EDUC 824
Dr. Sepideh Fotovatian
Name: Tina Huang
Possible
Roles of Identity in Language Learning
1.
Introduction
Since 1990s, much discussion on the issue of identity were
presented in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL). There
had been discussions of how identity is related to power relations (Norton,
1995; Ushioda, 2006; Norton 2010), imagination (Pavlenko, 2003; Pavlenko & Norton, 2007),
learner agency or autonomy (Norton & Toohey, 2001; Ushioda, 2006; Toohey,
2007; Norton 2010; Ilieva, 2010; Fotovatians, 2012). Through these thoughtful
works, multiple functions and benefits of the concept of identity were
presented. Thus, this article seeks to discuss some of the possible roles
identity plays in various situations. Based upon different case studies and
situations, this article will discuss the roles of motivating language users, coping
with transcultural communities, and enabling access to resources. Then the
article will end with a brief conclusion and suggestions of implication.
2.
Identity may motivate language learners to invest more
In Norton’s (2010) article, she suggests that language learners
learn better when they invest more in a language, and they will invest more
when they think they are able to access a certain imagined community or
identity that is of value. Its discussion of identity focuses upon the
relationship between the language learner and the larger social context. In her
data, she researched three groups of English learners situated respectively in
Canada, Pakistan and Uganda. The research done in Canada targeted elementary
school students who invested in reading a popular type of comic book. It showed
that the students enjoy reading the comic books because they had the power to
make meaning out of it. This is in contrast to the formal language format
taught in schools and used by adults. Thus, the investment of reading comic
books were dismissed by the authoritative adults, namely parents and teachers.
Nevertheless, the students still invest in the language of comic books because
they felt a sense of ownership from it.
The second research was about Afghan refugee children in Pakistan.
Data shows that the children are very eager to learn English, because they
think that learning English can make their country stronger and that this will
bring peace in their living environment. In other words, the children invested
passionately in learning language because they imagine that this language skill
will give them a more empowering identity in which their nation will be in a more
powerful position in the global stage and the nation within will be more
stable. The last research was done in Uganda. It examined a group of girls in
secondary schools. The girls participated in a project that asked them to learn
English by creating their own stories through visual images. The students found
themselves to be more engaged in language learning, because the diverse media
approach of language provided them an opportunity to explore different expressions
of their identities and in a sense empowered them to express themselves in
their own unique ways.
From the three data, Norton suggests that language learners will
enhance identities when they “have a sense of ownership over meaning making” (Norton,
2010, p 1), and when they are in a position of relative power. Furthermore, language
learning involves the interaction between student and teacher, text and reader,
local and transnational communities. Hence, when learners practice a language,
they are also in the continual creation of their identity. Norton concludes by
emphasizing how important it is for language teachers to offer a wider variety
of identities for learners to choose from. This way, learners can find a
relatively more powerful identity and ultimately motivate them to participate
more in language learning.
In Norton’s (2010) research, all three groups of language learners
invested more in learning when it is associated with an identity that can
empower them. Although the learners of the data were situated in different
countries, the data all points to the possible role of identity as a motivation
to language learners.
3.
Identity may be a tool to cope with overlapping transcultural
communities
In Kang’s (2013) article, it examined a group of second generation
Korean American college students who were taking a Korean-as-a-foreign-language
class. In the data, the students will communicate by code switching. They used
Korean when referring to family or childhood and English as the main language
for everyday communication. The students’ choice of using Korean or American
language terms revealed how they had positioned themselves in a third culture,
one that is not sheer Korean nor American culture. In other words, it revealed
the constant process of shifting identities between two cultures.
In addition, the students perceived themselves as different from
mainstream Americans and Korean natives, and view themselves as someone who
accommodates both cultures. They embrace and understand the features of both
worlds and conceive a hybrid third space and identity for themselves. Their
identity affected how they dealt with the cross-cultural communities they are
in. In the article, it showed that the Korean American youths distanced
themselves from other Asian American groups so as to connect themselves to
mainstream American society. These youths also said that they anticipated of
being treated differently in future employment and professional accomplishment
due to their cross-cultural identity. Hence the student’s imagination of their
identity had affected their choice of social network, their view of themselves
and their imagination of their future.
On the one hand, Kang’s (2013) data demonstrated how learners, who
are situated upon overlapping trans-cultural communities, used a hybrid
identity to find their own values and stance in a third culture of their own. On
the other hand, Canagarajah and Silberstein’s (2012) article of diaspora
identity argued that identity can be used as not a third space but a strategy
to cope with transcultural communities. In the article, the concept of
multilingualism and hybrid identities are viewed as strategic ways for diaspora
members to negotiate their relationship with other community groups. An example
was given where the younger generations of Greek diaspora chose not to identify
with the diaspora, and instead they maintained some degrees of detachment to it
in order to open up to other possible identities. This is an example of
creating multilayered identities, and this act may be seen as a strategy for
negotiating the integration of other community features. It argues that
multilayered identities can be seen as a survival strategy to resolve tensions
between diverse communities and to be used as an act of agency in the global
contact zone the diaspora members are situated in.
Either way, both Kang (2013) and Canagarajah and Silberstein’s
(2012) articles show how identity can serve as a space or strategy for diaspora
members to cope with the transcultural cultures and communities they are
situated in.
4.
Identity may offer or deny access to resources
In Hip-Hopping Across China: Intercultural Formulations of Local
Identities (Barrett, 2012), it shows how the creation of an identity can
allow its members to gain access to resources such as support of social
networks, the attention and favor of specific audience, or the legitimate usage
of certain terms and the creation of tangible related products. In the article,
it examined how hip-hop artists in China formed a sense of Chinese hip-hop
identity by their choice of language.
One of the data shows of how a well-known pop song artist, Jay
Chou, was criticized as presenting lyrics of a “fake” Chinese hip-hop. The
critique came from a member of a social network that dedicated to maintain a
superior Chinese hip-hop culture, and that superior identity is recognized by
specific designs of clothes, songs, and jargons (Barrett, 2012, p 252-253).
Another data showed how that member also uses that critique and disregard of
others to win the favor of a targeted hip-hop audience (Barrett, 2012, p 254). From
this, one sees how social networks, audience attention, and tangible
identity-related products were created to support members of an identity and
deny access to people outside of the identity group.
Furthermore, the article also showed examples of how hip-hop
artists who are not Chinese but foreigners can also be a part of the Chinese
hip-hop identity despite their ethnic difference and identity (Barrett, 2012, p
256). This example shows how an identity, hybrid identity, can simultaneously
allow individuals to be in many identities, and thus can tap into the resources
that these identities embody.
The role of identity
as a gate to providing or constraining certain resources can be explained by
Toohey’s (2007) concept of the social-cultural perspectives on learning. Toohey
suggests that there are three elements which foster successful learner
autonomy; they are persons, resources and practices. Persons includes the
identities, positions, investments, and desires of the learners. Resources
includes the visible and invisible sources, such as materials, linguistic
abilities, and social support. Practices means the actions, communications, and
behaviors of participants. The three elements are all interrelated and all
elements goes two sides. Persons, including the identities they claim to have,
get access to resources and takes action to practices. Resources enables or
constrains persons and practices. Resources enables or constrains persons. Thus,
according to this perspective, the identity which Chinese hip-hop artists are
creating, can play the role of enabling or constraining material, resources and
practices.
In Hatano’s (2013)
article, he uses Makiguchi’s (1971) theory of value to interpret language
user’s behavior of choosing certain language. Makiguchi (1871-1944) is a
Japanese educator who “asserts that happiness lies in the pursuit of positive
value of gain, good, and beauty” (Hatano, 2013, p 54). Hatano further uses this
value theory to explain that language users will choose to use a certain
language because it is a process of seeking value. Value seeking is “also
important for discussing identity, because it can suggest reasons why people
sometimes identify themselves as group members who share the same interest”
(Hatano, 2013, p 55). In other words, one’s identity will push them into
behaviors that show their pursuit of specific values. Makiguchi (1981-1988)
explains value as a kind of property, “ (value) is the emotional relationship
between an object and human life, and signifies quantitative property which is
produced between the object and subject that evaluates it” (Makiguchi, 1971, p
219). Hence, identity can take the role of activating behaviors which pursues a
certain kind of value, which is an unseen property and resource.
In short, one’s
imagination of belonging to a certain identity can give them access or denial
to seen resources such as clothes, songs, jargons or unseen resources like
favor, attention, value or support from social networks.
5.
Implication and Conclusion
“…this pursued identity
is not unified and coherent, but is multiple, complex and a site of struggle.
It is in a constant state of flux, being locally constructed, negotiated and
re-formed each time through a person’s participation in community practices.”
(Ushioda, 2006, p 153).
Indeed, identity itself is situated in the individual’s situated
community, and the on-going active realization of identity is multiple. In the
three roles mentioned above, we see how identity can play a different role
according to the different situation individuals are situated in. In the
language learning case, identity can be a tool of empowering learners to invest
more in their own learning. While in the cases of individuals who are situated
upon cross-cultural communities and cultures, identity can be a means by which
the individuals can use to cope with the transcultural situation. Lastly, when
discussing the behavior behind choice of language, identity can be seen as the
gate to offer or deny access to certain resources that are assets of specific
identity groups.
However, in order for the people to utilize the various roles of
identity, people need first be introduced to multiple options of identity and
then decide which they may use. Many
previous published articles (Pavlenko, 2003; Pavlenko & Norton, 2007;
Norton, 2010) had already mentioned that it is important to introduce a wide
range of identity to language users, this way users can have a bigger
possibility of finding a more empowering identity they can act upon. In this regard, for the application, I suggest two possible ways
to introduce the options of multiple identities.
The first way is a top-down method. It is a way which Norton (2010) suggested in
her article, which is to use public media and written medium to promote
possible options of identity. For example, Pavlenko’s (2003)
article of “I never knew I was a
bilingual”: Re-imagining teacher identities in TESOL. is an article which
emphasizes the importance of encouraging pre-service and in-service teacher to
establish a legitimate identity, being bilingual or multilingual, for
themselves as an alternative to the negative labeling of being a
Non-Native-Speaker (NNS). This article was chosen as a required article for our
TESFL MED program at SFU, and most of the members in our class reflected that
after reading the article, they began to consider choosing this new empowering
identity over the old negative NNS.
Another
example can be seen in Hartlep’s (2012) article. Hartlep, a Korean adopted by
non-Korean parents, states that he was empowered when reading Palmer’s book
which discusses Korean adoptees’ testimonies of finding an empowered identity
through act of searching for biological parents. Palmer wrote this book in
hopes that Korean adoptees in the same situation can be encouraged by these
successful testimonies, and know that “an engaged identity journey can lead to
empowered identities” (Palmer, 2011, p 173). Hence, Hartlep’s article had
demonstrated how Palmer’s written medium had empowered individuals in the same
situation to find a more empowering identity.
Casual story telling is the second method of
introducing possible identities. I consider it a bottom-up method
because it can be done by anyone in their everyday conversations with others,
and it does not require the time-consuming method of getting ideas published in
authoritative public mediums. Story telling is a method of narrative inquiry,
and the following quote explains its function: “Stories and attendant conversations can be useful for uncovering
tacit assumptions so that they become available for clarification or challenge”
(Naested, Potvin, & Waldron, 2004, p 88). For example, Pavlenko’s (2003)
article calls for teachers to find a legitimate identity, and said that in turn
their students will have a legitimate identity. The teachers will most likely
introduce identities by simply telling stories to the students when teaching. By
telling stories, the students will have a new identity to refer to and
consider. Same for Hartlep’s (2012) case, Palmer can also introduce her concept in
casual daily life conversations, and tell stories of testimonies to Korean
friends she knows whom are in similar situations. The friends will then be able
to reconsider their former assumptions of their identity or identities and be
ready to challenge for a more empowering one or ones.
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Hyun-Sook Kang (2013) Korean American College Students’ Language
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