Session 7E

Speaking involves making claims and judgements about things, conveying feelings and attitudes, and sometimes indicating how access to the information was gained. Speaker's stance (Biber 2006) is expressed by means of a variety of markers, such as modal verbs or verbs of cognition. It is often viewed as related to speaker style and identity (Bucholtz & Hall 2005;Baumgarten & House 2010) insofar as stance markers allow the speaker to express their level of confidence towards the propositional content. For L2 speakers, who are developing their own L2 style (Grieve 2015; Compiegne 2020), expressing stance is a key communicative competence. However, many stance markers are polyfunctional, and learners face the challenge of learning the relevant form-function mappings in a variety of contexts. Study abroad appears to provide a favorable context for such development of the pragmalinguistic competence (Pérez Vidal and Shively 2019; Howard 2021, Author 2021) while fostering autonomy and self-efficacy (Benson et al. 2012, Papatsiba 2005, Grieve 2015, Compiegne 2020).
In this paper, we focus on the use of frequent cognition verbs ('I think', 'I guess', 'I believe'/ je pense, je trouve, j'imagine), which take various discursive functions, including expressing inference, asserting an opinion, hedging, or pragmatic/organizational functions (such as signaling the beginning of a speaking turn, or aligning with the interlocutor) (Kärkkäinen 2003, Mullan 2012). We seek to find out (1) how L2 learners' use of such stance markers evolves over the course of a prolonged study abroad period and (2) whether a link can be established between such evolution and the development of an assertive style.
We use semi-guided interview data from two longitudinal projects. In the first project, five French learners of English were interviewed before (Time1), during (Time2, Time 3 and Time 4) and after (Time 5) their nine-month stay-abroad on a British or Irish campus. The interviews (12h in total) were filmed and transcribed with CLAN. Two learners had a lower intermediate, and three an advanced level in L2 English prior to departure. For the second project we used interview data from the LANGSNAP database. 26 anglophone learners of French who spent nine months in France were interviewed pre-departure and after their stay-abroad. We coded for the stance marker's discursive functions (including evidential uses, opinion, hedging and pragmatic uses).
Our analyses show that learners develop pragmatic uses of the stance markers over the nine-month stay abroad, which suggests the development of communicational strategies and improved discourse organization. In spite of large individual variations, learners globally remain influenced by the pragmalinguistic patterns of their L1 (for example, Anglophone learners of French favour less assertive values such as hedging). Finally, we show that stance-marking is also a question of style, with two profiles of users (moderate vs intensive) for the stance markers under consideration, who may develop a more assertive style after a few months abroad.

Cognitive (e.g., usage-based; Ellis, 2009) and socio-cultural (e.g., van Lier, 2006) SLA theories identify quantity and quality of target language exposure and use (TLEU) as central driving forces behind language acquisition. Yet, mainstream SLA research commonly includes only broad-strokes measures of TLEU, such as global estimates (e.g., 'length of exposure') or one-off summative recall questionnaires administered, for example, at the end of a Study Abroad period. Qualitative aspects such as the context in which language is used, with whom, etc. are often overlooked (cf. Briggs Baffoe-Djan and Zhou, 2020). Hence, Ortega (2018) called for research to investigate the "black box of experience of language", which in turn requires methodological advancements.
The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) offers an alternative approach used in many disciplines, including medicine and psychology. Therein, research participants report their experiences several times per day, following fixed or random sampling schedules. Applied to SLA research, the ESM can yield exceptionally rich data on various aspects of TLEU (Arndt, Granfeldt and Gullberg, 2021). To aid SLA researchers in implementing this approach, we have developed the LANG-TRACK-APP, a smartphone application for signalling participants and collecting survey responses. 
Drawing on a recent study of TLEU during Study Abroad, we show how the LANG-TRACK-APP can be used to implement the ESM in SLA research. The participants were 25 international students in Sweden and 19 Swedish Erasmus exchange students. They were surveyed via the LANG-TRACK-APP several times per day during three week-long periods, spread across three months. They reported the activities in which they had engaged immediately prior to receiving each survey and for how long; who, if anyone, they were with; and whether and how they had been using various languages.
Our findings illustrate how the nested ESM data structure (i.e., multiple responses per participant per day) enables researchers to conduct a wide range of analyses beyond what is possible with other methods. For example, individual survey responses can be used to explore day-to-day within-participants changes in subjective experiences of TLEU. Moreover, aggregating responses within individuals can reveal patterns in TLEU over time and their co-evolution with other variables, e.g., language proficiency, willingness to communicate, and L2 anxiety.


Arndt HL, Granfeldt, J and Gullberg M (2021) Reviewing the potential of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) for capturing second language exposure and use. Second Language Research, 1–20.
Briggs Baffoe-Djan JG and Zhou S (2020) Close encounters of the third kind: Quantity, type and quality of language contact during study abroad. In Howard M: Study abroad and the second language learner: Expectations, experiences and development. Bloomsbury, 69–89.
Ellis N (2009) Optimizing the input: Frequency and sampling in usage-based and form-focused learning. In Long MH and Doughty C: The handbook of language teaching. Wiley-Blackwell, 139–­158.
Ortega L (2018) SLA in uncertain times: Disciplinary constraints, transdisciplinary hopes. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 33(1), 1.
Van Lier L (2006) The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Springer Science & Business Media.