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Research tasks on identity in language learning and teaching
Abstract
The growing interest in identity and language education over the past two decades, coupled with increased interest in digital technology and transnationalism, has resulted in a rich body of work that has informed language learning, teaching, and research. To keep abreast of these developments in identity research, the authors propose a series of research tasks arising from this changing landscape. To frame the discussion, they first examine how theories of identity have developed, and present a theoretical toolkit that might help scholars negotiate the fast evolving research area. In the second section, they present three broad and interrelated research questions relevant to identity in language learning and teaching, and describe nine research tasks that arise from the questions outlined. In the final section, they provide readers with a methodology toolkit to help carry out the research tasks discussed in the second section. By framing the nine proposed research tasks in relation to current theoretical and methodological developments, they provide a contemporary guide to research on identity in language learning and teaching. In doing so, the authors hope to contribute to a trajectory of vibrant and productive research in language education and applied linguistics.
... Research in Second language acquisition (SLA) has typically centered on acquisition of phonemes, morphemes, input processes, and output processes, while eschewing questions related to the social world of the language learner (Morgan & Clarke, 2011;Norton & De Costa, 2018;Pennycook, 2001Pennycook, , 2018. As such, Saussure's structuralism wielded considerable influence in prior SLA research, thereby relegating language learning to the cognitive domain, or the individual (Block, 2007;Norton, 2013;Toohey, 2018). ...
... 98). More recently, however, poststructuralist theories THAT'S NOT HOW YOU TREAT OTHER CLUBS 8 have gained notoriety in SLA as the centrality of discourse and identity has been incorporated into SLA research (Norton & De Costa, 2018). ...
... More recently, the call for a transdisciplinary framework to SLA in transnational times so as to push beyond disciplinary boundaries (see Johnson, 2019;Norton & De Costa, 2018) has resulted in scholarship that approaches teacher identity as its central focus (Norton & De Costa, 2018). Within the scholarship related to transdisciplinarity within SLA, Johnson (2019) called for language teachers to "critique the status, power, and agency of the participants" (p. ...
... Investment in the target language will occur with leaners' understanding that they can expand their range of symbolic resources. For instance, they can use the target language in different settings, and can also expand the social circle of their friends and pursue their education (Norton & De Costa, 2018). However, Norton and Toohey (2011) maintained that students might have a low investment in learning a language before settling into the new context while they are in their homeland due to their fear of being laughed at or criticised by their classmates because of their limited language proficiency. ...
... The construction of identity as a result of access to the appropriate materials and resources in a social context is not entirely contingent upon the presence of leaners in that social context (Norton & De Costa, 2018). Rather, their agency, in terms of the struggles they make to reframe their relationship with others to provide access to the situated resources, materials and practices, shapes the construction of their powerful identity; in turn, this can enhance their language learning via more opportunities for reading, writing and speaking (Darvin & Norton, 2021). ...
... First, in line with Darvin (2019), the investment in the materials and resources of English as the target language was enacted via the shift to a new social context as the result of the study abroad programme. Consistent with Norton and De Costa (2018), the findings here indicated that the participants' high investment in the study abroad experiences was due to their awareness that this investment could expand their circle of friends and increase their social capital. ...
The complexity that arises between linguistic use and cultural identity during learners' study abroad experience has been emphasised to understand learner investment and learner agency. Anchored in a social view of learner agency and identity, this study used qualitative research methods to unpack the identity construction and negotiation of Chinese students studying abroad by investigating their agencies, investment, and identity construction and negotiation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and narrative journals from Chinese university-level students with study abroad experiences in countries where English is used as the dominant language. Using learner agency, attitude and construction of identity, and identity negotiation through intercultural conflicts as the analytical lens for data analysis, the findings showed that the participants experienced identity reconstruction by investing in their linguistic resources and practices and enacting their agency. Moreover, the participants' study abroad experiences enabled them to develop a new way to invest in language learning and use, partly change their language attitudes towards accents and negotiate their identities through intercultural conflicts, which influenced the reconstruction of their previously imagined identities of native speakers of English. The study has important implications for teaching English as a second language and for preparing students to study abroad.
... Identities that are studied include nationality, gender, age, ethnicity, and foreigner identities ( (Kinginger, 2008;Polanyi, 1995;Pellegrino-Aveni, 2005;Tan and Kinginger, 2013;Lino, 2006). Within this research, investment and agency have gained popularity as the drive to negotiate the identity (Darvin, 2019;Norton 2017). As many studies have been looked into the different international students' identities in SA, some Indonesian research has also shifted their focus to the Indonesian identities in SA. ...
... Investment is found to lead to much higher retention in the classroom. Ryan (2012) in Norton (2017) shows that only 9/25 students attend the class before explaining the concept of investment. However, after the explanation, 25/29 students are attending the class. ...
Study abroad (SA) is a daunting process in which students who encounter cross-border face a whole new world. They go through positioning and being positioned by others. There is an on-going salient power asymmetry in their language use, which affects their desire to speak up and participate in the new community. This study aimed to scrutinize the ways Indonesian students negotiated their identities through their language use. Using open-ended questionnaires (OEQ)and semi-structured interviews, this study focused on 7 participants who were in the midst of the master’s degree program in England. The results indicated that the participants experienced the identities negotiation multifacetedly. Participants who exercised their agency and invested in their language use challenged the positioning attached to them. As a result, they constructed new identities and gained central participation in the local community. Meanwhile, participants who could not resist the power asymmetry withdrew and formed a more solid community with other international students. Lastly, some participants were also found to maintain their emotional security by not making any contact through their language use. Participants who resisted any contacts but with fellow home students interestingly developed an increased nationalism. Therefore, this article calls for the teachers’ attention and how to devise the English Language Teaching classroom better and program providers’ of how to provide the support for the SA students best.
... In the fields of English language teaching and teacher education, definitions of identity have shifted from psychological, ethnic-racial and linguistic constructs to embrace sociological, diverse, postcolonial, decolonial and gender reconceptualisations in a glocal world. Identity is struggling, varied, simultaneously agentive and reproductive (Norton & De Costa, 2018). For instance, Barkhuizen (2016) created three levels of story emerging from research on English teachers' identities. ...
... seem to agree with contemporary definitions of identity that involve contingent and struggling social, national and gender diversities at the crossroads between the local and the global in the world (Norton & De Costa, 2018). They stand as a relevant background to our plurilingual and intercultural classrooms. ...
... Foreign language teaching at university level is faced with new challenges, in addition to the old and persistent ones. Students are now more eager to finish their syllables within shorter spans to access economic benefits (Norton and De Costa, 2018). Universities are facing economic strains that can contribute to undermining quality as private higher education institutions opt for mediocre faculty in profit driven schemes (Greenberg, 2022). ...
Foreign language teaching at university level is faced with new challenges, in addition to the old and persistent ones. Students are now more eager to finish their syllables within shorter spans to access economic benefits (Norton and De Costa, 2018). Universities are facing economic strains that can contribute to undermining quality as private higher education institutions opt for mediocre faculty in profit driven schemes (Greenberg, 2022). In addition, the emergence of the powerful AI language model Chat GBT is adding more complexity to the higher education situation. Another challenge is associated with the promotion and indiscriminate use of the Content and Language Integrated Learning approach (CLIL), which is consequently leading to submersion situations and impacting EFL learners with incompatible foreign language competency levels, consequently defying its purpose and objective (Thompson & McKinley, 2018). In addition, the Communicative Language Approach (CLA) and immersion programmes (Magnan & Lafford, 2012) that are applied outside English native language (ENL) contexts are not tailored to the foreign language context or the required duration of the endeavor and thus becoming major contributors to the EFL challenges at university by yielding unsatisfactory results. The paper scrutinizes the challenges that face Foreign Language Teaching at University and the approaches that are applied, drawing data-based comparisons from tutors and learners' perspectives as well as assessment results in mixed method approach and argues that the teaching of the foreign language has to foster comprehension through prioritizing adequate language support (ALS), even when CLIL or CLA are applied. Only when comprehension transpires, students avoid the seductions of technology, incomprehensible parroting and rushed learning, and devote time to produce quality foreign language content.
... Foreign language teaching at university level is faced with new challenges, in addition to the old and persistent ones. Students are now more eager to finish their syllables within shorter spans to access economic benefits (Norton and De Costa, 2018). Universities are facing economic strains that can contribute to undermining quality as private higher education institutions opt for mediocre faculty in profit driven schemes (Greenberg, 2022). ...
... This design best explains the participants' investment in learning English influenced by the learners' social capital and their changing identity across time and space. As Norton and De Costa (2018) suggested, narrative design is one of the methodologies that can be used to investigate identity and investment. Narrative inquiry is an approach that focuses on the use of stories as data. ...
This study explored vocational high school (VHS) students’ identity and investment during their English learning in the class at a private VHS in a rural area. The aim of this study was to understand how student identity impacted their investment in learning English. This study also attempted to seek factors that influenced students’ investment in learning English. To answer the research questions of this study, the narrative method was applied. This study involved six students from a VHS. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions which was used to explore learning English at the VHS. The results revealed that the students had different ideas about their English learning. They are learning English outside the classroom, English necessity for future career, reluctant in learning English, perspective on future self. This study also revealed that the participants’ investment in learning English was hindered by five factors such as teaching method, inconvenient classroom environment, lack of knowledge, family, peer support, and having a part time job. VHS students need support to encourage them to commit investing their time and effort in improving their English language skills. The implication of this study is the importance of teachers encouraging learners’ investment in order to achieve desirable learning outcomes.
... The principal role of technology in identity studies deserves more attention (Norton & De Costa, 2018). Technology mediates self-expression by multiple means it offers (Klimanova, 2020). ...
Student-University Identification (SUI) of virtual students in higher education is one area of identity that receives less attention. This study aimed to explore the SUI of a purposive sample of five virtual students studying Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at the Ph.D. level in Iran. Investigating SUI in higher education among virtual TEFL Ph.D. candidates potentially contributes to demystifying a complex relationship of factors, such as cultural experiences, linguistic backgrounds, and online environment challenges. Using phenomenology, the study investigated the identities of the participants by thematically analyzing semi-structured interview data. The findings revealed the participants’ various ways of identifying with a university, the subsequent consequences of identification, and the obstacles preventing them to develop SUI. The findings indicated that several factors at play are unique to doctoral candidates. The faculty prestige, research-based concerns, and nature of online media were identified to be crucial aspects of SUI for the TEFL Ph.D. students. Universities are thus advised to provide appropriate direction for virtual candidates. The study also found that some students perceived a lack of competence in TEFL, which, in turn, acted as a barrier to their SUI. To alleviate this problem, further research needs to identify what is lacking in teacher education university programs and what initiatives are required to improve TEFL students’ professional development and help them become confident English teachers.
... While they get involved in the internet, social media, game apps and educational apps, they have a great opportunity to communicate with known or unknown users of those digital technologies. Thus, unintentionally or intentionally, students begin to construct or focus on their identity; the way they conceptualize, produce, and reproduce themselves in digital interactions (Barton & Lee, 2012;Darvin & Norton, 2014;Lafkioui, 2008;Norton & Costa, 2018). Briefly, students are in the condition in which they participate in a new dimension of digital literacy practices socalled -dimension of being‖ or -contexts‖ (Hafner et al., 2015;Jones & Hafner, 2012). ...
... Otra línea de investigación, también muy importante, analiza las relaciones entre la frecuencia y las funciones de los emojis (Cantamutto & Vela, 2019;López-Rúa, 2022); la frecuencia y la variación geográfica (Ljubešic & Fišer, 2016;López-Rúa, 2022); la frecuencia y el género (Huffaker& Carvert, 2005;Koch et al., 2022); o los emojis como espejo de otros tipos de mensajes, mucho más sutiles, como la persuasión (Ayan, 2020), las actitudes de los usuarios (Prada et al., 2018), los estados de ánimo (Skiba, 2016) o la identidad (Yus, 2015(Yus, , 2020. El concepto 'identidad', desde un punto de vista social, ha sido objeto de investigación en varias disciplinas, como la psicología (Taijel, 1974(Taijel, , 1981, la lingüística (Heller, 1987) y la adquisición de segundas lenguas (Norton & de Costa, 2018;García-Pastor, 2020). En líneas generales, los estudiosos del tema señalan tres aspectos especialmente destacados en relación con este término: el individuo, el grupo y la lengua. ...
This paper has two main objectives. The first one is to examine the relationship between the frequency of emojis and their pragmatic and discursive functions. The second one is to investigate how the frequency of use and its relationship with the aforementioned variables (the meanings conveyed or expressed by them) can provide relevant information about the 'digital discursive identity' of users. The results of the statistical analysis indicate that an emoji is significantly more frequent if it represents a non-verbal element; is used to mitigate possible conflicts; expresses irony and humour; is repeatable; and can be used by both women and men (unisex). In relation to digital discursive identity, it is possible to point out that men and women indistinctly use those emojis that aim to mitigate possible conflicts, enhance commonality and ensure a polite, fun and pleasant atmosphere in the chats (a necessary condition). Men, however, unlike women, see part of their choices determined by other social reasons such as 'masculine identity'. This factor could explain, on the one hand, a lesser use of emojis in general, perhaps due to a supposed attribution of this code to women; but, especially, it helps to understand the lack of those emojis (sadness, fear, plea, flowers, etc.) whose use could infer some kind of weakness, hypothetically related to a 'feminine identity'.
... They show how investment is a unity where the concepts of identity, capital, and ideology converge. Their model shows how ideologies define, shape, and reshape learners' identities and allow them to be positioned and position others in dynamic ways across time and space (De Costa & Norton, 2016). ...
English teachers’ professional development responds to individual needs and societal discourses about teaching, learning, and language use. This paper reports the findings of a case study that explored the factors that increased or limited the active and committed participation of nine Colombian teachers of English in professional development programs. Findings suggest that English teachers are invested in their professional development if they may develop three imagined identities—as proficient English speakers, ELT experts, and ICT competent users—and their affiliation to an imagined community of “bilinguals.” The teachers’ journey to the imagined identities and the imagined community is full of conflicting emotions amidst the socio-political context of their work and the country’s language education policies.
... Otra línea de investigación, también muy importante, analiza las relaciones entre la frecuencia y las funciones de los emojis (Cantamutto & Vela, 2019;López-Rúa, 2022); la frecuencia y la variación geográfica (Ljubešic & Fišer, 2016;López-Rúa, 2022); la frecuencia y el género (Huffaker& Carvert, 2005;Koch et al., 2022); o los emojis como espejo de otros tipos de mensajes, mucho más sutiles, como la persuasión (Ayan, 2020), las actitudes de los usuarios (Prada et al., 2018), los estados de ánimo (Skiba, 2016) o la identidad (Yus, 2015(Yus, , 2020. El concepto 'identidad', desde un punto de vista social, ha sido objeto de investigación en varias disciplinas, como la psicología (Taijel, 1974(Taijel, , 1981, la lingüística (Heller, 1987) y la adquisición de segundas lenguas (Norton & de Costa, 2018;García-Pastor, 2020). En líneas generales, los estudiosos del tema señalan tres aspectos especialmente destacados en relación con este término: el individuo, el grupo y la lengua. ...
El trabajo que aquí presentamos tiene dos objetivos fundamentales. El primero es examinar la relación entre la frecuencia de los emojis y sus funciones, pragmáticas y discursivas. El segundo es investigar cómo la frecuencia de uso y su relación con las mencionadas variables (los significados trasmitidos o expresados por las mismas) pueden aportar información relevante sobre la ‘identidad discursiva digital’ de los usuarios. Los resultados del análisis estadístico indican que un emoji aparecerá más frecuentemente, de manera significativa, si representa un elemento no verbal; es usado para mitigar posibles conflictos; expresa ironía y humor; es repetible; y puede ser utilizado tanto por mujeres como por hombres (unisex). En relación con la identidad discursiva digital, es posible señalar que hombres y mujeres utilizan indistintamente aquellos emojis que tienen como objetivo limar posibles conflictos, potenciar lo común y conseguir que, en los chats, se produzca un ambiente cortés, divertido y agradable (condición necesaria). Los hombres, sin embargo, a diferencia de las mujeres, ven determinada parte de sus elecciones por otras razones sociales como la ‘identidad masculina’. Este factor podría explicar, por una parte, un uso menor en general de los emojis, quizás por una supuesta atribución de este código a lo femenino; pero, especialmente, ayuda a entender la ausencia de aquellos emojis (tristeza, miedo, súplica, flores, etc.) de cuyo uso pudiera inferirse algún tipo de debilidad, relacionada hipotéticamente con una ‘identidad femenina’.
... The study on language and identity has been informed and developed by the advancements of findings in social sciences and theories (Norton & De Costa, 2017;Przymus et al., 2022). Benson et al. (2013) believed that a comprehensive L2 identity-related study should be multidimensional to include sociopragmatic and interactional competence development, linguistic self-concept through which one can assume a reflexive identity including emotional factors and self-efficacy in L2 setting, and L2 based personal competence development which underscores the individual's active role of independence and agency. ...
2023). Identity processing styles as predictors of L2 identity dimensions: the interplay of sociocognitive and sociolinguistic inclinations. Teaching English Language, 17(1), 269-296. https://doi. Abstract Because of the importance of the second or foreign language (L2) identity and its role in L2 development on one hand and the significance of the identity processing styles, examining the under-researched relationship between these two dimensions of identity is a highly valuable for the SLA literature. Therefore, the current study investigated how identity processing styles were related to various dimensions of L2 identity among L2 learners. Following a purposive snowball sampling, 1,018 Iranian EFL learners took part in this study. A validated Multidimensional L2 Identity Questionnaire (MLIQ) and Identity Processing Style Inventory (IPSI-4) were filled out to explore the predictive power of the learners' identity processing styles (informational, normative, and diffuse-avoidant styles) at the personal level on seven dichotomized L2 identity dimensions. The data analysis using multiple regression showed that identity processing styles significantly predicted learners' L2 identity dimensions. The normative style was a strong predictor of aspects of the L2 identity, the diffuse-avoidant style was a moderate predictor of four L2 identity dimensions and the informational style was a weak predictor of two different dimensions of L2 identity. Building Identity Processing Styles as upon these socio-cognitive identity styles, EFL learners can utilize the maximum information coming from different potential sources to develop their L2 identities more systematically.
... In this study, we echo the multilingual and dynamic turns in SLA (Henry, 2017;May, 2014), and we also answer the call to examine transnational language teacher identity from an ecological perspective (de Costa & Norton, 2017;Norton & de Costa, 2018;Valmori & de Costa, 2016). To put this precisely by quoting de Costa and Norton (2017), "we try to understand how transnational language teacher's identities develop within a complex ecology that straddles the macro, meso, and micro dimensions of teaching (p. ...
This study explores the professional identity construction of two transnational Chinese language teachers against a backdrop where multilingual and dynamic turns in language teaching and learning are taking place globally. Combining the complex dynamic system theory perspective with the multifaceted nature of language learning and teaching framework, and by adopting multiple sources of narrative data, it was found that both participants faced a downgrade in their professional identity due to the overpowering influence of English globally and locally, and the unequal transformation of cultural capital from the Chinese educational system to the English educational system also caused such a downgrade; the vulnerable identity of an ESL learner remained the most prominent aspect of their multifaceted teacher identity. As their English improved, they also made improvement in their career development, and it was the high-quality translanguaging practices enabled by the emergence of multilingual identities that empowered them to improve in their professions. The article ends with a call for actions to legitimize transnational language teachers’ professional identity from a translanguaging perspective and to build a balanced sustainable language ecology.
... Such conceptualization was highlighted by many scholars in their early work (e.g., Duff & Uchida, 1997 ;Peirce, 1995 ) and has been continuously emphasized in contemporaneous research (e.g., Trent, 2013 ;Zhu et al., 2022 ). In addition, it also echoes past research in terms of how the identity construct is conceived in language education ( Norton & De Costa, 2018 ) and social psychology research ( Vignoles et al., 2011 ). ...
Language teacher identity formation has long captured researchers' attention in second/foreign language (L2) teacher education, and nowadays it has been increasingly viewed as a process of socialization. However , much remains unexplored about this socialization process, especially how language socialization impacts L2 teachers' professional growth. To bridge this gap, this ethnographic study was conducted in a Chinese culture class, aiming to uncover mechanisms of language socialization manifested in the communicative interactions between pre-service English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers and their teacher educator. Results based on qualitative data analyses demonstrated three key mechanisms through which pre-service teachers' language teacher identity was shaped through their language experience in the classroom. These findings indicate the importance of investigating the influence of language socialization on L2 teachers' learning experience. Future research directions are also discussed to further the field's understanding of the nature, processes, and outcomes of socialization in language teacher identity formation.
... It is a vast topic in all of the fields concerned with society and psychology. In the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, the past two decades faced a rush of research on identity and language learning (Hansen & Liu, 1997;Jenkins, 2009;Joseph, 2004;Llamas & Watt, 2009;Nematzadeh & Haddad Narafshan, 2020;Norton & De Costa 2018;Norton Peirce, 1995;Norton & Toohey, 2011;Sang, 2016), and the work of Norton on identity and investment founded a groundwork for an in-depth look into the issue of language learning and identity (Darvin & Norton, 2015). In Norton's definition, "identity is how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future" (Norton, 2013, p.45). ...
... While they get involved in the internet, social media, game apps and educational apps, they have a great opportunity to communicate with known or unknown users of those digital technologies. Thus, unintentionally or intentionally, students begin to construct or focus on their identity; the way they conceptualize, produce, and reproduce themselves in digital interactions (Barton & Lee, 2012;Darvin & Norton, 2014;Lafkioui, 2008;Norton & Costa, 2018). Briefly, students are in the condition in which they participate in a new dimension of digital literacy practices socalled -dimension of being‖ or -contexts‖ (Hafner et al., 2015;Jones & Hafner, 2012). ...
One of the lecturers‘ responsibilities is to stay current by reading widely and producing published work in the field while connecting and collaborating with other academics to improve teaching strategies and expand their knowledge base. The research can refresh and enrich the lecturers‘ quality in handling the class to motivate the students and improve significantly. Besides, this is also well in harmony to meet the university's vision to explore lecturers‘ potential in finding their specialized competence, better academic careers, and professional development.
This book honorably presents such enthralling and thought-provoking insights on various perspectives on English education. The contributions highlight the teaching, and the situation of how the pandemic has shaped lecturers‘ innovation and creativity in pedagogy. Moreover, it is also nice to find a strong collaboration by welcoming other lecturers from various affiliations to get involved in sharing their struggles, challenges, and opportunities in the ELT field.
... The presence of international students motivates students of their home country to learn more deeply and improves attendance (Baklashova & Kazakov, 2016). Learning and participating in community activities impact the community's social interactions where individuals live and learn (Norton & De Costa, 2018). In other words, students study and socialize in a particular society. ...
This study aimed to assess the adaptability and anxiety of international students of the first and fourth years to study in [BLINDED] University, Kazakhstan. The study relied on questionnaires for assessing adaptability (SACQ questionnaire) and anxiety (based on the technique developed by Spielberger and Khanin). The results show a correlation between anxiety and adaptability. Most first-year students have anxiety and adaptability at average and below-average levels. Fourth-year students have high adaptability scores and low anxiety scores. The results show that programs for international students at [BLINDED] University positively impact students, and there are essential in the university’s work. The anxiety and adaptability levels of the fourth-year students are expected and can be explained by natural habituation after time and the influence of programs for overcoming various adaptation barriers.
... This dynamic, holistic, and technology-mediated approach supports inclusive and decolonialized LE practices by enabling learners to critically reflect on and engage with difference. A critical engagement with diversity and Otherness is fundamental in recognizing and responding to the recurring social, linguistic, cultural, and racial inequalities entrenched in multicultural societies (Nieto & Bode, 2018;Norton & De Costa, 2018;Paris & Alim, 2017). The pursuit of innovative LE that actively recognizes, values and leverages diversity requires thoughtful and consistent consideration of social realities and educational particularities; not a one-size-fits-all pedagogy. ...
This book challenges the reader to rethink and reimagine what diversity in language education means in transnational societies. Bringing together researchers and practitioners who contributed to the international LINguistic and Cultural DIversity REinvented (LINCDIRE) project, the book examines four pillars of innovation in language education: the Action-oriented approach, Plurilingualism, Indigenous epistemologies and Technology enhanced learning. The book critically discusses plurilingual pedagogical approaches that draw on learners' linguistic and cultural repertoires to encourage and support the dynamic use of languages in curricular innovation. It is a fundamental resource for language teachers, curriculum designers and educational researchers interested in understanding current thinking on the relevance and benefit of a plurilingual paradigm shift for language education in today's societies.
... Building on this earlier body of Erasmus+ program research, the current study is inspired by Norton and De Costa's (2018) call for debate on how teacher identities evolve in the wake of globalization and neoliberal impulses. We also draw extensively on Simon-Maeda's (2004) work on tracing EFL teachers' professional identity enactment in their life histories. ...
... As historical forces have facilitated this growing body of knowledge (Kramsch, 2013), researchers are increasingly asked to incorporate geopolitical upheavals into the study of identity (Norton & De Costa, 2018). For instance, how does globalization expedite the flow of people and images? ...
This study interrogates the influences of neoliberalism on applied linguistics research by engaging in critical reflections on my researcher subjectivity. Drawing on a longitudinal study of marginalized teenagers in South Korea, I examine how neoliberal forces have acted upon me as a subject and how I have maneuvered the neoliberal academic field. As I narrate and name my struggles that have originated from the ascendancy of neoliberalism, I show how I take up, reproduce, and withstand my neoliberal self. The inseparable link between neoliberalism and researcher subjectivity ultimately points to a theory of ethics—as a way to address not simply how to resist the forces of neoliberalism, but what kind of subjects we might want to become under the reign of neoliberalism.
이 연구는 저자의 연구자 주관성(subjectivity)을 비판적으로 성찰함으로써 신자유주의가 응용언어학 연구에 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지 질문한다. 한국의 소외된 10대들에 대한 종단 연구를 통해서 저자는 신자유주의 위력이 주체로서의 저자에게 어떻게 작용했는지, 그리고 저자가 신자유주의적 학계에서 얼마나 교묘히 움직였는지를 살펴본다. 신자유주의의 우세로 비롯된 저자의 몸부림/투쟁을 서술하고 명명하면서 저자는 자신의 신자유주의적 자아를 어떻게 수용하고, 재생산하A, 저항하는지를 보여준다. 신자유주의와 연구자 주관성 사이의 불가분의 연결고리는 궁극적으로 윤리 이론, 즉 단순히 신자유주의의 위력에 저항하는 방법뿐 아니라 신자유주의의 지배 속에서 어떤 주체가 될 것인지 고찰하는 방법의 필요성을 암시한다. 키워드 세계화, 신자유주의, 성찰성, 연구 방법론, 주관성, 정체성
... L1 background, gender, and language proficiency were not reported in many ICC studies, although they constitute influential variables in second language acquisition (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015;Ellis, 2015;Norris & Ortega, 2000). Also, despite the importance of learner variables such as motivation, willingness to communicate, identity, and language learning strategies in second language acquisition studies (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009;MacIntyre et al., 2011;Norton & De Costa, 2018;Oxford, 2016), they were not among the variables reported in our corpus. This under-representation or non-representation of key learner variables results in our poor understanding of how ICC is developed in home and study abroad contexts and why there are differential gains in ICC among learners. ...
To provide insights into a wide array of individual learner variables implicated in intercultural education in home and study abroad contexts, this study systematically reviewed the effects of such variables on the development of intercultural competence. The corpus consisted of 56 journal articles published over the past two decades (2000-2020). The purpose of this study was to explore: (a) learner variables that were described in research on intercultural competence, including, inter alia, their age, gender, first language (L1) background, proficiency level, and attitudinal orientations; (b) settings in which learners’ intercultural development was studied, including both home contexts and study abroad contexts; and (c) effects of learner variables on the development of their intercultural competence. The results of this synthesis indicate that a growing number of studies have started to document intercultural instruction in both home and study abroad contexts. They show how learner variables were considered in conducting these studies and how variation in these variables impacted the effectiveness of instruction that targeted intercultural competence. The findings can considerably broaden our understanding of both opportunities and constraints in intercultural education in terms of learner variables and in particular variables that make the most contribution to intercultural development in home and study abroad contexts.
Globalization has turned English into the world’s dominating lingua franca. Its rapidlygrowing spread of English has brought changes to its static rules, replacing by that its nationalculture with a global one (Dornyei’ et al. 2006 as cited in Jenkins, 2007) and leading to a linguistic diversity in the way English is used (Norton & De Costa, 2018). In fact, this change has affected English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) speakers’ identity and linguistic practices in the Arab region including Lebanon, a country with diverse and complex affiliations, ideological polarization, and language identities. Thus, from a poststructuralist perspective, the Lebanese ELF speakers are ideal social agents for exploring the relationship between the evolvement of identity and ELF learning. Accordingly, the researchers aim to investigate how the use of ELF
has affected the identity and social-linguistic practices of the Lebanese youth. A mixedmethods design is used whereby quantitative and qualitative data are collected through an online self-completion questionnaire and focus group interviews. The participants, purposively selected, consist of 100 Lebanese undergraduates who speak English as a second or third language besides their Arabic mother tongue. The findings reveal that the Lebanese participants
are attached to their Arab identity and languages but, at the same time, embrace the linguistic power of English for seeking a successful future. Also, both languages have an impact on the construction of their social identity and linguistic practices. This entails the need for new educational practices that protect the Arabic language without resisting the English language.
Globalization has turned English into the world’s dominating lingua franca. Its rapidly- growing spread of English has brought changes to its static rules, replacing by that its national culture with a global one (Dornyei’ et al. 2006 as cited in Jenkins, 2007) and leading to a linguistic diversity in the way English is used (Norton & De Costa, 2018). In fact, this change has affected English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) speakers’ identity and linguistic practices in the Arab region including Lebanon, a country with diverse and complex affiliations, ideological polarization, and language identities. Thus, from a poststructuralist perspective, the Lebanese ELF speakers are ideal social agents for exploring the relationship between the evolvement of identity and ELF learning. Accordingly, the researchers aim to investigate how the use of ELF has affected the identity and social-linguistic practices of the Lebanese youth. A mixed- methods design is used whereby quantitative and qualitative data are collected through an online self-completion questionnaire and focus group interviews. The participants, purposively selected, consist of 100 Lebanese undergraduates who speak English as a second or third language besides their Arabic mother tongue. The findings reveal that the Lebanese participants are attached to their Arab identity and languages but, at the same time, embrace the linguistic power of English for seeking a successful future. Also, both languages have an impact on the construction of their social identity and linguistic practices. This entails the need for new educational practices that protect the Arabic language without resisting the English language.
Keywords: Arabic Language, Cross-Cultural Identities, Lebanon, English as a Lingua Franca,
Recognizing the cultural transitions Chinese international students undergo as readers in the Canadian higher education system, this study explores the difficulties encountered by four Chinese students and uncovers how they experienced, responded to, and transformed in a new cultural reading environment. Focusing on the notion of a reader’s identity, this study uses narrative inquiry to show how participants’ readers identities are reconstructed in a new cultural reading environment. It concludes that readers’ identities reflect readers’ different cultural memberships. As international students crossing cultural boundaries, their identities as readers shape how they interpret and understand the meaning of reading materials.
Identity and second language acquisition (SLA) is best understood with reference to changing conceptions of the individual, language, and learning in the field of applied linguistics. These changes are indexical of a shift in the field from a predominantly psycholinguistic approach to SLA to include a greater focus on sociological and anthropological dimensions of language learning, particularly with reference to sociocultural, poststructural, and critical theory. This entry examines the work of scholars who are centrally concerned with the relationship between the language learner and the larger social world, and the way in which power is implicated in SLA. Key directions in identity research are addressed, including identity and investment, social categories, and digitally mediated language learning. It is argued that social processes marked by inequities of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation may serve to position learners in ways that silence and exclude. At the same time, however, learners may resist marginalization through both covert and overt acts of resistance. Of central interest to researchers of second language identity is that the very articulation of power, identity, and resistance is expressed in and through language.
Objective: The main goals of school mathematical education are the development of intellectual students, the formation of thought qualities characteristic of mathematical activities and the acquisition of specific mathematical knowledge, the skills and skills necessary for practical application, and the formation of research skills. Theoretical Framework: The problem and purpose of the study is to identify the possibilities of problem-searching tasks in mathematics as a way for school students to develop research skills in updated content situations. Method: A method has been developed to build selected skills based on the corresponding system. It has been established that collective or group forms are most effective in creating problem situations in the classroom. Group or individual forms are most effective for testing a hypothesis and finding a solution to a problematic task. Result and Conclusion: The article also highlights the main blocks of research skills of schoolchildren and problem-search tasks in algebra and geometry developed for these blocks and methods for the formation of these skills. The basic principles for constructing a system of tasks focused on the formation of each block and each skill that we have chosen are determined. Research Implications: Implementation of these goals necessitates updating the system of school mathematical education, which is designed to ensure a harmonious combination of the interests of the individual and society. Originality/value: It contributed to the activation of students’ activities and their positive motivation for learning activities carried out in the classroom and at home.
With a focus on two return migrants, I explore how they perceived their second language (L2) experiences in New Zealand and navigated their L2 user identities after resettlement in Japan, drawing on the theoretical construct of investment. Narrative inquiry is employed as the means of collecting and analysing the data. The themes identified from the interviews were synthesised into story form, and it was further investigated in relation to dimensions of social activity from the perspective of multiscalar analysis. The findings revealed that, although it was a site of struggle to negotiate their identities in New Zealand, the linguistic capital that they gained there became valued as symbolic capital in Japan that benefits others. This prompted them to learn again, despite having previously divested from English. They reappraised their L2 experiences across time and space, which enabled them to make positive attributions about their associated gains. 本研究では、帰国移民2名を対象とし、両者が、ニュージーランドでのL2経験をどのように認識し、そして日本再定住後にL2使用者としてのアイデンティティをどのようにナビゲートしているのかを、「投資」という理論構成を用い探求した。データの収集と分析の手段には、ナラティブ・インクワイアリーを使用した。インタビューから特定されたテーマを基に作成された「ストーリー」は、マルチスケーラー分析の観点から、社会的活動の次元との関連で精査された。その結果、帰国移民にとってニュージーランドはアイデンティティ交渉の葛藤の場でしかなかったが、そこで得た言語資本は、帰国後、他者に貢献できる象徴資本として評価されるものであったことが明らかになった。それは、一旦離脱した英語学習を再開させる契機ともなり、つまり、時間と空間を隔てた上で、L2経験は肯定的に解釈・再評価され得ることを意味している。
Teacher identity building rather than learning teaching in terms of skills and subsystems has recently been acknowledged as a priority in future teacher preparation. Several teacher identity models have been offered, including the 3A Language Teacher Identity Framework (3ALTIF) (Werbińska, 2017a) in which teacher identity comprises affiliation (teachers’ willingness to teach), attachment (teachers’ beliefs related to their teaching) and autonomy (teachers’ agentive, reflective, and resilient powers). With hindsight, it seems that the 3ALTIF, which drew on other identity models available at the time of its conception, does not address the affective side of language teacher identity explicitly enough and therefore can hardly embrace the uniqueness of this profession. That is why we decided to explore the issue of emotions more deeply and conduct a lengthy duoethnographic narrative to consider the 3ALTIF’s ‘missing’ component for the future ‘improvement’ of the 3ALTIF. Duoethnography was chosen as a qualitative research method thanks to its novelty, its suitability for investigating identity issues and the opportunity it provides for us to explain and express ourselves. In our duoethnographic dialogues we focused on our own emotions from three perspectives: former school language teachers, language teachers as parents, and language teacher educators, all of which are the roles we have played. The findings reveal our experience of emotions that once affected us and also suggest that emotions are not only psychological constructs but have social dimensions as well.
Drawing on two critical incidents in classroom contexts, Norton and Morgan make the case that poststructuralism is relevant to applied linguistics because of three central characteristics: First, poststructuralism constitutes a set of theoretical stances that serve to critique prevailing assumptions regarding the sources and nature of identity and the rational, humanist subject of the Enlightenment, particularly with respect to the construct of investment. Second, poststructuralism critiques the conditions and foundations of knowledge, particularly with reference to its apparent objectivity and universal applicability. Third, poststructuralism critiques the representational capacities of language and texts, foregrounding their intertextuality, multivocality, and indeterminacy. Through an analysis of the two critical incidents, Norton and Morgan highlight how meaning is constructed across time and space, how identities and investments are implicated in meaning‐making, and how knowledge and power are inextricably linked.
This volume presents research from across the subdisciplines of Hispanic Linguistics in an attempt to showcase how new research methods, together with a renewed focus on language variation, have advanced our field. This volume is divided into three sections of original research, with the first describing regional variation of Spanish, the second synchronic variation, and the third learner profile variation. Such nuanced descriptions and analyses would not be possible without new variationist research methods and big-data techniques such as the use of online corpora and data reduction analyses. These overarching themes represent a paradigm shift affecting the whole of Hispanic Linguistics, and are, therefore, best appreciated in an edited volume composed of diverse manifestations of trends like those included herein. The data from these submissions were originally presented at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium hosted by Wake Forest University in 2021.
This study presents the case of a multilingual refugee (Maji) of Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English, from Burundi living in the U.S., and examines the language ideologies and identities embedded in his transnational narratives. We analyze our focal participant’s multi-layered transnational experiences using Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment that foregrounds the intersection of ideology, capital, and identity. Specifically, we center on dominant ideologies in Maji’s discourse and how he negotiated his ethnic, social class, and gendered identities. Our findings revealed that Maji, who adhered to discourses that promoted the English superiority, the prestige of dialectal forms of Swahili, Spanish, and English, and English as a global commodity displayed his awareness of language hierarchies and dominance. Yet, Maji, who drew on French for meaning-making, displayed contradictory ideas by framing French as a useless language in the U.S. as compared to English. Our study sheds light on the complexity of multilinguals’ identity construction and discusses pedagogical implications on how to support language minority students’ multilingualism.
An increasingly multilingual working life expects university graduates to possess multilingual competences, but at the same time many European students study fewer languages than before. As they learn about field-specific linguistic practices and contemplate their future, university students negotiate their identities as language learners and future professionals. Supporting them in acquiring a multilingual identity would be beneficial as it is a strengthening factor in language learning. Since they study towards a profession, it is likely that students examine language learning from the viewpoint of a working life. From these premises, Finnish social science students were interviewed as a part of a course that supported their readiness to work in multilingual environments. The purpose was to investigate how they negotiated their multilingual and professional identities and how these negotiations intersect. The data was examined from a poststructural perspective, analysing identity negotiations by means of positioning theory. The results show that the students constructed their linguistic identities primarily in relation to English competences, often positioning themselves as “contentedly bilingual”. The data also revealed an “aspiring multilingual” identity negotiation which, however, echoed societal ideologies on language learning rather than describing the students’ internalised beliefs. Students’ certainty of their future profession was often connected to a confidence in speaking English and a critical stance towards the need for multilingual competences. Multilingual identity negotiation was hence connected to prevailing discourses and professional aspirations. The study provides new perspectives on university students’ multilingual and professional identities and suggests pedagogical solutions that can support their development in Higher Education language teaching.
The present study aimed to explore the professional identity development of English teachers through the lens of the Possible Selves Theory, focusing on the experiences of three distinct groups of educators. An explanatory sequential mixed‐method research design was employed using 194 student, novice and experienced English teachers working or studying at various state schools in Turkey. The findings suggested that teacher groups held similar perceptions of their ideals and fears and there was not a significant difference among student, novice and experienced English teacher groups in terms of their possible selves. Additionally, the results revealed that the participants placed a significant emphasis on factors such as professional development, language proficiency, professional competence, personal attributes and recognition in relation to their ideal language teacher selves. The major fears related to their professional identity included language incompetence, inadequate professional development, undesirable personal attributes, undesired professional tendencies and a lack of recognition. The participants also noted various external and internal factors that influenced their possible selves. Based on the findings, a data‐driven model on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Teacher Professional Identity Development (TPID) is proposed to contribute to the existing literature in the field.
Context and Implications
Rationale for this study
Knowing about teachers' current thoughts and their expectations and fears for the future can aid in understanding their identities and potentially transform their future selves, thereby improving the formation of their professional identity.
Why the new findings matter
The findings of this study are significant as they add to the existing literature on English teachers' professional identity development using the Possible Selves Theory. This framework allows for an examination of teachers' expectations and fears, providing a comprehensive understanding of their professional selves and how these perceptions influence their future actions and goals. This knowledge is critical for designing teacher training programmes and professional development initiatives that support teachers' ongoing professional growth.
Implications
It is recommended to give increased attention and emphasis to the practical component of student teacher education, specifically the practicum experience, in the curriculum. Opportunities for interaction and collaboration among trainees, mentors and teacher educators should also be provided to enhance the effectiveness of the practicum. Furthermore, to address the concerns of EFL student, novice and experienced teachers about losing their enthusiasm for teaching in the future, comprehensive support mechanisms should be put in place through in‐service training and counselling services. Lastly, the Ministry of National Education could establish online and in‐person platforms to facilitate interaction and collaboration among teachers.
Teachers’ work in school is said to be under increasing pressure from neoliberal forces. Key constructs that are essential in understanding how teachers cope with these changes are teacher responsibility and teacher accountability, which are closely related within scholarly and everyday contexts although serving different logics and outcomes. By taking a constructionist approach in Discursive Psychology toward analyzing interview data, we specifically attempted to examine teacher responsibility from their talk in this study. Based on a sample of primary and secondary teachers from mainstream government schools in Singapore, it was found that they used various rhetorical strategies when talking about responsibility at work to perform a number of discursive functions such as managing identity, morality, being knowledgeable about, and reconciling the main purposes of teaching. This discourse analytic method complements as well as adds to knowledge obtained from typical qualitative content analyses regarding teacher responsibility. We conclude with some practical recommendations for improving the working conditions of teaching in school.
Study abroad research has become an established area of inquiry with theoretical impact and methodological sophistication. The field has incorporated the different approaches and methodological changes that have characterized SLA scholarship, including technological advances and new designs. The present volume contributes an update on and a systematic critical appraisal of the methods employed in study abroad research to identify strengths and weaknesses and to look ahead and point towards new directions. The volume is organized around different areas -approaches, instruments, linguistic levels, and learners and their context-, each one including a number of chapters authored by outstanding experts in the field.
There is a large amount of linguistic, demographic, and cultural diversity in Japan, despite its image of being homogeneous. This introductory chapter provides contextual information about diversity relevant to identities in language learning, teaching, and reclamation in Japan; examines power, ideologies, and inequalities that are intertwined with diversity; and provides a brief discussion on identities in language education. The dominance of Japanese language and the ideology of Japanese uniqueness influence the teaching and learning of Japanese as a second language, but they are also resisted by efforts made for Indigenous language reclamation. English, as a dominant foreign language in Japan, is learned by not only Japanese students but also others, and it is taught by diverse teachers, creating multiple contact zones for identity negotiation.
The dominant meta-theories in contemporary sociolinguistics include interactionism, social constructivism, poststructuralism and similarly relativist, anti-realist approaches (hereby grouped within the broader category of interpretivism). This paper argues that anti-scientific, anti-realist tendencies in contemporary sociolinguistics are ill-justified, confuse science with positivism, and weaken sociolinguists' necessary commitment to objectivity (hereby understood as commitment by scientists to explain the ontological order, or what exists regardless of whether it is known by people). The anti-realism in interpretivist sociolinguistics also considerably diminishes the ability of sociolinguists to, for example, make ontological claims about language and its users, study phenomena including linguistic hierarchies and linguistic/social oppression as systems, and develop robust and effective strategies for critical engagement and social emancipation. By reaffirming sociolinguistics as part of the scientific project, and by reframing sociolinguistics within critical realism (CR), this paper offers conceptual alternatives to the dominant interpretivist tendencies in contemporary sociolinguistics.
This paper focuses on the language policy of the European Union (hereafter, EU), which is applied in the case of European Schools (hereafter, ES). It is based on a case study conducted at postgraduate level. Our purposes were: a) to examine and analyse the official EU policy on language and multilingualism, b) to find similarities and differences between the official EU texts and the praxis followed in ES regarding language learning, and c) to explore the perceptions of ES teachers, emphasizing on the effectiveness of this model as far as language learning and multilingualism are concerned. The results of this study have shown that European Schools are considered effective in terms of teaching students their mother tongue while promoting foreign language acquisition. Moreover, certain measures and necessary changes are being discussed in order to have similar multilingual and multicultural school systems developed in modern societies.
In this chapter, we introduce the principles and practices underlying qualitative methodologies (e.g., ethnography, case studies, action research) and qualitative methods (e.g., field observations, interviews) that are compatible with socioculturally-oriented SLA theories (e.g., language socialization, identity theory, Vygotskian sociocultural theory). We highlight the exploratory and interpretive nature of qualitative research in that it intends to explain phenomena through the experiences and perspectives of learners and teachers by providing rich descriptions of the learning and teaching contexts in which these learners and teachers are socially situated. Working on the premise that SLA theories need to be aligned with methodologies and research paradigms, we also explain and detail how these theories have been applied to better understand and conduct classroom-based research involving language learners and teachers. Further, we break down qualitative methodology into steps, outlining common methods and instruments used for collecting data, and highlighting ethical and procedural considerations associated with this research approach.
Göçmen çokdilliliği oldukça politize edilmiş bir olgudur. Ancak insanlığın doğuşu kadar eski bir kavram olan çokdillilik göç hareketinin en önemli sonucudur denebilir. Dil olmadan ekonomik ve politik sistemler yürümez, insanlar birbirleriyle iletişime geçemez, kısacası hareket olmaz. Sosyal bilimlerdeki göç literatürü genel olarak dile çok kısıtlı bir yer ayırsa da başta toplumdilbilim (sociolinguistics) araştırmaları olmak üzere dilbilimin birçok alanı göçe bağlı çokdillilik kavramını birkaç onyıldır incelemektedir. Bu makalede çokdillilik kavramı dilbilimin bu alt alanları bakımından masaya yatırılacaktır. Bu alanların günümüz Türkiyesindeki göç profili ile ilgili bağlantıları ise İstanbul’da Çağdaş Dil Çeşitliliği adlı projenin bulguları yolu ile yapılacaktır.
How language learners and teachers actually use pedagogical materials in classrooms is a ‘groundbreaking’ subject of applied linguistics inquiry (Tarone, 2014, p. 653), referred to in this research agenda article as materials use . We begin with a theoretically-oriented overview of language education scholarship on pedagogical materials (henceforth materials ). Then, we focus on seven qualitative research tasks across three thematic areas, namely materials use and: (A) language pedagogy, (B) classroom interaction, and (C) language diversity, culture, and power. The first section on pedagogy outlines research tasks on: (1) the roles of materials in classrooms, (2) the influences of materials on practicing educators’ expertise, and (3) how language teacher education programmes address materials use. The second section on classroom interaction proposes inquiry into: (4) polysemiotic patterns of materials-in-interaction, and (5) the expected and unexpected outcomes of materials regarding students’ target language use. The third section focuses on: (6) teachers’ and learners’ responses to diverse linguistic varieties and cultures represented in materials, and (7) instructional materials used in language policy and planning endeavours. Throughout this article we reference interdisciplinary connections to curriculum studies, cultural studies, sociology, and materials scholarship in general education. The seven research tasks are critical next steps for understanding materials use – a vast new field that promises to advance language education practice and theory.
The analysis and understanding of multilingualism, and its relationship to identity in the face of globalization, migration and the increasing dominance of English as a lingua franca, makes it a complex and challenging problem that requires insights from a range of disciplines. With reference to a variety of languages and contexts, this book offers fascinating insights into multilingual identity from a team of world-renowned scholars, working from a range of different theoretical and methodological perspectives. Three overarching themes are explored – situatedness, identity practices, and investment – and detailed case studies from different linguistic and cultural contexts are included throughout. The chapter authors' consideration of 'multilingualism-as-resource' challenges the conception of 'multilingualism-as-problem', which has dogged so much political thinking in late modernity. The studies offer a critical lens on the types of linguistic repertoire that are celebrated and valued, and introduce the policy implications of their findings for education and wider social issues.
Political discourse tends to characterise English proficiency as the pathway to integration in Britain. However, there is mismatch between the rhetoric and the real-life experiences of migrant and refugee language learners, who are rarely consulted on their experiences and priorities. This thesis attempts to address this by exploring adult ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) learners’ accounts of their learning English and integration experiences.
I present new perspectives on these issues by combining rich and comprehensive accounts from longitudinal timeline interviews (n=14) with questionnaire responses (n=409) from ESOL learner participants. By applying an identity conceptual lens to a new conceptual model of integration, I illustrate how ESOL learners’ language learning and integration trajectories are shaped by the ways in which they variously are assigned, claim, negotiate, and resist, identity positions.
This thesis shows that the relationship between language learning and integration can be characterised as a Catch-22 in which English proficiency can improve integration outcomes, but also, positive integration experiences are needed to facilitate progress in language learning. Language learning and integration are interrelated processes in which the rate of progress can vary and may slow down, stall, or even be felt to reverse. Many issues shape ESOL learners’ capacity to maintain motivation over extended periods of time. These include the ability to achieve and sustain more powerful and confident identity positions, and being afforded hope of realising imagined identities and desired futures. Looking beyond English proficiency, I illuminate other key factors which shape ESOL learners’ ability to make headway in Britain, such as feelings of safety, well-being and confidence, and these are influenced by social and material conditions. Attending to the issues raised in the findings can facilitate ESOL learners to keep momentum and move forward in their trajectories.
Available at: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/here-is-a-long-way-language-learning-integration-and-identity
This research explores the learner identity of female students learning English as a second language (ESL) at a public university in Pakistan through digital texts of identity (DTIs) created by them and learners’ associations of educational experiences across time and locations which impact their emergent identities. Following the poststructuralist framework on identity negotiation and “thematic” and “dialogic/performative” analysis, and image analysis framework by Kress and van Leeuwen, 33 DTIs were gathered and analyzed from 10 female ESL learners. The function of gender as a fundamental identity marker in educational experiences was investigated in particular, in order to demonstrate how social identity is established through multiple discourses. The study highlights DTIs’ ability to strengthen learners’ identities and promote more empowered identities through diverse learning environments. The main argument of the research is that female learners use digital stories to create an interpersonal space that expresses strong ties between their family and everyday locations, such as university, and the target language population, all of which shape their social identities as women and learners. The participants felt empowered by associating themselves with competent users of English making authority claims, developing their authority in and via their digital texts.
Given “the complexities of identities that second/foreign language teachers construct” (Kayi-Aydar, 2019, p. 1) and the role identities play in teachers’ professional lives, this chapter systematically reviews studies conducted within the last decade to identify trends in second language (L2) teacher identity research and practice, reflecting on personal and professional identity development issues. The rationale for this review is to shed further light on our understanding of the L2 teacher identity concerns such as professional impact, language ideologies, pedagogical choices and practices, and the like. To this end, sixty one Q1 Scopus and SSCI- indexed journal articles published from 2010 to 2020 that met exclusion-inclusion criteria were systematically reviewed. Pedagogically, the findings of the study inform the practitioners who seek a better understanding of L2 teaching context (e.g. social, political, and cultural) as well as identity types (narrated identities, identities-in-practice, future selves, gendered identities, sociocultural identities) to enhance their professional identity construction during pedagogical interactions. Theoretically, the findings both display the trajectory of studies shifting from a normative paradigm to an interpretative paradigm and introduce mainstream theoretical frameworks (social identity theory, post-structural approaches, critical theory, positioning theory, sociocultural theory, Bakhtinian framework, and communities of practice) adopted in reviewed studies. As TESOL researchers and practitioners, we have limited our review to English as a second or foreign language teacher identity and have excluded studies on modern foreign languages from our definition of L2 in this chapter, although the findings have far-reaching implications for identity development of teachers of other foreign, world or modem languages.
Young children’s translanguaging between different languages is underexplored and often examined in relation to questions of learning and teaching. In contrast, this study examines young Muslim children’s translanguaging in a London-based Islamic school. The context is one in which they and their teachers face contradictions about supporting language diversity, and public discourses and policies post 9/11, which regard practices related to Islam, including using Arabic, as suspicious. This study explores the interface of Muslim children’s translanguaging and negotiations of intersectional Muslim identities in the school setting, set within this broader Islamophobic context. Using a linguistic ethnographic approach informed by Bakhtinian heteroglossia, intersectionality and the social studies of childhood, this study examined young reception children’s engagement with translanguaging in formal and informal activities across different spaces. I draw on participant observations, informal conversations, and video recorded social interactions. I argue that young children translanguage in complex ways, shaped by institutional practices, broader social-historical discourses and language ideologies, creating dynamic language hierarchies. While Standard English dominated formal pedagogical spaces, Quranic Arabic was valued as the liturgical language of Islam. Similarly, while French was linked to social prestige, Urdu was viewed simultaneously as ethnic pride and a source of racialised mockery. Whereas the use of Somali was considered a source of deficiency and meaning-making for the Somali speaking children. I identify the common forms of translanguaging the children used in this setting depending on interlocuters, specific language ideologies and activities across space-time. Together, translanguaging and these factors produce heterogenous translanguaging spaces. I contend that the children translanguage by using varieties of Arabic and English to imagine and negotiate idealised gendered, racialised and generationed Muslimness. Developing these analyses, I suggest that translanguaging is simultaneously used to suggest asserted Muslimness and for including or excluding certain children from idealised Muslimness using ‘race’, language and generation. This study contributes to the academic conversations related to translanguaging, multilingualism, inclusions and exclusions in school settings and intersectionality as follows. I advance the complexity of translanguaging as an act of racialisation embedded within tension-filled contexts. I extend the concept of translanguaging spaces, highlighting how translanguaging shapes and is shaped by multiple activities and interlocutors across space-time. Further, I enrich intersectional analysis by offering insights into the complexity of young children’s Muslim identities and how they interlink with different social categories such as ‘race’, gender, language and generation.
Despite increased studies on language teacher identities (LTIs) in digital contexts, there has not been much research on constructing LTIs in social media (SM), a unique community of practice featuring interaction between the language teacher community oriented toward classroom practice and the SM community featuring participatory culture and visibility -- allowing one to be seen. This study filled the gap by focusing on two language teaching YouTubers' construction of LTIs by analyzing multiple runs of narratives, in-depth interviews, and their video work. Wenger's (1998) social ecology of identity in community of practice (CoP) was adopted as the analytic framework. The findings reveal that one participant was positioned as a classroom teacher to the audience right from the very beginning, aligned her work with the language teacher community, and felt marginalized, while the other positioned herself as a knowledgeable peer, not a teacher, aligned more with the SM community, and felt more empowered. Their experiences of participation and marginalization reveal the importance of keeping a balance between the self and audiences and challenge the conventional view that language teaching in SM is all about fun and entertaining. Implications and suggestions for SM language teaching and research are provided.
This chapter discusses questions regarding linguistic and cultural changes as the effect of migration among Indigenous people in Ecuador. We explore how transmigration and the formation of transnational communities affect those who do not leave.
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This is an ambitious work, covering the whole breadth of the field from its theoretical underpinnings to research and teaching methodology. The Editors have managed to recruit a stellar panel of contributors, resulting in the kind of 'all you ever wanted to know about instructed SLA' collection that should be found on the shelves of every good library. " Zoltán Dörnyei, University of Nottingham, UK The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition is the first collection of state-of-the-art papers pertaining to Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA). Written by 45 world-renowned experts, the entries are full-length articles detailing pertinent issues with up-to-date references. Each chapter serves three purposes: (1) provide a review of current literature and discussions of cutting edge issues; (2) share the authors' understanding of, and approaches to, the issues; and (3) provide direct links between research and practice. In short, based on the chapters in this handbook, ISLA has attained a level of theoretical and methodological maturity that provides a solid foundation for future empirical and pedagogical discovery. This handbook is the ideal resource for researchers, graduate students, upper-level undergraduate students, teachers, and teacher-educators who are interested in second language learning and teaching.
We describe videomaking projects in Canada, India, and Mexico in which second language learners were asked to show the children in the other countries what their lives were like. We consider how this form of expression might contribute to second language learning and allow children to make use of in and out-of-school resources. We also raise questions about the affordances and constraints of the videomaking process and explore how teachers might approach such multimodal literacy activities with children.
Our interest in poststructuralism in applied linguistics arises from our work as language teachers and researchers, and our mutual desire to promote a productive relationship between social theory and classroom practice.
Disciplinary Identities uses findings from corpus research to present fascinating insights into the relationship between author identity and disciplinarity in academic writing. Ken Hyland draws on a number of sources, including acknowledgements texts, academic homepages and biographies, to explore how authors convey aspects of their identities within the constraints placed upon them by their disciplines' rhetorical conventions. He promotes corpus methods as important tools in identity research, demonstrating the effectiveness of keyword and collocation analysis in highlighting both the norms of a particular genre and an author's idiosyncratic choices. Identity is conceived as multi-faceted and socially negotiated, and writing is seen as the contextualised performance of the author's identity to a community of readers. Hyland concludes by outlining a way forward for encouraging individuality as well as conventionality in students of EAP.
Human language has changed in the age of globalization: no longer tied to stable and resident communities, it moves across the globe, and it changes in the process. The world has become a complex 'web' of villages, towns, neighbourhoods and settlements connected by material and symbolic ties in often unpredictable ways. This phenomenon requires us to revise our understanding of linguistic communication. In The Sociolinguistics of Globalization Jan Blommaert constructs a theory of changing language in a changing society, reconsidering locality, repertoires, competence, history and sociolinguistic inequality.
Language as a Local Practice addresses the questions of language, locality and practice as a way of moving forward in our understanding of how language operates as an integrated social and spatial activity. By taking each of these three elements language, locality and practice and exploring how they relate to each other, Language as a Local Practice opens up new ways of thinking about language. It questions assumptions about languages as systems or as countable entities, and suggests instead that language emerges from the activities it performs. To look at language as a practice is to view language as an activity rather than a structure, as something we do rather than a system we draw on, as a material part of social and cultural life rather than an abstract entity. Language as a Local Practice draws on a variety of contexts of language use, from bank machines to postcards, Indian newspaper articles to fish-naming in the Philippines, urban graffiti to mission statements, suggesting that rather than thinking in terms of language use in context, we need to consider how language, space and place are related, how language creates the contexts where it is used, how languages are the products of socially located activities and how they are part of the action. Language as a Local Practice will be of interest to students on advanced undergraduate and post graduate courses in Applied Linguistics, Language Education, TESOL, Literacy and Cultural Studies.
The volume explores how new millennium globalization mediates language learning and identity construction. It seeks to theorize how global flows are creating new identity options for language learners, and to consider the implications for language learning, teaching and use. To frame the chapters theoretically, the volume asserts that new identities are developing because of the increasingly interconnected set of global scapes which impact language learners' lives. Part 1 focuses on language learners in (trans)national contexts, exploring their identity formation when they shuttle between cultures and when they create new communities of fellow transnationals. Part 2 examines how learners come to develop intercultural selves as a consequence of experiencing global contact zones when they sojourn to new contexts for study and work. Part 3 investigates how learners construct new identities in the mediascapes of popular culture and cyberspace, where they not only consume, but also produce new, globalized identities. Through case studies, narrative analysis, and ethnography, the volume examines identity construction among learners of English, French, Japanese, and Swahili in Canada, England, France, Hong Kong, Tanzania, and the United States. © 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved.
This volume provides a state-of-the-art snapshot of language and education research and demonstrates ways in which local and global processes are intertwined with language learning, use, and policies. Reflecting but also expanding on Nancy Hornberger’s ground-breaking contributions to educational linguistics, this book brings together leading international scholars. Chapters present new research and cutting-edge syntheses addressing current theoretical and methodological issues in researching equity, access, and multilingual education. Organized around three central themes --- bilingual education and bilingualism, the continua of biliteracy, and policy and planning for linguistic diversity in education --- the volume reflects the holistic and dynamic perspective on language (in) education that is the hallmark of educational linguistics as a field. © 2011 Francis M. Hult, Kendall A. King and the authors of individual chapters. All rights reserved.
Style, Identity and Literacy: English in Singapore is a qualitative study of the literacy practices of a group of Singaporean adolescents, relating their patterns of interaction - both inside and outside the classroom - to the different levels of social organization in Singaporean society (home, peer group and school). Combining field data gathered through a series of detailed interviews with available classroom observations, the study focuses on six adolescents from different ethnic and social backgrounds as they negotiate the learning of English against the backdrop of multilingual Singapore. This book provides social explanations for the difficulties and challenges these adolescents face by drawing on current developments in sociolinguistics, literacy studies, English language teaching and language policy.
Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning: Speaking Blackness in Brazil provides a critical overview and original sociolinguistic analysis of the African American experience in second language learning. More broadly, this book introduces the idea of second language learning as “transformative socialization”: how learners, instructors, and their communities shape new communicative selves as they collaboratively construct and negotiate race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and social class identities. Uju Anya’s study follows African American college students learning Portuguese in Afro-Brazilian communities, and their journeys in learning to do and speak blackness in Brazil. Video-recorded interactions, student journals, interviews, and writing assignments show how multiple intersecting identities are enacted and challenged in second language learning. Thematic, critical, and conversation analyses describe ways black Americans learn to speak their material, ideological, and symbolic selves in Portuguese and how linguistic action reproduces or resists power and inequity. The book addresses key questions on how learners can authentically and effectively participate in classrooms and target language communities to show that black students’ racialized identities and investments in these communities greatly influence their success in second language learning and how successful others perceive them to be.
In Disrupting Boundaries in Education and Research, six educational researchers explore together the potentialities of transdisciplinary research that de-centres human behaviour and gives materiality its due in the making of educational worlds. The book presents accounts of what happens when researchers think and act with new materiality and post-human theories to disrupt boundaries such as self and other, human and non-human, representation and objectivity. Each of the core chapters works with different new materiality concepts to disrupt these boundaries and to consider the emotive, sensory, nuanced, material and technological aspects of learning in diverse settings, such as in mathematics and learning to swim, discovering the bio-products of 'eco-sustainable' building, making videos and contending with digital government and its alienating effects. When humans are no longer at the centre of the unfolding world it is both disorienting and exhilarating. This book is an invitation to continue along these paths. © Suzanne Smythe, Cher Hill, Margaret MacDonald, Diane Dagenais, Nathalie Sinclair, Kelleen Toohey 2017. All rights reserved.
Drawing on a range of contexts and data sources from urban multilingualism to studies of animal communication, Posthumanist Applied Linguistics offers us alternative ways of thinking about the human predicament, with major implications for research, education and politics. Exploring the advent of the Anthropocene, new forms of materialism, distributed language, assemblages, and the boundaries between humans, other animals and objects, eight incisive chapters by one of the world’s foremost applied linguists open up profound questions to do with language and the world. This critical posthumanist applied linguistic perspective is essential reading for all researchers and students in the fields of Applied Linguistics and Sociolinguistics.
This book examines how urban adolescents attending a non-mainstream learning centre in the UK use language and other semiotic practices to enact identities in their day-to-day lives. Combining variationist sociolinguistics and ethnographically-informed interactional sociolinguistics, this detailed and highly reflexive account provides rich descriptions and discussions of the linguistic processes at work in a previously underexplored research environment. In doing so, it reveals fresh insights into the changes taking place in urban British English, and into the difficulties of undertaking ethnographic, sociolinguistic research in a challenging context using a combination of methods and approaches. This interdisciplinary work will appeal to students and scholars from across the fields of sociolinguistics, ethnography, and education; as well as providing a valuable resource for teachers and trainees.
This ethnographic case study of a male Hmong refugee, Vue Lang, is situated against a backdrop that is characterized by a burgeoning immigrant population in the United States and a growing need to provide them with English language instruction. The Bourdieusian concepts of capital, habitus, and field (Bourdieu, 1991) are used to explicate Vue Lang's development while enrolled in a community English as a second language (ESL) project. By drawing on data sources that included videotaped classroom lessons, field notes, and written artefacts, I demonstrate how, over the course of 6 months, he developed participation, curricular, and institutional competence. The article closes with implications for both practice and research. For classroom practice, it suggests the need for teachers to (a) facilitate habitus transformation, (b) be aware that the ESL classroom is a site of cultural politics, and (c) tap the personal experiences of learners by bringing the outside in (Baynham, 2005). For policy and research, this study highlights the importance of using case studies to trace the trajectories of language learners.
In this article, we survey the debates and questions relating to scalar approaches in the social sciences. Based on a critical review of emergent scholarship, we propose the adoption of scales as a category of practice, arguing that how scales are defined, their relationships conceived, and related to other social categories should be based on how people and institutions adopt scales in relation to their contexts and interests. Based on this position, we review the application of scales in educational linguistics and outline the questions that need to be further explored to make more constructive contributions to the appropriate unit of analysis, the relationship between context and language, and the connections between language and other semiotic resources in learning.
In light of the growing importance of identity work in second language acquisition (e.g., Block, 2006a, b) in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as well as calls for SLA and World Englishes (WE) scholars (e.g., Y. Kachru, 2005) to work together, I examine how identity has been conceptualized in research on the global use of English. While such research finds its roots in the WE paradigm (e.g, B. Kachru, 2005), it has undergone contestation in recent years. Such contestation has emerged as a result of two new conceptualizations of English: English as a lingua franca (e.g., Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2006) and a postmodern approach to English (e.g., Canagarajah, 2006; Pennycook, 2007, 2010), which views it in hybrid and fluid terms. This paper explores how identity has been embodied in the literature on the global use of English with a view to analyzing how future SLA research related to identity should take shape in the face of changes brought about by globalization.
This critical ethnographic school-based case study offers insights on the interaction between ideology and the identity development of individual English language learners in Singapore. Illustrated by case studies of the language learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students in an English-medium school in Singapore, the author examines how the immigrant students negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursive positioning over the course of the school year. Specifically, the study traces how the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex ways with their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influence their learning of English. This potent combination of language ideologies and circulating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex. By framing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of ideologies in shaping the trajectories and identities of language learners.
Human language has changed in the age of globalization: no longer tied to stable and resident communities, it moves across the globe, and it changes in the process. The world has become a complex 'web' of villages, towns, neighbourhoods and settlements connected by material and symbolic ties in often unpredictable ways. This phenomenon requires us to revise our understanding of linguistic communication. In The Sociolinguistics of Globalization Jan Blommaert constructs a theory of changing language in a changing society, reconsidering locality, repertoires, competence, history and sociolinguistic inequality. • There is great interest in the issue of globalization and this book will appeal to scholars and students in linguistics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and anthropology • Richly illustrated with examples from around the globe • Presents a profound revision of sociolinguistic work in the area of linguistic communication
What is the relationship between learners' identities and their language-learning experiences? How are identities constructed in language classrooms and what does this imply for students and teachers? Over the last decade, applied linguists have paid increasing attention to questions such as these, as have scholars in such related fields as second language acquisition (SLA), language education, and sociolinguistics. Studies examining the links between learner identities and language-learning contexts have revealed that the ways learners define themselves, are defined by others, and are positioned in social interaction have an observable impact on their learning experiences. This body of scholarship has contributed to advancing new theoretical insights on identity construction in language-learning situations.
Keywords:
language teaching;
language in the classroom;
identity
Before introducing the topic of this entry, it needs to be clarifi ed that the term discourse is employed here to refer to language in use as organized and culturally shaped ways of talking embedded in concrete social practices (see Gee, 1996, p. 131, on this point).
The African Storybook (ASb) is a digital initiative that promotes multilingual literacy for African children by providing openly licenced children's stories in multiple African languages, as well as English, French, and Portuguese. Based on Darvin and Norton's (2015) model of identity and investment, and drawing on the Douglas Fir Group's (2016) framework for second language acquisition, this study investigates Ugandan primary school teachers’ investment in the ASb, its impact on their teaching, and their changing identities. The study was conducted in a rural Ugandan school from June to December 2014, and the data, which focus on one key participant, Monica, were drawn from field notes, classroom observations, interview transcripts, and questionnaires, which were coded using retroductive coding. The findings indicate that through the ASb initiative and its stories, Monica and other teachers began to imagine themselves as writers, readers, and teachers of stories, reframing what it means to be a reading teacher. Teachers’ shifts of identity were indexical of their enhanced social and cultural capital as they engaged with the ASb, notwithstanding ideological constraints associated with mother tongue usage, assessment practices, and teacher supervision. The authors conclude that the enhancement of language teacher identity has important implications for the promotion of multilingual literacy for young learners in African communities.
This chapter introduces the developing field of linguistic ethnography. The work of scholars who are particularly influential in linguistic ethnography is discussed – in particular, Hymes, Gumperz, Goffman, and Erickson – and linked to the work of scholars currently working in this field, including Creese, Roberts, Rampton, and Lefstein and Snell. Drawing on contextual realities and mainly North American historical antecedents, it explains why linguistic ethnography is mainly a European endeavor and why it has emerged at this point in time. In particular, the chapter suggests that the formation of the linguistic ethnography forum (LEF: www. lingethnog. net) is centrally important in providing a community of practice for researchers using ethnography and linguistic analysis in their work. The chapter also points to the increasing impact of interdisciplinarity on the development of linguistic ethnography. It argues that its democratic approach to participation and interpretation of local perspectives is often a good starting point around which interdisciplinary teams can cohere. In conclusion, the chapter suggests that the ability to work collaboratively with professional groups and like-minded researchers has been one of the main benefits of the development of the field and that it is this breadth and reach which hold the most promise for linguistic ethnography.
This book brings together three important areas in language teaching and learning research by exploring the impact of study abroad on student’s second language identities through narrative research. © Phil Benson, Gary Barkhuizen, Peter Bodycott and Jill Brown 2013. All rights reserved.
Investing in literacy: social identities and symbolic capital
This paper discusses the way multilingual individuals understand their investment in learning literacy practices – especially reading – in foreign languages (French and Spanish). It uses a qualitative and ethnographic methodology to analyze data from the written and spoken discourse of three participants learning French as a foreign language in a Swiss University: one Swiss-Italian and two Canadian-anglophone students. The data show that the participants are conscious of two types of symbolic capital, related to their social positioning and identities: a cultural and linguistic capital, and a communicative capital. This typology influences the way the students learn and orient their investment towards different language practices, notably in the area of literacy.
Over the past three decades, our conceptualizations of literacy and what it means to be literate have expanded to include recognition that there is a qualitative difference in how we communicate through modalities such as the visual, audio, spatial, and linguistic and that different modes are combined in complex ways to make meaning. The field of multimodality is concerned with how human beings use different modes of communication to represent or make meaning in the world. Despite the rapid growth of international research in this area, accounts of a broader range of global sites, particularly economically under-resourced and culturally diverse contexts such as Sub-Saharan Africa, remain under-researched and under-represented in the literature. This book contextualizes a range of literacies including health literacies, community literacies, family literacies, and multilingual literacies within broader modes of communication, most specifically play and the visual. The claim is that powerful pedagogies, methodologies and theories can be constructed by taking a more detailed look at multimodal meaning-making in diverse contexts. By describing and analyzing multimodal practices and texts across a diverse range of contexts, the book highlights different constructs, issues and emerging questions dealing with the study of literacies and multimodality.
As the first chapter in Part II, this chapter turns its attention to education. Focusing on the growing multilingualism in schools, the chapter reviews traditional definitions and types of bilingual education. It frames foreign/second language education, as well as bilingual education, as ways of enacting parallel monolingualisms, and then reviews ways in which this is resisted in classrooms all over the world. It also presents ways in which educators are promoting flexible languaging in teaching, transgressing the strict structures of dual language bilingual classrooms, as well as going beyond the traditional view of separate languages literacies.
Posthumanism urges us to reconsider what it means to be human. From proclamations about the death of ‘Man’ to investigations
into enhanced forms of being, from the advent of the Anthropocene (human-induced planetary change) to new forms of materialism
and distributed cognition, posthumanism raises significant questions for applied linguistics in terms of our understandings
of language, humans, objects, and agency. After reviewing the broad field of posthumanist thought, this paper investigates—through
an overview of a series of recent research projects—the notion of repertoire, to show how this can be better understood by
stepping out of the humanist constructs of the individual and the community and looking instead at the notion of distributed
language and spatial repertoires. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of posthumanism for applied linguistics,
in particular the ways we understand language in relation to people, objects, and place.
SLA research on age in naturalistic contexts has examined learners' ultimate attainment, while instructed research has emphasized the rate of learning (Birdsong 2014. Dominance and age in bilingualism. Applied Linguistics 35(4). 374-392; Muñoz 2008. Symmetries and asymmetries of age effects in naturalistic and instructed L2 learning. Applied Linguistics 29(4). 578-596). However, both streams of research, which view age as a biological construct, have overlooked this construct through an ideological lens. To address this gap, and in keeping with Blommaert's (2005. Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) call to examine language ideologies and related ideologies in an era of superdiversity, our paper explores the ideology undergirding age-based research and examines it in conjunction with the practice-based approach to better understand the use of Burmese as a heritage language, a language characterized by a hierarchical and an age-determined honorific system. Drawing on data from a larger ethnographic study involving Burmese migrants in the US, analyses of the bilingual practice of address forms of generation 1.5 Burmese youth demonstrated that age was relationally constructed. While these youth strategically adopted 'traditional' linguistic practices ratified by Burmese adults when interacting with their parents, such practices were invoked and subverted in interactions involving their siblings and other Burmese adults less familiar to them. In focusing on the social and linguistic struggles encountered by these transnational multilingual youth, this paper also addresses the complexities surrounding heritage language learning.
'Higher Education in a Global Society should be of tremendous practical value to deans and provosts contemplating an international partnership or program. Written in a most accessible style by a combination of higher education scholars and veteran academic administrators, it provides a nuanced understanding of both the pitfalls and unanticipated benefits from such programs.' - Charles T. Clotfelter, Duke University, US.
Identity and Language Learning draws on a longitudinal case study of immigrant women in Canada to develop new ideas about identity, investment, and imagined communities in the field of language learning and teaching. Bonny Norton demonstrates that a poststructuralist conception of identity as multiple, a site of struggle, and subject to change across time and place is highly productive for understanding language learning. Her sociological construct of investment is an important complement to psychological theories of motivation. The implications for language teaching and teacher education are profound. Now including a new, comprehensive Introduction as well as an Afterword by Claire Kramsch, this second edition addresses the following central questions: -Under what conditions do language learners speak, listen, read and write? -How are relations of power implicated in the negotiation of identity? -How can teachers address the investments and imagined identities of learners? The book integrates research, theory, and classroom practice, and is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in the fields of language learning and teaching, TESOL, applied linguistics and literacy.
This book is the first to explore the constitution of language learner agency by drawing on performativity theory, an approach that remains on the periphery of second language research. Though many scholars have drawn on poststructuralism to theorize learner identity in non-essentialist terms, most have treated agency as an essential feature that belongs to or inheres in individuals. By contrast, this work promotes a view of learner agency as inherently social and as performatively constituted in discursive practice. In developing a performativity approach to learner agency, it builds on the work of Vygotsky and Bakhtin along with research on 'agency of spaces' and language ideologies. Through the study of discourses produced in interviews, this work explores how immigrant small business owners co-construct their theories of agency, in relation to language learning and use. The analysis focuses on three discursive constructs produced in the interview talk–subject-predicate constructs, evaluative stance, and reported speech–and investigates their discursive effects in mobilizing ideologically normative, performatively realized agentive selves.
