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Towards a Cultural Paradigm of Alterity in
Modern Foreign Language (MFL) Learning
D a v i d E v a n s
I n t r o d u c t i o n
Socio-economic motivation is, in secondary schools, a prevalent rationale
for foreign language (MFL) learning. e notion of selling goods abroad to
consumers in their own language is a compelling motivational tool employed by
governments, industry and schools. e learner is framed as a socio-economic
unit eager to transact through the discourses of tourism or business. is chapter ’ s
axiom, however, is that the student is not merely a tool of economics but rather
E d i t o r ’ s I n t r o d u c t i o n
David Evans explores identity and foreign language learning and, following
on from the last chapter, looks at cultural identity within foreign language as
alterity or ‘ Otherness ’ . He argues that the student of foreign languages should
not be framed only by a socio-economic discourse but should since viewed
as a learner of culture. Learning language is then learning culture since culture
not only surrounds language but also resides within it. Learning a foreign lan-
guage is being a participator in a linguistic-cultural community which, for the
learner, represents Otherness as well as similarity and is not just an extension
of learner subjectivity. Foreign language is not therefore the mother tongue in
translation but, recalling Philippe Chassy ’ s Chapter 3 , is conceptually and cul-
turally di erent. Languages cannot be accurately translatable into each other
and identities change as one moves from one language to another.
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a learner of culture whose own cultural identity and language evolve within the
learning process. Notions of culture on the inside of language as well as around
language as part of a cultural ecology, proposed by such writers as Kramsch (1993)
and Van Lier (2000), are not widely acknowledged. erefore socio-economics
seems to become the cultural default for language learning. Unfortunately this
economic motivation is instrumental and external to the language itself. is
leads to a utilitarian view of language where the content of language is super cial
as is the identity of the learner. An alternative perspective is proposed where
MFL is predominantly a moral and cultural activity, an exploration of identities
and an exploration of ‘ Otherness ’ , not only of the community of speakers but of
language itself.
Many educational commentators and policy-makers argue that Modern
Foreign Languages should be compulsory throughout the secondary school
curriculum as a means of increasing competitiveness in world markets in
terms of marketing and exporting UK products. Modern Foreign Languages
(henceforth MFL) are then o en viewed within an economic term of reference
as follows ‘ . . . the time is right for the government to declare a clear commitment
to setting a national policy agenda for languages, along with an enhanced
international dimension in education, as a contribution to economic success
and international understanding ’ Nu eld Languages Inquiry (2000: 64) is
inquiry also points to ‘ an inadequate supply of language skills available to
industry across a range of languages ’ (2000: 64).
Since MFL is frequently regarded as skills based rather than culturally based
in content ( Kramsch 1993 ), it is viewed and judged according to practical
outcomes that are instrumental involving economic and functional transactions.
Kramsch furthermore argues that teaching and learning MFL within a skills-
based behavioural context tends to view language as ideologically and culturally
neutral. However, as she points out, skills-based language is surface language
and as such oats at the surface of the dominant culture. Far from being neutral,
it puts into operation society ’ s dominant ideologies. More generally, Ball (2008)
argues that ‘ education is a servant to the economy. Education is now thoroughly
subordinated to the supposed inevitabilities of globalization and international
economic competition ’ ( Education Guardian , 29 January 2008).
Fairclough (1989) asserts that in the United Kingdom, as in other European
and Western countries, society ’ s dominant ideology is free market capitalism
and this is inevitably re ected in educational discourse. He argues that this is
because socio-economics occupy an in uential position in societal Orders
of Discourse which in turn shape discourse types such as education, health,
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transport, public services and utilities. In fact these areas are social and public
infrastructural ones that have been transformed into internal and external
commercial markets. A recent example in 2013 of a state-owned utility being
sold o to share holders is the privatization of the Post O ce as a pro t-making
enterprise. Many other European countries, however, retain state-owned utilities
as part of their infrastructure to be run as services to the nation such as railways,
energy companies and postal services. However in the United Kingdom, recent
history has demonstrated that capitalist ideologies now pervade the innermost
functioning of state infrastructure. In 2012, the Guardian Newspaper quoted
a top civil servant in the Department for Education, Sir David Bell as having
‘ no principled objection to pro t-making companies taking over state schools ’
( Guardian Newspaper , 1 February 2012). Furthermore in the article he states,
‘ In those areas of systematic failure, where all other options have failed, can
you object to somebody coming in and trying something di erent and making
some pro t out of it? ’ . Capitalism here, it seems, might replace pedagogy as an
underlying solution to educational failure.
In terms of MFL education, it comes therefore as no surprise that the
languages studied in schools represent economic forces and markets. Very few
mainstream state schools in the United Kingdom o er courses, for example,
in Celtic languages outside of those particular respective Celtic nations or
community languages from the Indian subcontinent. Beyond the United
Kingdom, Kramsch (2008) refers to the sense of shame felt by immigrants from
Yucutan when speaking Mayan in San Francisco. is is because the language
has no socio-economic value in the public domain away from a domestic
setting. Instead, languages that are taught represent major world historical and/
or current political, economic or diplomatic forces, for example the languages
of France, Germany and Spain. Equally it is of interest that many educational
commentators have recently called for the teaching of Mandarin in schools
because it is the main language of China, which is set to become the world ’ s
largest economy. e Department for Education (DFE) itself is pressing for
Mandarin to be o ered as part of schools ’ curriculum because ‘ Mandarin is vital
for the economic future of our country and is increasingly a world language.
Several primary schools already o er some basic Mandarin teaching. ’ (DFE
statement updated 27 February 2013). Further to this statement Education
Minister Elizabeth Truss states that ‘ Mandarin is the language of the future –
it is spoken by hundreds of millions of people in the world ’ s most populous
country and shortly the world ’ s biggest economy ’ (DFE website 27 February
2013). Schools Minister Nick Gibb had already made a much earlier statement
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saying, ‘ China is at the centre of the global economy which is why it is
important that our young people understand its culture and language ’ (Schools ’
Minister Nick Gibb, DFE website 15 March 2011). Of course English itself, in
terms of languages generally, is world leader because of its socio-economic
and sociocultural capital portable throughout the world due to the powerful
economic reach of the USA.
I argue that although national systems of education have economic agendas,
this should not be the primary concern of MFL education. is is because
economic instrumentalism in MFL based on functional linguistic transactions
may not have, as its driving force, the cultural embrace of ‘ Otherness ’ of the
target language communities and of the language itself. MFL ought not to be
learnt for pro t as a primary motive much as schools should not be run for
pro t. Instead, I argue that a foreign language and its culture reside in the
concept of ‘ Otherness ’ which, despite containing similarity to ourselves in the
construction of a common humanity, is nonetheless di erent from ourselves.
Notions of ‘ Otherness ’ or ‘ alterity ’ are philosophically grounded in the works
of Derrida (1967) and Levinas (1969) . e regard for another culture is of an
ethical nature, stated as follows,
‘ Face à face avec l ’ autre dans un regard et une parole qui maintiennent la
distance . . ., cet être-ensemble comme séparation précède ou déborde la societé,
la collectivité, la communauté. Levinas l ’ appelle religion. Elle ouvre l’éthique. La
relation éthique est une relation religieuse ’ (Derrida 1967: 142).
‘ Faced with the other in regard and in speech which maintain distance . . .,
this being-together as a separation precedes or transcends society, collectivity,
community. Levinas calls it religion. It opens up ethics. e ethical relationship
is a religious relationship. ’ (author ’ s translation).
Rather than operating at the level of words, phrases and surface skills-based
language necessary to ful l business transactions, Gieve (1999) points out that
MFL should be taught at the level of interactional discourse, acknowledging
di erence in behaviour and social practice. e rationale of this would be to teach
language as a cultural discourse encompassing a notion of alterity or otherness
rather than as narrowly located decontextualized surface language. Ortactepe
(2013) argues that more research is necessary at the level of interactional
discourse to ‘ explore how power relations in uence the nature of interactions
between language learners and target-language speakers ’ (2013: 226). is is
because, within interactional settings, there are issues of target language speaker
acceptance and validation by the host community as well as the target language
speaker ’ s eagerness to explore the target language culture.
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Here discourse is, of course, much more than language. As we shall see,
discourse consists of language, social practice, social relations and culturally
embedded behaviours including, as mentioned above, relations of power.
Discourse is de ned di erently by di erent theorists. Foucault (1972) regards
discourse as a totalizing phenomenon which determines the way in which
individuals and groups construct knowledge and themselves as human. Nothing
exists outside of discourse and if, over history, discourse had taken a di erent
path, the nature of existing knowledge about the world and ourselves would
have been di erent.
Fairclough (1989, 1992) however views discourse as one social practice, albeit
a major one, among others. ere is a dialectical relationship between discourse
and other social practices such as economic production, religion, education,
advertising etc and this, as an outcome, shapes identity. Socio-economics forms
part of the identity of individuals and institutions because the societal economic
Orders of Discourse (Fairclough 1989) are a major driver in Western society.
For Gumperz (1999) , an interactional sociolinguist, discourse involves
indexicality as the phenomenon where individuals, within their everyday
interactions, reach out to wider discourses for meanings to incorporate into
their more localized interactions. Indexicality, therefore, is a term which re ects
the notion of everyday interactions pointing towards or indexing characteristics
containing cultural – linguistic phenomena in wider societal discourse. ese
wider shared linguistic – cultural meanings reinforce localized meanings and
place them within a larger shared cultural picture. Everyday interactions are
therefore always located within larger and more powerful discourses.
Consequently, the meanings for MFL teaching, including programmes of
study, lesson planning etc do not take place in a vacuum but are informed by
more powerful ideologies. e transactional language of socio-economics o en
then becomes a default setting for MFL education, more so since it seems to be
without ‘ authentic ’ cultural content beyond its lexical and grammatical form.
Cultural content is mainly located within school text books. is o en appears
contrived and stereotyped in terms of, for example, a standardized Frenchness
or Spanish identity proposed by the publications ’ teams of editors. e cultural
content o en seems an easily accessed backdrop where the cultural identities of
the lives portrayed are simple, nished products, playing a secondary role to the
language itself rather than being integral to it.
Examples of such perfunctory cultural contexts occur in the presentations of
family identities where the standard family grouping is harmonious and without
the problematized narratives of separation, divorce, family break-up or children
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in care. ere are no images of reconstituted families or same sex partnerships,
all of which arguably are features of modern complex family lives.
In a similar way, daily routines in MFL text books seem super cially
stereotyped where everyone performs similar tasks within similar time scales.
(cf. Metro 2 coursebook 2000; Chapter 2 , daily routine; Chapter 3, family; school
coursebook reference).
Identity in language learning
I propose that there are three main issues of identity in MFL education: rst,
the cultural identity of the language and pedagogy; secondly, the cultural
identity of the learner; and thirdly, the dialectical interaction, if any, between
these two identities. Lantolf (2000) points out that even if students in the same
class are undertaking the same activity, they may well be undertaking it for
di erent motives. Some, for example, may feel compelled to ful l, or perhaps
reject, the local requirements of the lesson and the teacher ’ s demands while
others may look beyond this regulatory discourse towards seeking a cultural
content for the language itself. Students then may be enacting very di erent
learner identities.
An example of this di erence in learner identities can be seen in the following
extract of a research observation of a year 11 French lesson in a large secondary
school in the south of England. e students are 15 – 16 years old and the author ’ s
dual role was both as researcher and as teacher of his own class. e learner
identity di erences in the following extracts appear to be gender based. All
names of participants have been changed.
As we come into the classroom Zara and Alicia greet me in French saying ‘ bonjour
Mr Evans, tu vas bien j ’ espère? (greeting and asking me if I ’ m well). I reply to them
in French and, again in French ask them what they have done that morning. As this
is a Wednesday morning before break they tell me in French the subjects they have
already done and sometimes complain how boring it was and how bad the teacher
was. I reply by saying ‘ Mais Monsieur X est très gentil et très intelligent ’ . (But Mr
x is very nice and very intelligent), to which they reply ‘ ah non il est grincheux et
pas sympa ’ (oh no he is grumpy and not friendly). I feel that professionally I have
to stick up for the teacher or else the students might think I am colluding with
them. Because the exchange takes place in French it has an air of playfulness as if
we are re-de ning and appropriating the world in a di erent language, however
super cial that may be.
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e rest of the students settle into their places but I don ’ t extend this initial exchange
to to them because I know that my interaction has now got to be formalized with
the terms of the lesson procedures. e group of girls at the front are the only
ones to initiate conversation in French. e other students need to be questioned
with support from the lesson context in terms of objectives and the reviewing of
preceding lesson material. Many of the boys sit down the side. . . . As the lesson
moves on, they lose concentration and begin to talk amongst themselves. . . .
(end of extract)
A gender di erence is visible here in this classroom interaction where the female
students seem more involved with the language than with the formality of the
classroom procedural discourse.
A similar phenomenon occurs in a year 9 class of 14-year-old students where
a group of girls are involved with the language whereas a group of boys use the
lesson space for their own ‘ o -task ’ activity. is is an extract from a Spanish
class which the author was observing as researcher only in the same south of
England secondary school.
Lizzie and Georgina are working on vocabulary asking the teacher how to say ‘ my
parents are called ’ in Spanish. e reply is ‘ mis padres se llaman ’ . Next question
‘ How do you say “ they are divorced?” ’ e teacher ’ s reply is ‘ estan divorciados ’ .
Meanwhile at the back of the class George is playing with a football by bouncing it
against a table. Mitchell is at the back talking to George and Adam and Fred are
tying a white scarf around Mitchell ’ s head (end of extract)
Again a gender di erence in learner identity is apparent. e group of girls
is immersed in the lesson language content while a group of boys remains
disengaged, inevitably waiting for the teacher ’ s eventual remonstrations.
e issue of the cultural identity of the language and pedagogy concerns
how teachers, in their pedagogical discourses, frame learner identity since their
programmes of studies are likely to be based on the way they themselves perceive
the needs of students and how they construct their identities. e second
identity issue is interrelated with the rst concerning the way in which students
discursively construct themselves as learners. is is because their construction
of their own identities as learners has a relationship with how they are viewed
and de ned, not only by their teachers but also by the school system. erefore
pupil/student discourses are shaped by a hybridity of voices including the way in
which education and foreign language education are regarded by their families
and communities. is hybridity is furthermore constituted by how individual
learners actively play out their own classroom identities, shaped by the larger
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identity constructions of community, family, social class, gender, ethnicity,
school culture.
e teacher construction itself, of student identity within teacher professional
discourse is equally problematic. It may very well not be a simple homogenous,
unitary construction due to the heterogeneity and hybridity of discourse itself.
Wertsch (1991) refers to this composite nature of discourses as heteroglossia.
is means that any one identi able discourse may well contain many voices.
Elements of more powerful discourses are likely to penetrate and even colonize
weaker discourses with the result that MFL classroom teacher professional
discourse may contain not only a linguistic – cultural, socio-economic voice but
also bureaucratic, performative and regulatory voices. e teacher may well
be representing the culture of the foreign language in the classroom but is at the
same time regulating attendance, behaviour and also attending to performance
and assessment issues. ese voices and others constitute o cial teacher
discourse and interact dialectically with pupil/student discourses. An example
of teacher hybridity of discourse is the regulatory discourse seen in the following
lesson observation extract, where the MFL teacher is attempting to resist a year
7 female pupil ’ s persistent request to leave the lesson for a toilet break.
pupils from di erent classes o en pre-arrange toilet visits at certain times and then
meet up for a chat or for a smoke. is is o en di cult for the teacher as some
pupils may really want the toilet and so it comes as no surprise to me when the
teacher says ‘ Kayleigh, you can go to the toilet a little later when I ’ ve seen that you
have settled down to do some work. I want to see you working for 10 minutes ’ . e
reply is as follows, ‘ no miss please I ’ m desperate, say 5 minutes ’ A er 5 minutes she
is allowed to go . (end of extract)
Heteroglossia in terms of these extracts is then the hybridity of discourses and
identities where social actors are traversed by multiple voices simultaneously,
so that there is no one unitary teacher or pupil discourse. ere is therefore an
ongoing negotiation of identity between notions of cultural determinism and
the free will of individual agency.
e third identity issue as the negotiation of identities
According to Bakhtin (1981), language, meaning and culture reside on the border
between oneself and the ‘ Other ’ . Bakhtin refers to language as ‘ ideologically
saturated ’ (1981: 259). is dialectical interface within language between
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oneself and the ‘ Other ’ is referred to by Bakhtin as dialogized heteroglossia.
As mentioned already, heteroglossia is the notion of multiple voices within a
discourse and dialogized heteroglossia is the voice of the interlocutor within
the voice of the speaker within dialogue. Consequently, one takes account of
the voice of the ‘ Other ’ within one ’ s own discourse and the voice of the ‘ Other ’
permeates into one ’ s own voice.
erefore this third identity issue mentioned in the last section arises from
the dialectical relationship between the subjective cultural process of one ’ s own
voice and objective cultural product contained in the ‘ Other ’ . is means that
individuals process the meanings of others because words are already half the
property of the voices of others as seen in the notion of heteroglossia (Wertsch
1991). One has to personalize language by imbuing it with one ’ s own intentions –
making it one ’ s own. We will see later on how Kramsch (1993, 1998 ) advocates
the appropriation of foreign language for one ’ s own needs and ideologies.
Furthermore Bakhtin states, ‘ e ideological becoming of a human being . . . is
the process of selectively assimilating the words of others ’ (1981: 341). Within
the individual, therefore, a constant struggle is taking place between his/her
own meanings and those of language external to the individual. e resulting
division is between cultural identity as an ongoing, active process generated by
the individual on the one hand and culture as a product on the Other, external
to the individual and apparently objectivized. A linguistic-identity example of
this is the interface between an individual ’ s own community-based language
identity, such as an urban dialect and Standard English language legitimized
by the notion of ‘ Queen ’ s English ’ . is is o en resolved by a movement of
convergence in incorporating the standard language into one ’ s own way of
speaking and, of course, identity. is convergence is encouraged by the
valorization of the standard language by institutions such as schools, media etc
( Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004 ). Consequently, the interrelationship between
process and product means that the individual draws upon the ideological
cultural product of the external world to shape his/her identity. Given that the
individual may inhabit various contexts in diverse social settings, s/he may
negotiate multiple sociolinguistic identities as opposed to one unitary identity.
Individuals may therefore develop a linguistic expertise in standard language as
well as regional class-based dialects.
Norton (2000) , drawing on the work of Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) , argues
that language use in the dominant standard mode is a widely accepted cultural
capital and, rather like economic capital, language can be regarded as a strong
or weak currency.
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Learner learning identity as a process is therefore shaped by cultural capital
and value since to learn something is to attach a value to it. As already argued, it
is generally culturally more valued to learn Standard French, for example, rather
than a Celtic language or Mayan because of historical reasons of power relations
and socio-economics. It is also by logical extension more valued to learn Standard
French than it would be to learn a French regional dialect or slang.
Ortactepe (2013) points out that second language social identity theories focus
on three key concepts in language learning: Norton ’ s (2000) social investment,
Bourdieu ’ s (1977) cultural capital and Miller ’ s (2003) audibility. e latter
concept concerns second language learning in the target language community
rather than in the classroom where, in the former, the learner ’ s participation in
naturalistic settings needs to be legitimized by a sympathetic community.
Socio-economics and social investment as a
motivating ideology in language learning
Norton (2000) argues that learning a socially desirable language is an investment
in the individual ’ s social identity which o ers possibilities of accruing cultural
capital for a return at a later date. She refers to this as the social investment
model for language learning attached to a cultural interest in the language
itself. is combines Gardner ’ s (1985) instrumental and integrative motivations
into a single model. Gardner was an earlier theorist in MFL motivation who
advocated integrativeness, as the desire to integrate with the MFL target language
community. is was seen as a strong form of motivation and much more long
term than instrumental motivation. e latter was a short-term motivation
for the achievement of goals external to the language, learning the language
to pass an exam or gain promotion at work. Once the surface-level socio-
economic instrumental goal had been achieved, Gardner argued that, without
an integrative motivation, there would no longer be a reason to continue to learn
the language.
Although Norton ’ s social investment model seems to provide a strong learner
identity because it combines interest in the foreign language and culture with the
desire to tap into powerful socio-economic forces, there still remains the question
of what happens to the learner identity once socio-economic instrumental goals
have been achieved. It could be argued that Norton ’ s social investment model
is too economically and culturally deterministic in attaching language–culture
interest to socio-economic self-interest.
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Cultural capital
Bourdieu ’ s (1977) notion of cultural capital is the underlying theory expressing
a view that language forms part of a cultural capital. Language then is a cultural
and symbolic resource and certain types of language, such as standard dialect is
highly valued. Halliday (1978) maintains not only that highly valued discourses
are only available to those who perform a standard language but also that local
dialects can only access low status discourses. erefore a regional dialect or
urban dialect would have a low value cultural capital in the wider society. Norton
expands this view by proposing that a foreign language such as French, German
or Spanish which have a high socio-economic value also have a high cultural
capital and socio-economic return on the social investment of learning.
Audibility
Audibility is also a concept, proposed by Miller (2003) which is built on
Bourdieu ’ s notion of cultural capital. Audibility suggests that in order to progress
in the second language one ’ s attempts at language use will have to be legitimized
by target language community members. is would mean that one ’ s use of the
foreign language would have to converge on the dominant, standard dialect in
order for the language learner to be accepted and therefore make further progress.
e corollary of this is that learners who are excluded from participation in
host language contexts do not acquire sociocultural capital to make further
progress. is theory however relates more to learners in a naturalistic language
setting where, in spite of being in a country for a very long time, fail to attain
pro ciency in the language and perhaps seek support from within their own
native language–based communities.
Dornyei ’ s theory of imagined future selves
Dornyei (2009) relates the much earlier integrative motivation of Gardner
(1985) back to individual identity rather than to socio-economic self-interest
in his social psychological theory of imagined future selves. He focuses
integrativeness or the desire to be a part of the target language community back
onto the self-concept of the learner as he/she moves forward into the future.
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Here he acknowledges that identity contains an element of the future and also
that the mastery of a foreign language is an activity that projects well into the
future. erefore in Dornyei ’ s theory of future selves, learner identity contains
the possibility of a vision of how one could ideally become if one could achieve
one ’ s MFL goal. is involves envisioning an ideal future self with mastery of
the language. e implicit view of learner identity is then the representation
of self to oneself when confronted with learning activities and that this has
possibilities for the future. Dornyei also includes in his motivational system,
a task-based situational motivation which in mainstream schools consists of
classroom activities. However, this is a shorter term motivation and regulates
the optimum disposition for classroom learning. Nevertheless Dornyei
acknowledges that good teaching may not be enough by itself at classroom level
if the ‘ bigger picture ’ is not culturally supportive. is means that a supportive
wider discourse containing possibilities for the future is necessary for success.
Anecdotally, Dornyei recounts how, in growing up in Hungary, he and his
contemporaries were obliged to learn Russian which was considered to be the
language of the oppressor. Consequently, due to lack of motivation in the wider
picture, he states that 10 years of Russian lessons at school resulted in hardly any
e ect on him and his contemporaries.
erefore the two identities that are major drivers for success in MFL are the
perceived cultural identity of the language to be learnt and the cultural identity
of the learner with a signi cant possibility for future self-concept. e next
section examines how language identity and learner identity might interrelate in
the context of a proposed cultural theory for language learning.
A cultural theory
A cultural theory for language learning ought not to completely discount previous
theories concerning future selves or social investment but rather incorporate
them within an eclectic model of MFL learner identity. e is because one could
still acknowledge Dornyei ’ s argument that identity contains possibilities for
imagined future self-concept, or Norton ’ s social investment as a future-oriented
theory of delayed socio-economic return. However these ideas of motivation
and learner identity, useful as they are in invoking future possibilities, are not
predicated enough on the present and on how the individual in the present can
construct meaning and culture from their own current situation.
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Culture cannot be denied in terms of its larger narratives, larger than the lone
individual. Lantolf regards it as ‘ history in the present ’ (2000: 171) and cultural
identity as the totality of past and present resources to which the individual
has access.
However Kramsch (1998) proposes a dialectical relationship between this
cultural identity as historical product of history in the present and our own
subjectivity. Dialectical here means that this interaction between product and
process produces a new situation which she refers to as a third place. Intriguingly
this third place, according to Kramsch can be alluded to but cannot be de ned
because it relates to the uniqueness of the learner. e next section outlines the
notion of third place and how this might be applied to a learning context.
e third place
Skills-based language is language for ‘ doing things with words ’ (Kramsch 1993:
240). As already mentioned it is surface language and puts into operation the
dominant ideology without questioning its underlying rationale. Skills-based
language does not therefore raise cultural awareness but re ects the transactional
utility of the language and by default normalizes its economic ideologies. e
third place alluded to by Kramsch is by contrast a space where the learner nds
his/her own cultural meaning and purpose. She argues that this can be subversive
because learners will constitute their own reasons and interests set against those
of the state or institution. Learners therefore can construct their own learning
culture through the meanings they create by adapting the language of the ‘ Other ’
to their own needs and ideologies. An example of third place is in the following
research interview with a male student Robert and a female student Jasmin, both
16 years old, where they construct learning and knowing the foreign language
and people in a context of personal development.
Robert: . . . you would be socializing and you ’ d be growing on their ideas.
Jasmin: Especially if you had someone of your own age, then you could
compare stu .
Robert: As you grow older you could still keep in contact. (end of extract)
Here there is still a notion of imagined future selves in the reference to ‘ still keep
in contact ’ over time. However, essentially the view of learning language is very
much a personal third place construction.
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A further example of third place is the research interview with Bella a year 7,
11-year-old female student:
Researcher: – what about your hobbies? What do you do in your spare time out
of school?
Bella: – Well I ’ ve tried French in my bedroom and I ’ ve got maps and I like nding
out stu and I draw in my bedroom. (end of extract)
e third place is therefore a cultural hybridity created on the cusp of
subjective and objective cultural identity. It re ects the learner ’ s own particular
representation to the self of external reality, and because of its uniqueness, it can
only be described by the individual him/herself rather than de ned a priori for
all cases.
Exploration of identity in MFL learning
e notion of third place o ers a cultural model of MFL pedagogy from the
learner ’ s point of view. From a social constructivist point of view it o ers an
explanation of language learning where the learner is not only an interpreter
of meaning but also a maker of meaning. e view of language involved is not
just as a labelling device to describe the world but also as a social artefact that
constructs and creates the world. Cole (1996) maintains that the entire world
is a social phenomenon and that the objects and ideas are not only represented
to us by language but also constructed by language. It is therefore argued here
that language is a major tool in the construction of thought and, by extension,
self-concept.
Dornyei (2009) states that successful study of MFL involves taking on di erent
cultural identities. is is more than the surface language of words and phrases
but rather the idea that we position and re-position ourselves as we speak
and use language and signs within discourse. Again it must be re-emphasized
that language is not a decontextualized phenomenon but is a cultural artefact
situated within discourses of social relations, cultural ideology and power. To
speak a language and also a foreign language is to become a part of this ‘ ecology ’ ,
as expressed by Van Lier (2000) . Pavlenko and Blackledge (2004) allude to a
participative metaphor in language use. ese ideas of ‘ language ecology ’
and ‘ participative metaphor ’ of language use refer to one ’ s own language use as
being part of a wider language cultural identity. Kramsch ’ s notion of the language
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user constructing the world from his/her own cultural position should therefore
form part of a wider journey of language. is will allow the user to embrace
a wider cultural identity and move the user ’ s cultural identity forward from
perhaps a narrower cultural starting point. Kramsch maintains that ‘ desire in
language learning is the basic drive toward self-ful llment – the urge to escape
from tedious conformity with one ’ s present environment to a state of plenitude
and enhanced power ’ (2009: 14). is journey forms the basis of a notion of
MFL learning as creative and emancipatory.
Language users are therefore automatically part of a wider community since
language is constructed within cultural discourses. is raises the notion of
belonging to a community and since, according to Lave and Wenger (1991),
learning and identity are bound up in the same process, the journey towards
language uency involves moving forward within new identities. e nal
stage of the argument in this chapter is to posit foreign language teaching as
an exploration of new cultural identities, not as a form of plagiarizing already
existing foreign language cultures but a way of nding new third places.
Self and ‘ Other ’
It has already been stated that two mutually interactive identities are those of
the learner and the language-culture. e third place was discussed regarding
the individualized space of the learner from where the exploration of identity
could take place. However, we need to further examine identity of language-
culture itself.
Discourse has been a strong theme so far and it has been seen how socio-
economics permeates into education from wider orders of discourse, thereby
in uencing the choice of languages to be studied and much of the content.
However, other less powerful discourses might be explored relating to the
notion of ‘ Otherness ’ of MFL as opposed to notions of socio-economic or
future identity self-interest.
e rationale for this is a journey from self and socio-economic self-interest
towards cultural ‘ Otherness ’ . It cannot be assumed that a foreign language-
culture is for example Englishness or Britishness in translation but rather a
di erent way, however slight, of thinking and behaving constituted by a di erent
language.
Smith and Carvill (2000) , echoing earlier references to Derrida and Levinas,
frame this journey towards ‘ Otherness ’ as a moral – spiritual journey towards
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embracing alterity. Smith and Carvill argue that we need to see the ‘ Other ’ as
‘ truly other and not just as an imperfect version of ourselves ’ (2000: 102). ey
view MFL education as the cultivation and practice of hospitality towards the
stranger and de ne hospitality as the creation of a space where the ‘ Other ’ can
feel temporarily at home. is obviously refers to the cultivation of an empathic
attitude towards alterity when the foreign language is used to welcome the
‘ stranger ’ in one ’ s own country.
is view of alterity accepts ‘ Otherness ’ as objective rather than as a subjective
extension of one ’ s own identity. e ‘ Other ’ is therefore essentially di erent,
objective and exists independently. It is approached and understood by using
the language of the ‘ Other ’ since the use of one ’ s own language would contain
and constrain it within one ’ s own terms of reference. is would be tantamount
to the assimilation of the Other into one ’ s own vocabulary and perhaps ultimate
colonization of the Other.
is frames MFL as not only a cultural journey but also a spiritual – moral
one and while this could exist alongside socio-economic investment identity,
it is ultimately centred on the Otherness of language/culture rather than on its
socio-economic exploitation.
e chapter began by arguing that MFL study is o en linked to larger socio-
economic discourses that are powerful enough to project the idea, through
programmes of study, to teachers and pupils that it is perfectly normal to have
employment and economic transactions as motivations for language learning.
It has also been argued that this can be interpreted narrowly as a reductionist
instrumental motivation external to the language itself as opposed to a wider
language/cultural process. As socio-economic arguments are powerful, they
can be easily communicated and easily understood. is argument, however,
promotes nothing deeper or higher than the transaction and therefore has to
be accompanied by a much wider learner identity to re ect MFL as a cultural
expression and a means of making culture. Foreign language, as all languages,
occurs through the process of living and simultaneously expresses and produces
social life. It cannot be separated from the cultural process and should be taught
as culture within discourse. Agar (1994) refers to this close connection as
‘ Languaculture ’ to convey the notion that culture resides within language as well
as expressing it. erefore an interest in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation
can be framed as culturally focused where these linguistic features are seen, not
as isolated, but rather as constituting a cultural and meaning-making context.
We have seen in Chapter 2 how culture comes to be encoded in lexicogrammar
in Halliday ’ s (1978) systemic functional linguistics.
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is chapter therefore has the intention of framing students as cultural
learners and, as we have seen in the last section, this can also contain a spiritual
and moral content. erefore, learning transactional language for only economic
reasons does not position language in its wider cultural context but takes a short
cut to an end result without bothering about ‘ the cultural bit ’ in the middle.
Metaphorically, this would be showing more concern for the goal rather than
for the beautiful game. Of course, embracing alterity of culture and language
can result in an accumulation of cultural capital (Norton 2000) as a practical
outcome but this is not the same as limiting MFL to transactions without the
cultural commitment to transcend the surface language.
Conclusion
It is therefore possible to frame MFL within a culturally critical pedagogy
rather than an economically performative one. Byram (1989) points out that
communicative competence has meant an exclusive emphasis on language as
a behavioural skill. He goes on to identify three strands in MFL education as
follows: language use, language awareness and cultural understanding. Bennett
(2003) also argues for an integrated development between foreign language and
culture so that MFL learning is not simply ‘ bolted onto ’ an ethnocentric view of
‘ Otherness ’ based on one ’ s own language.
It is proposed here that foreign language education ought to serve a dual
and yet mutually related purpose: rst, the understanding of the ‘ Otherness ’
of language and culture and, secondly, the journey towards Otherness through
the use of language within the notion of ‘ third place ’ . e notion of ‘ third
place ’ is vital as a cultural home for the student to take ownership of his/her
skill and understanding. However, MFL education is also a journey towards
that which is di erent and ‘ Other ’ from ourselves, and in this respect, MFL
education, in working towards the valorization of di erence, should be seen
as both a cultural and spiritual – moral endeavour. is inevitably involves
our own identities, as learning always engages our own subjectivities. Lemke
(2002) views individuals as constructing their own identities when ‘ speaking
di erent languages or di erent dialects of the same language ’ (2002: 78). e
MFL journey is therefore a dialectical relationship between the discovery of
‘ Otherness ’ and the development of identity which should be underpinned by
cultural and moral – spiritual ways of being human. is could furthermore
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Towards a Cultural Paradigm of Alterity in MFL Learning 205
be also seen as a metaphor for other areas of the curriculum where education
is emancipatory, liberating individuals from culturally and narrowly situated
instrumental discourses.
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