FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS · VOL. 44, NO. 3 441 Uju Anya (MA, Brown University) is a PhD candidate in applied linguistics and second language acquisition at the University of California, Los Angeles and Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Connecting With Communities of Learners and Speakers: Integrative Ideals, Experiences, and Motivations of Successful Black Second Language Learners Uju Anya University of California, Los Angeles Abstract: Utilizing data from the language learning autobiographies of six black college students, this pilot study investigates the experiences and motivations of blacks who do and do not achieve advanced-level second language acquisition (SLA). It hypoth- esizes that successful black second language (L2) learners (1) have positive formative experiences of investment in a community of learners; (2) desire to connect with mem- bers of a community of L2 speakers who mirror their past, present, and future/ideal selves; and (3) are motivated to excel in SLA by their integrative need to connect with both communities of learners and speakers. Findings support the study’s hypotheses; however, they also call for further investigation of the nature/variety of black student L2 classroom experiences, the role of ethno-racial affinity in integrativeness, and perspec- tives of black heritage language learners. Key words: black L2 learners, identity, investment, motivation, second language acquisition Introduction My interest in the topic of African Americans and second language acquisition (SLA) is born of personal experiences as a student and instructor of university- level Portuguese and Spanish where, in class, I was typically the only or among two or three blacks, and I never once had a black faculty colleague. Brigman and Jacobs (1981), Davis (1992), Davis and Markham (1991), and Moore (2005) empirically validated this troubling phenomenon of low rates of participation/advancement of African American students in foreign languages and cultural studies when com- pared with their Caucasian or other minority counterparts. Some investigators have explained the diminished black presence and under- performance in the academic study of languages using deficit theories such as