A case study of two immigrant students in Catalonia conducted by Cots and
Nussbaum (2008) highlights the weight of language contact and its influence on language
learning. For new arrivals to the Catalan immersion education system, the school
represents a gate-keeping institution that socialises students through language classes.
The study found that learning Catalan represents not only a gain in communicative
ability: proficiency also carries social capital, underlies identity construction, represents a
process of socialisation and signifies an investment in a new language and culture. The
learner’s pursuit of advanced L2 proficiency can best be interpreted in terms of the
participant’s surroundings and relationships