The role of social and social-psychological factors in L2 writing and speaking: the case of immigrants in the Netherlands

It is well-known that adults vary to an important extent with regard to L2 learning outcomes. One apparent reason is the degree of exposure to the target language. Furthermore, it has been suggested that adult learning is more affected by social and psychological variables than in younger learners. This could be expected to be more salient in a context of migration, where individuals are highly affected by individual driving forces, opportunities, and social circumstances. Some recent studies have indeed shown that such factors can explain the variation in certain linguistic subcomponents of adult L2 learning, but studies on general measures of specific L2 competences are still quite scarce. The present study investigated the impact of social and social-psychological variables on a general measure of L2 writing in the Netherlands. Participants (n = 44) were intermediate, educated learners of Dutch with mainly a non-European background. They completed a writing task designed for the Dutch national civic integration exam, as well as a questionnaire targeting social and social-psychological factors. A multiple regression analysis of the writing task showed that social and social-psychological background is not associated with overall writing proficiency in L2 Dutch. Instead, the results seem to suggest that these factors are indirectly associated with L2 exposure. The degree of L2 use was found to be affected by cultural identification and social networks. We highlighted a need for measures related to subcomponents of L2 writing, rather than using a general proficiency measure, to further investigate the impact of social and social-psychological factors.

Bril, M., Pauw, J., & Forsberg Lundell, F. (2025). Social and social-psychological factors do not predict L2 writing: The case of immigrants in the Netherlands. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1–11.