Academic literature on the topic 'Language identity construction'

Cross-cultural learning and identity formation are an under-theorized but fundamental aspect of dual language bilingual schools, where heritage speakers and English-only learners of a foreign language are educated together through immersion in both languages (Parkes, Ruth, Anberg-Espinoza & de Jong, 2009; Reyes & Vallone, 2007). Previous research on dual language programs has shown that despite careful program designs to treat each language equally, asymmetries between Spanish and English still play out even in well-implemented programs (Palmer, 2004; Potowski, 2005). Observation of such inequalities at the Espada School, a highly successful Spanish/English dual language school, spurred the current study, which seeks to explore in greater depth the language ideologies held by youth in such a setting. In-depth interviews and group discussions were conducted with six middle school students who had attended the school for eight years. Drawing on Foucauldian discourse analysis and sociocultural linguistics (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005; Willig, 2009), the study sought to answer the following questions: 1) What discourses do bilingual youth at a dual language middle school draw on to talk about Spanish and English, and about speakers of each language? 2) How do they deploy these discourses of language for identity-building and world-building? Three discourses of language were identified. The first, language as utilitarian, emphasizes the functional or practical use of language as a resource or tool. The second, language as internal, constructs language as a skill, proficiency, quality or accomplishment that is located inside the individual person. The last, language as connecting or excluding, treats language as a means of relationship-building and understanding or as leading to division between people. Analysis reveals the ways that these discourses were deployed in different ways by each participant to construct their own identities with respect to their future, their everyday language interactions and their perceptions of the relationship between language and ethnicity. The study contributes to a theoretical understanding of ethnolinguistic and sociocultural identity formation from a youth perspective. Recommendations are also made for dual language educators interested in expanding the discourses of language available to students as one way of countering the lower status of Spanish.

The main purpose of this thesis is to deepen the current understanding of how the teacher self is constructed. Specifically, the study intends to integrate into this understanding the way in which language personal, professional, and student teacher identities inform this process. A special emphasis is placed on the role that language teachers’ life histories play on the construction of teacher selves. Narrative research constitutes the research design for this thesis project since I strongly believe that selves are narratively constructed through stories. This study is focused on the storied self (Chase, 2005) that is co-constructed between the researcher and narrator that reveals how personal, professional, and student teacher identities resist and interact with discursive environments in order to create and recreate a language teacher’s self. Life histories constitute the source of data collection in this study. This facilitated the construction of a broader understanding of how six language teachers’ personal, professional, and student teacher identities are shaped throughout a lifetime and the way these impact the formation of the teacher self. The results suggest that language teachers’ selves are in close relation to emotions. Language teachers negotiate their identities and emotions in order to make sense of the different sets of values that the social context presents to them. This in turn leads them to create/recreate their own teacher selves that serve as sources of agency that generates new sets of social/moral rules or stagnation that leads to the preservation of the current status quo. The thesis concludes by providing a series of suggestions tailored to the needs of the teaching context where this research took place with the purpose of fostering a continuous engagement with individual actors and socio-cultural factors that motivate transformation through reflection.

This study is a qualitative examination of the construction of identities of three novice English teachers at one university-level institute in Saudi Arabia. The study uses multiple theoretical frameworks to build a narrative describing construction of these identities: Goffman’s (1959; 1963; 1974) performing, frame analysis, and spoiled identity concepts, Anderson’s (1991) imagined community, Canagarajah’s (1996) “from bottom up” narrative style, Wenger’s (1998) three modes as a framework of the identity construction, and Pinar and Grumet’s (1976) currere. The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to offer a rich description of how novice, nonnative English speakers (NNES), especially teachers, constructed their identities and their positions, both inside and outside the classroom, and how they negotiated their access to power and were perceived as legitimate bilingual English teachers, as it pertains to the NNES label, and (b) theoretical multiplicity establishes a novel methodological approach to use narrative as a research tool that can fully capture the complexity of novice teachers’ identities. These purposes are embedded in an action and movement to remove stigmas that NNES English Language teachers experience because of the NNES label given to them and their learners (Kamhi-Stein, 2016). This study adopted the interview autobiographical narrative approach, reflections, and observations inside and outside the classroom because of the many life stories that were shared as a window or frame into understanding the participants’ experiences as English Language teachers. The findings suggest that the dichotomy of the native and nonnative English speaker is power-driven and political, rather than linguistic power (Canagarajah, 1999; Phillipson, 1992). This study’s participants were able to strategically position themselves as legitimate speakers where they were able to show a part of their identity that was worthy of investment. Their investment did not fit the community of practice (CoP) expectations. They were able to build relationships with the CoP and they felt satisfied in their job positions.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD ( Language Education)<br>The purpose of the research was to examine the relationship between identity construction and English second language (L2) learning through language brokering. Its focus was on how immigrant children served as language brokers for their parents and other immigrants in South African multilingual contexts. Through the lens of the Sociocultural, Poststructural and Phenomenological Variant Ecological System (PVEST) theories, the study unravelled the nexus between children's language brokering and identity construction through English (L2) which is the main medium of instruction in South African schools. I argued that identity construction in a second language and through language brokering is a fluid phenomenon which is influenced by a number of factors and which should be understood within a particular context, particularly in multilingual environments. This study was based on a qualitative case study research design. It was conducted in two primary schools in one semi-urban area in Cape Town, Western Cape. The study employed a snowball sampling which involved immigrant children of different ages from Francophone countries. The children's parents and their teachers also formed part of the study. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with immigrant children or learners and their parents. The Francophone immigrant children were observed outside the classroom in order to establish how they interacted with their peers on school playgrounds. The immigrant learners' personal narratives were collected and analyzed to enhance triangulation. Thematic analysis was used to understand how immigrant children acted as language brokers, and how they negotiated and constructed their identities through English (L2) learning. The findings of this study indicated that Francophone immigrant children navigated different spaces with regard to language brokering. Some of the children displayed excitement and positive attitudes towards language brokering as a means of integration in the host country, while others perceived language brokering as a source of stress and frustration. Parents expressed pride towards their children as language brokers and they viewed language brokering as a vehicle to access better life opportunities through English (L2) learning. Teachers showed empathy towards children who acted as language brokers, but they experienced challenges with regard to accommodating language diversity in their classrooms due to the complex nature of multilingual practices in South Africa. Overall, language brokering was viewed as a mediated activity with implications for immigrant children's identity construction through exposure to English (L2) which perpetuates the hegemonic status of English in South Africa. The study concluded that language brokering, language learning and identity construction are mutually constituted concepts which influence each other. Through language brokering, immigrant children's identities could be seen as being fluid as they shifted from one language to another.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês, Florianópolis, 2013.<br>Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-06T17:06:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 323517.pdf: 1107593 bytes, checksum: 1554857b8ff8561a54fa3c8ad2501cbb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013<br>Este estudo qualitativo investiga o processo de (re)construção identitária de seis aprendizes brasileiros de língua inglesa. O estudo enfocou nas experiências mais memoráveis dos participantes em relação à aprendizagem da língua inglesa ao longo de suas vidas; nos seus investimentos na aprendizagem de inglês; nas comunidades imaginadas significativas em suas experiências de aprendizagem da língua; nas posições de sujeito que os participantes assumiram em suas turmas na universidade; e nas posições de sujeito que assumiram em relação à língua inglesa. Os dados foram gerados com seis alunos fazendo o curso de graduação em Letras-Inglês na UFSC, de 2011 a 2013, enquanto eu fazia Estágio de Docência, e incluíram observação de aulas, notas de campo, uma ficha do aluno, uma narrativa escrita, um questionário aberto, definições escritas de língua e cultura, apresentações orais, entrevistas, e e-mails. A análise seguiu algumas estratégias da teoria fundamentada nos dados, com um foco em investimentos e comunidades imaginadas (Norton, 2000; 2001, por exemplo) e levou em consideração os comentários dos participantes. Os resultados sugerem que os participantes passaram por um processo de (re)construção identitária enquanto aprendiam inglês. Além disso, os resultados mostram que as famílias exercem uma grande influência na aprendizagem de inglês, e que a aprendizagem acontece principalmente em contextos informais, portanto os contextos educacionais funcionam como apêndices. Os participantes investiram na aprendizagem de inglês desde a infância, com a esperança de adquirir recursos materiais e/ou simbólicos. As comunidades imaginadas estão relacionadas a pessoas com quem os participantes gostariam de interagir através do inglês, e incluem o mundo virtual, pessoas com mais poder, experiência, conhecimento e/ou status, e que respeitam e valorizam a diversidade. Os alunos participaram mais em aula quando se sentiam confiantes e validados, e recorriam à não-participação quando eram posicionados de formas indesejadas. Finalmente, todos os alunos desejam se relacionar com o mundo através da língua inglesa, mas frequentemente sentiam-se marginalizados e separados de outros falantes e usuários da língua.<br><br>Abstract : This qualitative study investigates the process of identity (re)construction of six Brazilian English language learners. The study focused on the participants' most memorable experiences regarding English language learning throughout their entire lives; their investments in learning English; the significant imagined communities in their language learning experiences; the subject positions they assumed within their college groups; the subject positions they assumed regarding the English language. Data were generated with six students taking the undergraduate degree in Letras-Inglês at UFSC, from 2011 to 2013, while I was doing Estágio de Docência, and included class observation, field notes, a student profile form, a written narrative, an open questionnaire, written definitions of culture and language, oral presentations, interviews, and e-mail correspondences. Data analysis followed some strategies of grounded theory, with a focus on investment and imagined communities (Norton, 2000; 2001, for example), and took the participants' comments into consideration. The findings suggest that participants went through a process of identity (re)construction while learning English. Moreover, the results show that families greatly influence students' learning of English, and that learning happens mostly in informal contexts, thus the educational contexts function as appendices. The participants invested in learning English since their childhood, hoping to acquire material and/or symbolic resources. Imagined communities were related to people with whom the participants wished to connect through English, including the virtual world, people with more power, experience, knowledge and/or status, and who respect and value diversity. The students participated more in class when they felt confident and validated, and resorted to non-participation when they were positioned in undesirable ways. Finally, all students wished to relate to the world through the English language, but often felt marginalized and separated from other speakers and users of the language.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how African heritage language learners in Grade 3 constructed their language identity in a culturally diverse urban classroom. The data reflects the Grade 3 learners’ beliefs and feelings toward being educated in an English-medium school instead of attending a school where they were taught in their home language. A theoretical framework, based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system informed my study. The framework provides a holistic picture of how the Grade 3 learners constructed their language identity, as it did not only focus on the learners as such. The ecological system examined the unique aspects of the learners within their microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. In this exploration of multiple cases studies from a social constructivism perspective, the researcher collaborated with two Grade 3 teachers, seven parents and six Grade 3 African heritage language learners, to create a mosaic by using semi-structured interviews, documents, observational field notes, narrative reflections, photographs, drawings and a reflective journal. Participants’ perceptions of attending an English-medium school revealed how the Grade 3 learners constructed their language identity through assimilation. The findings revealed that the Grade 3 participants did not favour their home language or heritage culture as much as they favoured the Western culture. The following factors influenced the construction of the Grade 3 learners’ language identity: their environments, the school setting, their teachers’ attitude toward teaching in a culturally diverse classroom, their parents’ attitude toward their attending an English-medium school and lastly their friends.<br>Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017.<br>Early Childhood Education<br>MEd<br>Unrestricted

A post-structuralist framework (Foucault, 1976; Weedon, 1997) is used to explore language acquisition and identity construction in the life histories of four multilingual white South African men, who became fluent in the African language of isiXhosa in the racially-divided world of Apartheid South Africa, at a time when law and policy made fluency in an African language unusual for whites. Theories used within the 'social turn' in Second Language Acquisition (Block, 2003; Norton, 2000), as well as the social learning theory of Lave and Wenger (1991), support an exploration of how the men acquired this language on the farms in the Eastern Cape where they spent their early years. The identity implications of the men's multilingualism are examined using post-colonial studies of race, 'whiteness' and hybridity (Bhabha, 1994; Frankenberg, 1993; Hall, 1992a). The study was undertaken using Life History methodology (Hatch &amp; Wisniewsky, 1995) and biographic interviewing methods developed within the Social Sciences (Wengraf, 2001). Poststructuralist discourse analysis (Wetherell &amp; Potter, 1992), together with aspects of narrative analysis (Brockmeier, 2000), were used to analyse the data. The study contributes to research into naturalistic language acquisition, using theories from the 'social turn', and analysing a bilingual context in which language, power, race and identity interact in unique ways. The findings endorse the importance of a post-structuralist framing for the Communities of Practice model (Wenger, 1998), and show that participation in target-language communities requires investment by learners in identities which ameliorate the inequities of power relations. The study shows that isiXhosa can become linguistic capital (Bourdieu, 1991) for white South Africans, depending on context and the isiXhosa register they use. It demonstrates that Apartheid discourse ascribes to the men an identity which is indisputably white, but that early experiences shared with isiXhosa-speakers shape their lives and form a potentially antihegemonic facet of their identities.

Central to this study is the question of how teachers construct their professional identity. This research explores the process of becoming a teacher and consequently of the construction of identity in terms of three specific components: belonging to a teacher community, the relationship between systems of knowledge and beliefs and classroom practice, and professional expectations for the future. A group of six Colombian preservice teachers in the final stage of their five-year teacher education programme were research participants. This case study used interviews, stimulated recall and on-line blogs as methods of data collection, and content analysis as the analytical approach. The findings reveal that while the process of learning to teach is individually constructed and experienced, it is socially negotiated. A teacher’s identity not only comprises personal knowledge and action, but is also influenced by the ideological, political and cultural interests and circumstances surrounding teachers’ lives and work. The research participants exhibited a permanent struggle between developing a personal professional style and coping with the restrictions imposed by living in a particular type of society that has already defined what teachers should do. Nevertheless, they manifested wellgrounded principles and theories of language teaching and learning and the purpose of education, and awareness of their potential as a new generation of teachers. This suggests that they had developed a sense of professional identity; a way to see themselves as teachers. This evolving identity sometimes conflicted with experience once they had faced the reality of classrooms, assumed institutional roles or negotiated modes of participation within a teacher community. The findings could be used as a point of departure in order to introduce changes into the curricula of teacher education programmes. The study has relevance for policymakers in planning action promoting professional development in pre-service and in-service teacher education.