| Increased student participation in classrooms in American education places greater emphasis on successful oral practices in academic contexts. In addition, international students may have a different set of dispositions, based on their native culture, education, and society, that influences the nature of their discourse practices. Hence, international students, particularly Japanese students, may not meet current academic expectations of oral discourse practices in academic settings.;This study investigates how socialization influences the practice of acquiring oral discourse by Japanese ESL students. This study identifies and examines the main oral discourse practices that Japanese students engage in academic functions at a U.S. university. This study also examines the social processes that Japanese students use in meeting challenges of the U.S. academic context during the course of their development, a kind of re-socialization into oral discourse.;Qualitative case study method is used in this study. Data collection techniques include observations, audio/video recordings, interviews with participants and their instructors, and documentation, including the participants' logs/journals, class syllabi and materials. Data are collected over two semesters. The data are analyzed using the constant comparative method to build grounded theory. Two stages of analysis, within-case analysis and cross-case analysis, are used.;The data suggest that Japanese students engage in oral discourse practices when the practices are required, needed for survival in U.S. academia, and take place in an equal power relationship among the participants. Further, data show the following findings: the more students develop their responsibility for their own learning and are given more opportunities to participate in oral practices, the more they participate.;The students employ a variety of social processes, such as apprentice observation, reviewing, and negotiating expectations, to meet the challenges of the U.S. academic context. The data suggest that students integrate Japanese patterns of behaviors into the new context in their re-socialization process. The participants become apprentices in the U.S. academic context through socialization.;This study increases our understanding of the challenges Japanese students face through second language socialization. This study provides additional literature to the field of language socialization as well as to the field of second language acquisition. |
