Learning the rules for offering advice: A quantitative approach to second language socialization

This study focused on changes over time in university-level Japanese studen ts' sociocultural perceptions of social status during the year they studied abroad in Canada and the impact of the changes on their pragmatic use of E nglish when offering advice. The study compared the development of 97 Japan ese exchange students' pragmatic competence with that of 102 peers in Japan who did not undertake a year abroad. Results revealed that the former grou p started lower in pragmatic performance than the latter but then surpassed them, suggesting that living and studying in a target speech community was effective in developing pragmatic competence.