Milli mála - 2023, Blaðsíða 128

128 Milli mála 15/2/2023
fied with the courses compared to people from Western Europe or
Nordic countries. In order to investigate this trend further, we looked
at the distribution between groups according to the language in
which the participant took the survey in order to further differentiate
the subgroups of participants. Figure 7 indicates that people answer-
ing in Arabic were more satisfied than people answering in other
languages, whereas participants answering in Thai or Lithuanian
were particularly dissatisfied.
Age, memberships in clubs, organizations or associations, social
contact with Icelanders, and income did not significantly affect satis-
faction.
6. Discussion
The aim of the present study is to answer the research questions: a)
Which demographic, social, and economic factors determine Icelandic
proficiency among immigrants in Iceland?; b) What are the factors
contributing to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of immigrants with
language courses in Iceland?; and c) How are language proficiency
and satisfaction with language courses related to immigrants’ socio-
cultural and economic involvement and inclusion in Icelandic society
(e.g. social contacts, participation in local associations, and income)?
Overall, the results of our study are broadly in line with previous
research about immigrants’ language acquisition (Adamuti-Trache,
Anisef, and Sweet 2018; Chiswick and Miller, 2001; Kristen, Mühlau,
and Schacht 2015). However, it is noteworthy that the number of
language courses attended has no relevant effect on language profi-
ciency, which is a result that does not appear as clearly in other stud-
ies. This result has implications for our understanding of how formal
language training and language proficiency are linked. Results indi-
cate that, in relation to social factors, formal language training has a
comparatively small influence on immigrants’ self-reported profi-
ciency. Another implication of our study is that we find evidence for
a link between Icelandic proficiency and social integration, but not
economic integration when economic integration is measured as in-
come.
PREDICTORS OF SATISFACTION / DISSATISFACTION WITH ICELANDIC LANGUAGE
COURSE AND ICELANDIC PROFICIENCY AMONG ADULT IMMIGRANTS IN ICELAND
10.33112/millimala.15.2.5