Paperback(2nd Edition)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
- 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 open access under a CC BY ND licence.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781783090549 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Channel View Publications |
| Publication date: | 10/04/2013 |
| Edition description: | 2nd Edition |
| Pages: | 232 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Identity and Language Learning
Extending the Conversation
By Bonny Norton
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2013 Bonny NortonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78309-055-6
CHAPTER 1
Fact and Fiction in Language Learning
As Saliha takes the envelope, she says, 'Merci beaucoup, Madame Rivest.' Stepping out the door, she switches the plastic bag containing her work clothes from her right hand to her left hand and extends her right hand to Madame Rivest and says, 'Bonjour, Madame Rivest' and smiles. These are the first real words she has uttered since she woke up that morning.
In the elevator, going down, Saliha is alone. She checks the contents of the envelope and smiles with satisfaction. Before the elevator reaches the ground floor, Saliha has time to reflect on her day. She has earned enough for the week's food and cigarettes. Last week, she paid the last instalment for her tuition at Plato College. She is tired but life is under control. Her only regret is that she hasn't answered Madame Rivest in longer sentences. But she chases away her regrets with a light shrug and admits the reality.
We come here to speak like them, she thinks; but it will be a long time before they let us practise.
Ternar, 1990, pp. 327–8
Although Saliha is a fictional character, her story is real to many language learners, whether in Canada, Colombia or Korea. Saliha is eager to learn the language of her new community in Quebec and she understands the need to practice the French that she is learning in the formal context of Plato College. However, although 'immersed' in the francophone community, Saliha has little opportunity to practice French because of the nature of the work she does and the way relations of power are structured in her workplace. In the course of a long day at work, the only words she has uttered are 'Merci beaucoup, Madame Rivest' and 'Bonjour, Madame Rivest'. It is with regret that she notes she has not answered Madame Rivest in longer sentences. The reality that Saliha has to confront is that Madame Rivest has the power to influence when she can speak, how much she can speak and what she can speak about. Saliha acknowledges that it will be a long time before Madame Rivest will 'let' her practice speaking the target language.
In this chapter, I draw on Saliha's fictional story in Quebec, Canada to begin an exploration of the relationship between identity and language learning, between the individual language learner and the larger social world. I use her story to illustrate notions of power, identity and investment, and conceptions of ethnicity, gender and class. In the following chapters of the book, I move from Saliha's fictional world in Quebec to the lived experiences of five immigrant women learning English in the neighboring province of Ontario, Canada. I demonstrate that the opportunities these women had to practice English were structured by unequal relations of power in the home and workplace. I illustrate how the women responded to and acted upon these relations of power to create opportunities to practice speaking English, and the extent to which they succeeded in their efforts. I argue, however, that their efforts must be understood with reference to their investment in English and their changing identities across historical time and social space. Thus the ideas and themes introduced in this chapter will re-emerge in later chapters, demonstrating, I believe, that truth is indeed stranger than fiction, life more intriguing than art.
SaLiha and the SLA Canon
Saliha would struggle to recognize herself in current theories of second language acquisition (SLA). She could be overwhelmed by perspectives from psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, classroom research, bilingual education and social psychology. She would probably agree, however, as Spolsky (1989) notes, that the more she is exposed to and practices French, the more proficient she will become. Extensive exposure to French, in relevant kinds and amounts, and the opportunity to practice the target language will reap many rewards for her. She will learn to discriminate between the sounds of the language, have the opportunity to analyze the language into its constituent parts, learn how its constituent parts can be recombined grammatically into larger units, and develop control over the grammatical and pragmatic structures of French. Saliha would be mystified, however, by Spolsky's distinction between the natural or informal environment of the target language community and the formal environment of the classroom:
The distinction between the two is usually stated as a set of contrasting conditions. In natural second language learning, the language is being used for communication, but in the formal situation it is used only to teach. In natural language learning, the learner is surrounded by fluent speakers of the target language, but in the formal classroom, only the teacher (if anyone) is fluent. In natural learning, the context is the outside world, open and stimulating; in formal learning, it is the closed four walls of the classroom. In natural language learning, the language used is free and normal; in the formal classroom it is carefully controlled and simplified. Finally, in the natural learning situation, attention is on the meaning of the communication; in the formal situation, it is on meaningless drills. (1989, p. 171)
'How much communicating did I do today?' Saliha may well ask, 'How meaningful are my conversations with Madame Rivest?' Because many SLA theorists have not addressed the experiences of language learners with reference to inequitable relations of power between language learners and target language speakers, they have struggled to theorize the relationship between the individual language learner and the larger social world. In general, artificial distinctions have been drawn between the learner and the language learning context. On the one hand, the individual is described with respect to a host of affective variables such as her or his motivation to learn a second language. The personality of the individual is described as introverted or extroverted, inhibited or uninhibited. It is assumed that the learner's attitudes towards the target language community determine how motivated the second language learner is, and that levels of anxiety determine how much comprehensible input becomes cognitive intake. The social, on the other hand, generally refers to group differences between the language learner group and the target language group. Where there is congruence between the second language group and the target language group, the social distance between them is considered to be minimal, which in turn facilitates the acculturation of the second language group into the target language group and enhances language learning (Schumann, 1976a). Where there is great social distance between the groups, little acculturation is considered to take place, and as a result members of the second language group are deemed not to become proficient speakers of the target language.
In theories of SLA which focus on individual differences, Saliha would be held primarily responsible for progress in learning the target language. The 'good language learner' is one who seeks out opportunities to learn the language, is highly motivated, has good attention to detail, can tolerate ambiguity and has low levels of anxiety. If Saliha made little progress in learning the second language, she might be considered unmotivated and inflexible. In contrast, theories of SLA which focus on group differences in second language learning would consider Saliha to have little human agency: social distance and degrees of acculturation would determine the extent to which she learnt the target language, and the role of instruction would be considered tangential to this process. Thus, in many SLA theories, Saliha would be conceived of as an individual with various attributes independent of her relationship to the social or as having a group identity that leaves little room for individual action. The disagreements in the literature on the way affective variables interact with the larger social context would be also be puzzling for Saliha. While Krashen (1981) regards motivation as a variable independent of social context, Spolsky (1989) regards the two as inextricably intertwined.
While Krashen draws distinctions between self-confidence, motivation, and anxiety, Clement, Gardner and Smythe (quoted in Spolsky, 1989) consider motivation and anxiety as a subset of self-confidence. While Krashen considers self-confidence as an intrinsic characteristic of the language learner, Gardner (1985) argues that self-confidence arises from positive experiences in the context of the second language. Such disagreements in the SLA literature should not be dismissed, as Gardner (1989) dismisses them, as 'more superficial than real' (p. 137). This debate arises, I suggest, because artificial distinctions are drawn between the individual and the social, which lead to arbitrary mapping of particular factors on either the individual or the social, with little rigorous justification.
In sum, in the field of SLA, theorists have not adequately addressed why it is that learners like Saliha may sometimes be motivated, extroverted and confident, and sometimes unmotivated, introverted and anxious; why in one place there may be social distance between learners and the target language community, while in another place the social distance may be minimal; why learners can sometimes speak and at other times remain silent. Although muted, there is an uneasy recognition by some theorists that current theory of the relationship between the language learner and the social world is problematic. Scovel (1978), for example, has found that research on foreign language anxiety suffers from several ambiguities, and Gardner and MacIntyre (1993, p. 9) remain unconvinced of the relationship between 'personality variables' and language achievement.
Identity and Language Learning
The central argument of this book is that SLA theorists have struggled to conceptualize the relationship between the language learner and the social world because they have not developed a comprehensive theory of identity that integrates the language learner and the language learning context. Furthermore, they have not questioned how relations of power in the social world impact on social interaction between second language learners and target language speakers. While many SLA theorists such as Ellis (1985), Krashen (1981), Schumann (1978a) and Stern (1983) recognize that language learners do not live in idealized, homogeneous communities but in complex, heterogeneous ones, such heterogeneity has generally been framed uncritically. Theories of the good language learner have been developed on the premise that language learners can choose under what conditions they will interact with members of the target language community and that the language learner's access to the target language community is a function of the learner's motivation. Thus Gardner and MacIntyre (1992), for example, argue that 'the major characteristic of the informal context is that it is voluntary. Individuals can either participate or not in informal acquisition contexts' (p. 213). Second language theorists have not adequately explored how inequitable relations of power limit the opportunities second language learners have to practice the target language outside the classroom. In addition, many have assumed that learners can be defined unproblematically as motivated or unmotivated, introverted or extroverted, inhibited or uninhibited, without considering that such affective factors are frequently socially constructed in inequitable relations of power, changing over time and space, and possibly coexisting in contradictory ways in a single individual.
In this book I take the position that notions of the individual and the language learner's personality in SLA theory need to be reconceptualized in ways that will problematize dichotomous distinctions between the language learner and the language learning context. I use the term identity to reference how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future. I argue that SLA theory needs to develop a conception of identity that is understood with reference to larger, and frequently inequitable, social structures which are reproduced in day-to-day social interaction. In taking this position, I foreground the role of language as constitutive of and constituted by a language learner's identity. As Heller (1987) demonstrates, it is through language that a person negotiates a sense of self within and across different sites at different points in time, and it is through language that a person gains access to – or is denied access to – powerful social networks that give learners the opportunity to speak. Thus language is not conceived of as a neutral medium of communication, but is understood with reference to its social meaning.
Interest in language and identity has been growing in momentum, a trend reflected in the number of doctoral theses that have recently appeared on this topic. Kanno (1996), for example, examined the changing identities of Japanese students returning to their home country after a period of time abroad, and Miller (1999) studied the relationship between speaking and social identity among migrant students in a number of Australian high schools. As the comprehensive reviews of McNamara (1997) and Hansen and Liu (1997) demonstrate, different researchers, drawing on different sources and using a variety of methodologies, have brought diverse perspectives to our understanding of language and identity. Social psychologists such as Henriques et al. (1984) and Edwards and Potter (1992) offer different conceptions of identity than that associated with the work of scholars such as Tajfel (1982) and Giles and Coupland (1991), while the recent research of SLA scholars in different parts of the world has provided important insights into the relationship between identity and language learning. In calling for a reorientation of SLA research, the work of Hall (1997), Lantolf (1996), Rampton (1995) and van Lier (1994) is particularly noteworthy. As Rampton (1995) argues,
The very undifferentiated portrait of the second language learner that emerges in SLA no doubt partly results from its tendency to thematise the learner's internal psychological condition. Rather than looking at interaction as a socio–historically sensitive arena in which language learner identity is socially negotiated, SLA generally examines learners' behaviour for evidence of the determining influence of psycholinguistic states and processes ... At present, SLA could probably benefit from an enhanced sense of the empirical world's complex socio-cultural diversity. (293–4)
As if on cue, international language journals are giving greater attention to research on sociocultural diversity in general, and identity in particular. In 1996, for example, Martin-Jones and Heller (1996) edited two special issues of Linguistics and Education on discourse, identities and power, and Sarangi and Baynham (1996) edited a special double issue of Language and Education on the construction of educational identities. These were followed by a special issue of TESOL Quarterly on language and identity, which I edited in 1997 (Norton, 1997a).
Given the subject of this book, a few comments on the TESOL Quarterly special issue are relevant. The five studies that constitute the bulk of the special issue represent perspectives from Canada (Morgan, 1997), Japan (Duff and Uchida, 1997), the United States (Schecter and Bayley, 1997), South Africa (Thesen, 1997), and England (Leung et al., 1997). What I found particularly interesting was the way in which each author framed and con- ceptualized identity, with the focus of Morgan's research on social identity, Duff and Uchida's on sociocultural identity, Thesen's on voice, Schecter and Bayley's on cultural identity and Leung et al.'s on ethnic identity. The apparent differences between the authors' conceptualizations of identity, I argue, can be explained partly in terms of the disciplines and research traditions that inform their respective studies, as well as the different emphases of their research projects. Notwithstanding such differences, however, I note that distinctions – such as those between social and cultural identity – become less marked as the researchers ground their theory in specific sites of practice. Furthermore, most of the researchers noted that identity construction must be understood with reference to relations of power between language learners and target language speakers. It is to this relationship that I now turn.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Identity and Language Learning by Bonny Norton. Copyright © 2013 Bonny Norton. Excerpted by permission of Multilingual Matters.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
Revisiting Identity and Language Learning 1
Relevance of Identity Research to Language Learning 2
Poststructuralist Theories of Identity 3
Identity and Investment 5
Imagined Communities and Imagined Identities 8
Identity Categories and Language Learning 11
Methods and Analysis of Research 13
Identity and Language Teaching 16
Emerging Themes and Future Directions 22
Structure of the Book 26
1 Fact and Fiction in Language Learning 41
Saliha and the SLA Canon 42
Identity and Language Learning 44
Power and Identity 46
Motivation and Investment 50
Ethnicity, Gender and Class 52
Rethinking Language and Communicative Competence 53
2 Researching Identity and Language Learning 58
Methodological Framework 58
Central Questions 60
The Researcher and the Researched 60
The Project 62
Data Organization 71
Comment 73
3 The World of Adult Immigrant Language Learners 76
The International Context 76
The Canadian World of Immigrant Women 80
Biography, Identity and Language Learning 85
Comment 95
4 Eva and Mai: Old Heads on Young Shoulders 97
Eva 98
Mai 111
5 Mothers, Migration and Language Learning 124
Katarina 126
Martina 131
Felicia 138
Comment 144
6 Second Language Acquisition Theory Revisited 146
Natural Language Learning 147
Alberto and The Acculturation Model of SLA 150
The Affective Filter 156
Reconceptualizing Identity 161
Language Learning as a Social Practice 166
Comment 168
7 Claiming the Right to Speak in Classrooms and Communities 170
Formal Language Learning and Adult Immigrants 171
Beyond Communicative Language Teaching 175
Rethinking Multiculturalism 179
The Diary Study as a Pedagogy of Possibility 182
Transforming Monday Morning 188
Concluding Comment 190
Afterword: Claire Kramsch 192
Why the Interest in Social and Cultural Identity in SLA? 193
Three Influential Concepts 195
The Future of the 'Right to Speak' 196
Discussion 197
Conclusion 199
References 202
Index 211
What People are Saying About This
Strengthened by the thorough updates in the new Introduction and the context provided by Kramsch in the Afterword, the book makes a persuasive case for language teachers to regard our learners and their investments in a more holistic light. It may also shed some illumination on our experiences as L2 learners ourselves.