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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at transdisciplinary approaches to analyzing second language acquisition (SLA) which prioritize multilingualism and social aspects of language acquisition. The author discusses the article "SLA and the Study of Equitable Multilingualism" by Lourdes Ortega, in the current issue. Topics include the relationship between language, social action, and meaning.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of the social dimensions of second language acquisition, there has been little research on second language (L2) use and learning in the social networks of foreign language learners. This study examines the language use of a student of Japanese in Australia in two informal conversations he had with native speakers of Japanese who were part of his social network. Utilising activity theory and a conversation analytic approach to language alternation, the analysis reveals that it is not always easy for this learner to create opportunities to use Japanese due to diverse social factors. One of the major factors is a contradiction that emerges between the socialising activity and the language learning activity in which this learner and his Japanese friends are engaged in their conversations. However, this study demonstrates that the same learner sometimes succeeds in gaining access to exposure to L2 as a speaker as well as a listener and, as a consequence, access to L2 learning opportunities. This access seems to be enabled by, amongst other things, an indication of his own strong preference for L2 and his proactive move to introduce appropriate subtopics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a series of naturally-occurring phone calls between a young child and his grandmother in the child's second language. During these calls, the child's second language production first appears to increase in complexity, but is subsequently abandoned. It is argued that while the acquisition of the second language can be viewed as a product of expert-novice interaction, the subsequent abandonment of the second language can be understood only by examining its role in the larger socio-cultural activity in which the L2 is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]