn abroad, Shinta’s main social network

consisted of her dorm mates. However, she also belonged to two other social networks, the

Japan Plaza and the Indonesia Club, that could potentially offer her continued access to language

learning opportunities in the future. Compared to Adriana, Shinta’s case offers an example of a

larger, more dispersed social network with less intense personal relationships. The differences

in Adriana’s and Shinta’s social networks probably reflect two factors: firstly, their own

personalities and the personalities of their primary social networks; and secondly, to some

degree the different architectural design of their dormitories. One wonders what type of social

network Adriana would have developed if she was living in a dormitory with an open design,

and Shinta if she was living in a dormitory in an apartment with close-knit friendships like

Adriana’s.

Foreign student-centered social networks

What is particularly significant about both participants is that much of their target language use

over the seven days was with other non-native speakers of Japanese. In fact, Shinta spent

almost 9 hours (531 mins) or about 57% of her practice time speaking only with non-native

speakers of Japanese from Brazil, China, Indonesia, Korea, and Vietnam. On the other hand,

Adriana spent most of her time with both Johanna and Haruna that week, but this still

represented exactly 12 hours (720 mins), or about half her time.

　 Moreover, in their interviews, both participants made clear that they valued opportunities to

speak to other foreign exchange students, and saw these opportunities as useful. In Shinta’s

case, even though they could all speak English, the nine foreign students living together at OIR

shared a strong commitment to create a Japanese-only language learning community, despite

the fact that there were no Japanese host nationals living or working there. As Shinta noted,

“As much as possible, we speak in Japanese.” This is consistent with research in other study

abroad contexts that has found that international students form a strong international

community that supports their learning and provides them with a supportive learning

environment (Montgomery & McDowell, 2009). “When international students arrive in a new

20


place they begin to build their social networks, they often do this by making friends with other

international students, others who may feel lost and looking for new friends. Furthermore,

unlike co-nationals, multi-national friends present the possibility for language acquisition to

occur” (Hendrickson, 2016, p. 53). This is particularly the case when access to host national

social networks is limited. “[T]o an extent students were able to compensate for the dearth of

host contact by forming ties with fellow international students. It seems that a lack of contact

with the ... host community resulted in greater attachment to the community of international

students, and participants seemed able to lead a fulfilling social life largely independent of the

host community” (Schartner, 2015). These findings suggest that we should reject the deficit

model that assumes that speaking with host nationals is naturally better, and speaking with

other foreign students is not.

　National identities　

These two cases are significant because the participants are from regions and countries that

have been underrepresented in the study abroad literature, particularly in research on short-

term study abroad exchange programs in Japan. So, what impact did their national identities

have on their social networks?

　 Perhaps more than the region that Adriana and Shinta came from, it was the popularity of

their languages in Japan that seemed to be significant in shaping their social networks and

opportunities to use Japanese. Adriana comes from a small eastern European country, and few

people in Japan study Adriana’s country’s language. On the other hand, Shinta is from a large

southeast Asian country and many Japanese people study her national language. This difference

was reflected in the social networks that each woman developed. Adriana’s first language

identity did not shape her social network except to the extent that she shared a common

European identity with Johanna, her German dorm mate, and the two sometimes compared

their languages. By contrast, Shinta more strongly embraced her identity as Indonesian at this

point in her study abroad sojourn, and this was reflected in her broader social network and

opportunities to speak Japanese. For example, Shinta sought out the Indonesian TA working at

the Japan Plaza, went to the Indonesia Club, and chatted to Japanese students studying

Indonesian.

　 Although Adriana and Shinta’s national identities shaped their social networks in different

ways, they both used their language identities strategically to create opportunities to use and

learn Japanese. For example, even when Shinta was talking about Indonesia and Indonesian

culture, she mostly spoke in Japanese and used these opportunities to improve her Japanese.

21


In the Japan Plaza with the TA and at the Indonesia Club with the Indonesian teacher, Shinta

learned how to translate terms from Indonesian to Japanese, and had her Japanese grammar

corrected. On the other hand, Adriana used her English language proficiency to get a part-time

job teaching English, and then discovered that translating words and sentences into Japanese

and explaining basic English grammar in simple Japanese were very helpful to improve her

Japanese. In that sense, both Adriana and Shinta used their language identities actively and

strategically to create opportunities to practice and improve their Japanese.

Implications and Conclusion

　 These two cases illustrate the possibility for short-term exchange students to create

effective social networks in which they can use the target language outside the classroom for

extended periods of time, even after only ten weeks into a program.

　 However, it must be acknowledged that not all foreign students have the ability to create

effective social networks. Some are shy, some lack social networking skills, and some do not

have the experience or ability to make friends relatively quickly across different cultures,

particularly in a new, possibly very different context such as a short-term study abroad program.

To help all students, but these students in particular, their home university before their

departure could offer workshops illustrating how to create social networks on their sojourn

abroad. Host institutions could also facilitate the creation and maintenance of social networks,

through providing opportunities for students to meet and talk in the target language outside the

language classroom. However, target language social networks cannot be expected to naturally

develop just due to students being in proximity to each other. Rather, host institutions should

consider language pledges to only speak the target language (Trentman, 2013), dormitory

design, dormitory language policies, target-language-only spaces in the dorms and at school,

and language circles. Moreover, exchange students themselves should recognize their own

responsibility for building and maintaining their social networks.

　 Given the important role that social networks play in providing target language practice

opportunities for exchange students and in improving their target language proficiency

(Goldoni, 2013), individual conceptions of the study abroad experience could be augmented with

more social conceptions, both in the way that study abroad programs are administered, and also

in the research agenda exploring the experiences of exchange students and the effectiveness of

the programs they enroll in. This might help these students develop better social networks.

　 We do not claim that these two cases are representative of the experiences of other

22


exchange students on short-term study abroad programs in Japan. Rather, these two cases are

exploratory, illustrating the possible social networks that foreign exchange students can create

in their first semester in Japan. Further qualitative studies of international dormitories would

help paint a more detailed picture of the social networks there and how the target language is

used there. In particular, recordings of exchange and Japanese students talking in international

dormitories would provide a better understanding of how target language proficiency develops

there, especially if they could be compared with recordings of exchange students and host

families chatting in homestays. Investigating other under-researched sites such as the Japan

Plaza and little explored social networks such as in religious groups might also help develop a

better understanding of how short-term exchange students create opportunities to speak

Japanese outside the classroom. The findings from such research would help program

administrators and teachers create more effective study abroad programs, facilitating the target

language acquisition of students.

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank our two participants for carefully keeping their language diary for seven

days, and for sharing thoughtful comments and reflections in their interviews.

References

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24


　日付（

day

& d

ate）：

日本語レベル（

your

Japa

nese

leve

l）：

母語（

your

L1）：

名前（

nam

e）：

(p1)

#

How

long

di

d yo

u sp

eak

Japa

nese

?

Whe

re d

id

you

spea

k Ja

pane

se?

Wit

h w

hom

did

yo

u sp

eak

Japa

nese

?

Wha

t to

pics

did

you

ta

lk a

bout

?

Wha

t %

of

the

conv

ersa

tion

di

d yo

u sp

eak

for?

Whe

n yo

u sp

oke,

wha

t %

Ja

pane

se d

id

you

use?

Wha

t w

as t

he

othe

r pe

rson

’ s

L1?

Whe

n he

/she

sp

oke,

w

hat

%

Japa

nese

did

he

/she

use

?

Wha

t %

of t

he

othe

r pe

rson

’ s

Japa

nese

did

yo

u un

ders

tand

?

Ref

lect

ions

, Com

men

ts

#

どのぐらい

の時間日本

語を話しま

したか。

どこで話し

ましたか。誰と話しました

か。

どんなトピックにつ

いて話しましたか。

あなたは何％

ぐらい話しま

したか。

あなたは何％

ぐらい日本語

を使いました

か。

相手の

L1（母

語）は何

ですか。

相手は何％ぐ

らい日本語を

使いましたか。

あなたは相手

の日本語が

何％ぐらい分

かりましたか。

感想、コメント

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Appendix A: Language Diary

25


　日付（

day

& d

ate）：

名前（

nam

e）：

(p2)

#

How

long

di

d yo

u sp

eak

Japa

nese

?

Whe

re d

id

you

spea

k Ja

pane

se?

Wit

h w

hom

did

yo

u sp

eak

Japa

nese

?

Wha

t to

pics

did

you

ta

lk a

bout

?

Wha

t %

of

the

conv

ersa

tion

di

d yo

u sp

eak

for?

Whe

n yo

u sp

oke,

wha

t %

Ja

pane

se d

id

you

use?

Wha

t w

as t

he

othe

r pe

rson

’ s

L1?

Whe

n he

/she

sp

oke,

w

hat

%

Japa

nese

did

he

/she

use

?

Wha

t %

of t

he

othe

r pe

rson

’ s

Japa

nese

did

yo

u un

ders

tand

?

Ref

lect

ions

, Com

men

ts

#

どのぐらい

の時間日本

語を話しま

したか。

どこで話し

ましたか。誰と話しました

か。

どんなトピックにつ

いて話しましたか。

あなたは何％

ぐらい話しま

したか。

あなたは何％

ぐらい日本語

を使いました

か。

相手の

L1（母

語）は何

ですか。

相手は何％ぐ

らい日本語を

使いましたか。

あなたは相手

の日本語が

何％ぐらい分

かりましたか。

感想、コメント

11 12 1. a

) For

you

toda

y, w

hich

of t

he a

bove

was

the

mos

t use

ful l

angu

age

lear

ning

exp

erie

nces

(i.e

. hel

ped

you

to le

arn

to s

peak

Japa

nese

mor

e or

bet

ter)

? #

____

　b)

Why

was

it s

uch

a us

eful

lang

uage

lear

ning

exp

erie

nce?

2. O

f the

peo

ple

that

you

spo

ke w

ith to

day,

who

hel

ped

you

the

mos

t to

spea

k Ja

pane

se?

How

did

they

hel

p yo

u?

3. S

omet

imes

we

have

to

use

Japa

nese

out

side

the

cla

ssro

om (

e.g.

to

orde

r lu

nch

at t

he c

afet

eria

); s

omet

imes

we

use

Japa

nese

by

chan

ce (

e.g.

whe

n yo

u ha

ppen

to

mee

t a

Japa

nese

fr

iend

at t

he c

afet

eria

and

dec

ide

to h

ave

lunc

h to

geth

er).

How

ever

, som

etim

es w

e pu

rpos

eful

ly s

eek

out o

r pl

an o

ppor

tuni

ties

to u

se J

apan

ese

outs

ide

the

clas

sroo

m (e

.g. w

hen

you

arra

nge

to m

eet

a Ja

pane

se f

rien

d or

ano

ther

for

eign

stu

dent

to

prac

tice

spe

akin

g Ja

pane

se,

or w

hen

you

go t

o th

e Ja

pan

Pla

za).

Tod

ay,

did

you

purp

osef

ully

see

k ou

t or

pla

n op

port

uniti

es to

use

Japa

nese

out

side

the

clas

sroo

m?

If y

ou d

id, p

leas

e ci

rcle

the

# w

hen

you

did

so in

the

# c

olum

n.

4. If

you

wou

ld li

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「短期留学中の寮生活における目標言語によるソーシャルネットワーク形成」

ロバートクロッカー・町田奈々子

要　　旨

　語学研修を主目的とした短期留学プログラムに参加している学習者は、目標言語を使用する機会をできるだけ得ようと努力するが、既存のソーシャルネットワークに入っていくことは決して易しくない。本稿は、日本の私立大学において日本語を学習している東ヨーロッパ及び東南アジアの女子学生が寮においてどのように目標言語によるソーシャルネットワークを形成しているかを報告したケーススタディーである。二人は7日間にわたり詳細な言語活動を記録し、さらに質問紙に回答し、インタビューを受けた。調査結果によると、二人の主たる対話対象は日本人学生だけでなく、同じ寮に住む非目標言語話者である。両学生ともそれぞれの寮において目標言語によるソーシャルネットワークを形成しており、そのネットワークによって、目標言語の上達が促進されているだけでなく、重要な文化的、精神的、社会的支援を受けていることがインタビューにより明らかになった。今、海外に滞在している学習者の体験を調査した、より多くの詳細な質的研究が求められている。本稿は、寮に滞在しながら日本語を学習しているアジア及びヨーロッパの女子学生の体験というまだ研究の多くない状況を分析することによって、その要請に応えるものである。

キーワード：日本、留学、言語使用、ソーシャルネットワーク、投資

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