Bilingualism, Social Semantics, and Second-Language Oral Proficiency: A Comprehensive Qualitative Inquiry

This study explores the relationship between bilingualism, social semantics, and second-language (L۲) oral proficiency using a qualitative research design. While linguistic competence traditionally emphasizes grammatical accuracy and vocabulary breadth, contemporary scholarship has increasingly recognized the central role of social-semantics knowledge-an individual's ability to interpret socially conditioned meanings, cultural norms, and pragmatic cues. Yet, little research has examined how bilingual individuals understand and apply social semantics while speaking an L۲. Using semi-structured interviews, discourse samples from speaking tasks, and observational field notes, this study investigates how bilingual speakers navigate meaning in context, how social-semantic competence enhances or constrains oral proficiency, and what challenges emerge during real-time communication. The findings reveal that bilingual speakers rely heavily on culturally mediated interpretations of politeness, indirectness, and social roles when constructing meaning in their L۲. Participants reported that social-semantic awareness directly influenced their confidence, fluency, and appropriateness in L۲ speech. However, challenges such as pragmatic transfer, mismatched cultural norms, and limited exposure to authentic interactions restricted their ability to fully express social meaning. The study concludes that oral proficiency cannot be fully understood without examining social semantics, and that L۲ pedagogical frameworks must incorporate explicit pragmatic and social-semantics instruction. Implications for research and language teaching are discussed.

کلیدواژه ها:

Bilingualism ، social semantics ، pragmatics ، second-language oral proficiency ، qualitative research ، discourse analysis ، sociolinguistics ، identity