Social space and second language acquisition

The aim of this paper was to investigate how adult second language learners of Swedish have perceived their social space with their classmates during courses that they have studied online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research questions that fulfilled this aim looked at (1) the students’ perceptions of three qualities connected to a positive social space: availability, support and trust; and (2) their perceived learning outcomes from the interaction that has taken place within this perceived social space. This study used a mixed method where a quantitative method that consisted of questionnaires was interrelated with a qualitative method that consisted of voluntary comments in the questionnaire as well as follow-up interviews. Thirteen students answered the questionnaire, and three of them were interviewed. The results showed that the most positive impact on their social space is connected to their trust for one another and the most negative impact is connected to the availability of their classmates as well as the use of the functions in th communication platform. The results also showed that the most positive effect on their perceived learning outcomes is connected to the opportunity to discuss and use the language in various ways and the most negative effect can be connected to differences in proficiency levels