Norton L2 identity
...
Methods
three broad approaches
ethnography, anthropology, feminist,
poststructuralist approaches
qualitative research design
focusing on power and equity
narrative inquiry particularly enlightening
political and economic issues enable
or constrain language learning
the ‘structure and
agency’ issue:
mutually constitutive
reject the view that any research can
claim to be objective or unbiased
methods rely on static, inherent and
measurable learner "variables"
Identity categories
and Lg. Learning
identity categories not "variables,
but interwoven with language learning.
gender
race and ethnicity
Motha: racialized identities
negotiated at schools.
McKinney: different brands
of English: LV English, becoming white
Ibrahim: African learners of
french "becoming black".
Identity & SLA
Anderson and Wenger: Imagined identities and imagined communities
pedagogical applications:
differentiated lg. learning programs
digital photograph
when learners imagine who they might be,
and who their communities might be,when learning a lg.
Norton: investment as a complement to motivation in accounting for successful SLA
Central question:
What is the learner’s
investment in the language
practices of this classroom?
lg learners seen
having complex identities
borrowed from Bourdieu's
notion of cultural capital.
Theoretical Framework
sociocultural theories of language learning
Lave & Wenger: legitimate peripheral participants
Learning in community of practice
Vytgosky etc, learners seen as differentially positioned members in sociocultural context using lg. as a dynamic tool.
post structuralist theory of Positioning
Foucault et. al: positioning as socially given and individually struggled for
poststructuralist theory of subjectivity
Hall and Bhabha: self as a PROCESS, BECOMING, POSITIONING
Weeden: subjectivity constructed in lg.
pedagogical implications
lg learning is self negotiating
sujectivitity and lg mutually constitutive
offering individuals
more position possibilities
diverse, contradictory,dynamic, changing, variable, situated, multiple, non-unitary INDIVIDUALS
individuals as SUBJECT TO relationships
individuals as SUBJECT OF relationships
poststructuralist theories of language
poststructuralist
Bourdieu: Power and rights
Hall et al. usaged view of language
Bakhtin: situated utterances
structuralist: de Saussure
Central Argument
imagined community and imagined identities
investment and motivation
identity redefined via negotiation with peers
identity, resources and practices
mutually constituted
the role of power
identity positions
previous SLA vs identity theory
Introduction
Structure of this review
Central role of
poststructuralist view
esp. the notion of investment
Review of previous reviews
