Second language socialization in the margins: Queering the paradigm

This article explores aspects of second language socialization with respect to same gender relationships formed in the queer spaces of Siem Reap, a major tourist city in Cambodia. In order to explore the processes of socialization that emerged from ethnographic fieldwork in this setting as a key factor informing these relationship practices, I present an analysis of narrative accounts from interviews with local men. These English speaking Cambodian men describe how their linguistic knowledge (metapragmatic awareness), understanding and participation in these relationship practices developed through their personal engagement in the multilingual queer spaces of the city; spaces in which they meet and befriend tourists from the global north. Departing to some extent from widely espoused notions of identity and community in second language socialization research, this queer analysis seeks to engage more fully with socialization as it relates to the semiotic production of space/time. In this way, I account for how a queering of the language socialization paradigm may afford us greater analytical and interpretive purchase when conducting language research on social practices in the margins.