Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the international student’s use of Japanese language in relation to the student’s social network. In this paper, a case of Sam, who showed improvement in the oral proficiency while in-person interaction is limited during COVID-19 pandemic, is reported. Sam maintained Japanese language interaction with his teachers, peer, and friend, and that seems to create opportunities for him to speak Japanese in different topics and receive various language input. Furthermore, results indicate that Sam’s kenkyuushitsu (laboratory-group) network promoted his Japanese language use in different contexts, such as small talk and discussion about the research.
