An intergroup approach to second language acquisition

Abstract In this paper, we shall outline a recent social psychological approach to language and ethnicity which attends to the issue: who in an ethnic group uses what language variety, when and why? More specifically, it allows us to understand the processes underlying group members’ desires to attenuate and even create their own distinctive ethnolinguistic varieties (Giles, Bourhis & Taylor, 1977; Giles & Johnson, 1981). It is suggested that this framework is likely to advance our knowledge of factors influencing successful acquisition of a second language. Two current social psychological models of second language acquisition in inter‐ethnic contexts (Gardner, 1979; Clement, 1980a; 1980b) are then compared and evaluated critically. Whilst these models exhibit significant theoretical advances in the area, it is argued that they nonetheless possess certain deficiencies. Prime amongst these concerns is their failure to take into account explicitly processes (such as ethnic identification) which are accorded significance in current intergroup theory (Tajfel, 1974, 1978a; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and formal status in our own approach to language and ethnicity introduced at the outset of this paper. Finally, an attempt is made to integrate the latter with important aspects of Gardner's and Clement's models culminating in a set of propositions concerned with specifying the social psychological conditions which facilitate or inhibit members of a subordinate ethnic group achieving near native‐like proficiency in the language of a dominant ethnic collectivity.