The study uses a multi-method approach to examine how two male Australian
learners of Indonesian develop in their stance towards making complaints, during
a short stay in Indonesia. One learner, Paul, adopted an initial stance of sweetnatured
tolerance, whereby he was highly reluctant to complain regardless of
whether native speakers would do so. However, he came to abandon that stance
and assert the same rights to complain as native speakers do. The other learner,
Oscar, followed a very different path of development. He came to feel strongly
alienated within his L2 setting, which made him increasingly reluctant to make
complaints regardless of whether native speakers would complain or not. This
contrasting identity development of Paul and Oscar also affected their learning
about L2 pragmatic norms. Paul developed new and more confidently-held beliefs
about native norms for when to complain. By contrast, Oscar’s sense of identity
as an outsider made it hard for him to form confident perceptions about those
norms. These two case studies demonstrate that L2 learners’ sociopragmatic
development during study abroad is closely linked to the process of constructing
an L2 identity. Thus, they may become either more or less ready to adopt native
pragmatic norms with increased time in the L2 culture setting, depending on the
trajectory of their identity development. Also, learners’ L2 identities influence
their very ability to learn about native-speaker sociopragmatic norms
