“Sorry, I don’t speak any English”: An Activity-Theoretic Account of Language Choice in Study Abroad in South Korea

The study abroad literature often assumes that the target language is spoken monolingually when learners interact with the local native-speaker community, whereas the native language is employed to communicate with other exchange students or foreign friends. Interactions with the local community are thus viewed positively as opportunities to develop language competence, whereas interacting with other foreigners is per-ceived negatively (Tullock & Ortega, 2017: 16). To take one example, Isabelli-García’s (2006) study of Spanish learners in Argentina describes how learners who were succesful in establishing social networks with Argentines made greater linguistic gains, whereas those who maintained more social networks with American friends were less successful. The extent to which the learners established social networks with Argentines was found to be associated with higher motivation and more positive atti-tudes toward the target language culture. Throughout the study, terms such as ‘social networks with Argentines’ and ‘Spanish social networks’ are used interchangeably, thus directly equating interacting with Argentines with speaking Spanish. My point here is not to question the validity of the findings of this particular study. Rather, I wish to highlight two simplistic assumptions. The first is that the choice of using the target language versus the native language is directly conditioned by the identity of the interlocutor: the target language is used with ‘locals’ and the native language with ‘foreign friends’. The second is that native language usage is symptomatic of a lack of integrative motivation.