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Identity, Agency, and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture
See and discover other items: There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us. English Choose a language for shopping. She further explains that the degree to which an immigrant is able to participate, especially in a professional community, is determined by their language proficiency. Language proficiency, as she explains it, includes an understanding of cultural behavior and norms. Chapters Four through Seven are devoted to a discussion of her findings from her research highlighted by transcripts from her IET interviews.
She defines successful professional integration as, proficiency in the official language, the ability to find work, and participation in the civil society. A benefit of conducting research with IETs is that as professionals they are able to articulate the psychological tensions between identity maintenance and identity change as they professionally acculturate into their host society. A main thrust of her book is identifying the affordances and constraints to successful acculturation of IETs. It is not surprising that the restraints have to do with language and cultural differences.
Deter brings up some interesting points regarding identity and acculturation in her conclusions. Other scholars have examined language socialization in foreign language contexts e. The issue of identity construction is central in language socialization theory. Thus, identity is conceived as being contingent and socially constructed between the individual and others in a particular community. Watson-Gegeo introduced a contemporary language socialization theory, highlighting the importance of human agency in the socialization process and the importance of the social, cultural and political contexts in which learners interact with others and which affects the linguistic forms that are available to learners.
Watson-Gegeo incorporated power relations and a more critical perspective of learning through language socialization, in contrast to earlier conceptions of language socialization as being an unproblematic process of enculturation. The concept of legitimate peripheral participation is a central defining characteristic in this framework: It concerns the process by which newcomers become part of a community of practice.
Newcomers must be seen as legitimate participants, that is, accepted by others in a community of practice, in order to gain access to resources and opportunities for socialization. Access is key and crucial. Peripherality is a positive term that describes the engagement of newcomers in varying degrees of participation, which allows the newcomers to gradually increase their participation in terms of time, effort and responsibility. Thus, both legitimacy and peripherality are necessary in order for an individual to become a full participant in a particular community.
I would add that there is also an interrelationship between being denied access to and not wishing to join a community. If a newcomer is rejected by a community, this may make the newcomer less willing to persist 30 Identity, Agency and Professional Language and Culture in efforts to become a participating member. This framework emphasizes the interrelationship between identity, learning and social membership. The development of identity is central to this framework, as is learning how to communicate in the manner of full participants. Lave and Wenger viewed human agency as mediated and relational; it is realized through the integration of agent, world and activity.
Wenger drew attention to the importance of competence in the construction of identity: Our membership constitutes our identity, not just through reified markers of membership but more fundamentally through the forms of competence that it entails.
Identity, Agency and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture
When we are with a community of practice of which we are a full member, we are in familiar territory. We can handle ourselves competently. We experience competence and we are recognized as competent. We know how to engage with others. We understand why they do what they do because we understand the enterprise to which participants are accountable.
Moreover, we share the resources they use to communicate and go about their activities. These dimensions of competence. Wenger compared the nonparticipation of peripherality with the nonparticipation of marginality: Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency 31 Another important concept that Wenger elaborated upon, which I think is especially pertinent for second language learners and learning, is that identity entails multimemberships.
Each person has membership in different communities of practice, which have different norms of behaviour and worldviews. However, in contrast to the post-structural view of identity as multiple and fragmented, Wenger argued that multimemberships require the work of reconciliation in order to maintain one identity across boundaries: The work of reconciliation may be the most significant challenge faced by learners who move from one community of practice to another.
Learners must often deal with conflicting forms of individuality and competence as defined in different communities. I will address this point further in the discussion section of this chapter. Thus, a community of practice perspective views the negotiation of identities as potentially conflictual as learners move across the boundaries of different communities.
I will review work by Morita and Norton in greater detail below. In addition, these works showed that acts of resistance and nonparticipation are also indicative of identity and agency. Morita found that the students faced major challenges in negotiating competence, identities and power relations, which were necessary for them to be recognized as legitimate peripheral participants in their classroom communities.
For example, in one class, Nanako felt like a legitimate peripheral participant because the instructor acknowledged that there were different learning styles and that it was normal for international students to take some time to get accustomed to the North American style of classroom interaction. The instructor also told Nanako that as a newcomer, she had a valuable perspective to contribute. Another important finding was the enactment of learner agency as resistance and nonparticipation. Rie actively resisted being marginalized in a course where the instructor and other students whose first language L1 was English positioned the international students as deficient.
To an outside observer, Nanako and Rie may have appeared to exhibit similar behaviour, that is, limited participation. For example, Nanako was a legitimate peripheral participant in one classroom context, and was marginalized as an outsider in another classroom context. In Canada, she was unable to find work as a teacher, and her socioeconomic status decreased significantly. Katarina was eager to improve her English so that she could regain her professional identity. A critical incident occurred when Katarina was discouraged by her ESL teacher from taking a computer course that would give her greater access to her imagined community.
According to Norton , Katarina felt that her ESL teacher did not acknowledge her professional history and identity, and she resisted being positioned as an immigrant. As a result, Katarina dropped out of the ESL course. An important contribution of the community of practice framework to SLA is its focus on the contingent and socially constructed nature of language learning, learner identity and learner agency.
A number of SLA scholars working within different theoretical perspectives have incorporated concepts from the community of practice framework in their analysis of identity and agency in the SLA process: In my view, this shows that concepts from the community of practice framework — with its focus on learning as social practice and becoming a member of a community, and the necessary negotiation of access and identity — are compatible with other theoretical frameworks, and are useful for theorizing and researching identity and agency in second language learning.
Sociocultural Theory Sociocultural theory of mind is attributed to the work of Russian psychologist, L. Vygotsky problematized the prevailing orientations in psychology in his time — psychoanalysis and behaviourism — which perpetuated the Cartesian dichotomy between mind and matter. Vygotsky argued that it was essential to incorporate human culture and history in the study of the human mind, and posited a dialectic relation between mind and the social milieu. A fundamental principle is that of mediation: Humans use physical tools and socioculturally and sociohistorically constructed symbolic artefacts, of which language is the most important, to control and master nature and themselves.
With these tools and artefacts, individuals are able to shape their world and their relationships to others, which in turn, shape the individuals. A key point is that the social environment is not only the context for, but also the source of mental development. Over time, the new knowledge is internalized and the novice becomes self-regulated.
While traditional approaches to the study of mental behaviour focus on the individual and what the individual is doing, sociocultural theory takes into account the complex and dynamic interaction between the individual, mediational tools and the sociocultural context.
In their introduction to a special issue on sociocultural and activity theory in educational research, Edwards and Daniels , p. The strand referred to as activity theory focused on the activity system as the unit of analysis, and examined the complex interrelationships between the various components in an activity system. Edwards and Daniels noted the complementarity of the two strands, and in their work, they write about sociocultural and activity theory as a unified set of concepts.
The following review discusses identityin-SLA work that is informed by the sociocultural theoretical concepts of mediation, internalization and agency. There is a growing body of SLA research that has used various Vygotskian concepts to further our understanding of the second language acquisition process. For example, previous SLA research has examined inner and private speech e.
While there has been some work in SLA that has examined issues of learner agency and identity from a sociocultural theoretical perspective e. In another work, Lantolf and Pavlenko further examined the participation metaphor and issues of agency in SLA. In addition to sociocultural theory, the authors also drew upon other theoretical perspectives such as post-structuralism and the community of practice framework.
The authors posited that human agency is about significance, about things that matter to people, and that agency links motivation to action.
Identity, Agency and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture
From a sociocultural theoretical perspective, agency is always mediated. In their study of an adult foreign language learner, Lantolf and Genung explored issues of power in addition to identity and agency. This study was based upon written reflections by the second author PG of her experiences in a Chinese-as-a-foreign-language class. From the field of educational research, Edwards b introduced an alternative concept of agency from a sociocultural perspective.
To conclude, the works discussed in this section highlight the role of learner agency and goals in the second language learning process. In addition, as noted by Block , post-structural perspectives became the approach of choice in the work of scholars who explored the connections between identity and second language learning. In the next section, I discuss the work of Penuel and Wertsch and Holland and Lachiotte , who connected Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical concepts with the seminal works of two scholars on issues of identity and self: Erik Erikson and George Herbert Mead.
Erikson, who was a psychoanalyst and had immigrated to the United States as an adult in the s, is renowned for his work on identity and the life cycle. Furthermore, Erikson stated that this process takes place on all levels of mental functioning and is always changing and developing. Penuel and Wertsch , p. Fidelity refers to commitment to a group of people and to a set of ideas. As Penuel and Wertsch summarized: Taken together, commitments to others whom one can trust, to an ideology that promises a place in the world with a hopeful future, and to a career choice that can actualize those promises, form the three important domains of identity formation.
Penuel and Wertsch proposed the use of mediated action, rather than an inner sense of identity, as the unit of analysis. Their proposed sociocultural approach to identity formation emphasized the complex interrelationship between actions, cultural artefacts used in the action, the sociocultural context and the goals behind the action. However, Holland and Lachiotte offered an alternative sociocultural perspective on identity issues through the work of another renowned scholar, George Herbert Mead.
As discussed by Edwards , there are a number of similarities between the work of Vygotsky and the work of Mead. Mead , is considered the founder of the American school of social psychology, from which the influential sociological perspective symbolic interactionism developed. Holland and Lachiotte noted that Eriksonian and Meadian notions of identity are oriented to different phenomena: Thus, in their work, Holland and Lachiotte used the terms self and identity synonymously.
In addition to this shared view of the sociogenetic formation of self, both theorists emphasized active internalization, internalized self-other dialogues and the semiotics of behaviour. We actively internalize a sense of our own behavior as compared to the behavior of others acting in related roles and positions. We develop an inner sense of the collective regard that society is likely to have for our performances. The semiotics of behaviour refers to the meaning that is associated with words, gestures, artefacts and acts, and the transitivity of signs for self and others.
Holland and Lachiotte drew attention to the important implication of semiotic mediation for human agency: Vygotsky argued that, without semiotic mediation, people would be buffeted about by the stimuli they happened to encounter as they went about in the world. Instead, semiotic mediation provides the means for humans to control, organize, and resignify their own behavior.
As Donato stated, in contrast to mentalist theories, a sociocultural theoretical perspective of SLA highlights the importance of learner agency in second language learning tasks and the situatedness of learning and development: As I mentioned above, issues concerning identity — its formation and its mediating function on human action — have not been much examined from a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective. A key concept that can be fruitful for understanding the nature of identity is how mediation and appropriation of culturally constructed artefacts such as beliefs can shape action.
To my knowledge, few scholars in SLA have explored the construction of identity through Vygotskian concepts of mediation and internalization. I maintain that issues of identity and the relationships between identity and agency in the second language learning process can be further explored and theorized from a sociocultural theoretical perspective. I will further elaborate on this topic in the following section. Discussion In the preceding sections, I have identified three major strands of SLA research that focused on issues of identity and agency.
In this section, I compare the various perspectives, and discuss some issues in identityin-SLA research. I also present my conceptual understanding of identity and agency, and the theoretical concepts that I will use in the analysis of my research data. As noted by a number of scholars who have examined these issues in SLA as well as in other disciplines e. Menard-Warwick also noted the definitional confusion in the literature, with some scholars using multiple definitions for a single term, and other scholars conflating terms.
Another issue is that some authors do not provide a definition of identity. In addition to the definitions of identity in Table 2. In the next section, I will further address this issue of defining identity. From my review of the identity-in-SLA literature, I discerned three major issues concerning identity and agency: As I discussed in the first section, post-structural theory challenged modern, positivist perspectives that conceived of individuals as having a stable and unified identity that is independent of the social context, and as having the ability to enact personal agency that is based on rational thought and a free will, also independent from the social context.
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According to a post-structural perspective, identity often referred to as subjectivity is Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency 47 constructed in discourse, and is dynamic, conflictual and always in process. The focus on the discursive construction of identity is similarly espoused in a Bakhtinian dialogic view of the dialectic development of language, self and consciousness. This perspective is similar to a feminist post-structural perspective Weedon, that maintains that discursive agency enables individuals to challenge positioning by societal discourses.
A language socialization approach also highlights the central role of language in the construction of identity. However, language socialization theory has more in common with the community of practice framework as the analytic primacy of both of these approaches is the enculturation and socialization of newcomers novices into a certain existing community through their language and other social practices with established members in the community. Both of these approaches view the construction of identity as interrelated with learning and community membership.
With regard to agency, as shown in Table 2. Wenger also discussed the notion of nonparticipation; that is, individuals define themselves through practices that they do not engage in. Thus, identity can result in agency as resistance to adaptation. This view of the key role of 48 Identity, Agency and Professional Language and Culture language and discourse in identity formation is a common theme across the various theoretical perspectives.
Regarding learner agency, other works from a sociocultural theoretical perspective have emphasized how the sociocultural histories and contexts of individuals affect their goals and desires. To date, few identity-in-SLA studies have explored identity from a psychoanalytic perspective. As Block suggested, a psychoanalytic perspective on identity issues can further our understanding of the relationships between identity and the SLA process.
In this chapter, I have reviewed SLA research that examined issues of identity and agency in the second language learning process from a variety of social perspectives. All of these socially informed approaches offer valuable insights on the second language learner as a complex social being. There are similarities between these perspectives, which have been heightened in recent years with scholars combining concepts from the various Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency 49 theoretical strands in order to attain a more complete understanding of identity and agency.
Methodologically, these studies are similar in their use of qualitative data such as first person narratives, in-depth interviews and ethnographies, which provide emic and longitudinal perspectives. Many of the studies reviewed have shown the contingent and socially constructed nature of identity and agency. However, there are also differences in the various theoretical perspectives regarding the nature of identity and agency.
One point of contention, as noted by Menard-Warwick , , is the debate concerning the stable versus fluid nature of identity. Regarding human agency, most of the theoretical perspectives and studies reviewed in this chapter emphasize the important role of human agency in the learning process. As I mentioned above, one major issue in previous work regarding identity is defining what is meant by this term. In this model, social identity comprises positions and roles that develop from macro-structural factors. These social roles and positions structure their behaviour, and give it meaning and justification p.
These social roles and positions are also a mechanism for social control and the reproduction of social structure. Personal identity comprises behavioural and character repertoire that differentiates individuals and that develops from micro-interactional factors. Ego identity is a subjective sense of temporal-spatial continuity 50 Identity, Agency and Professional Language and Culture that develops from individual, psychological factors. If they have a strong sense of ego identity that is nurtured and reinforced in their lives, they should feel a sense of continuity with the past, meaning in the present, and direction for the future.
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If their sense of ego identity is weak, or has weakened for some reason, they may feel. I believe that this model and conception of the three aspects of identity is a useful heuristic for understanding different aspects of identity. This stance has also been espoused in the field of applied linguistics by Sealy and Carter and Ushioda Following Hall , I define social identity as the roles that a person is born into or appropriates through various group memberships. I define personal identity as the dispositions of a person, such as perseverance, optimism and openness.
In addition, I maintain that Vygotskian sociocultural theory, and the concepts of mediation and internalization, can also be further explored in identity-in-SLA research. Regarding the nature of identity, I take a sociocultural theoretical perspective; that is, my understanding is that all three Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency 51 aspects of identity are socially constructed but also internalized. In contrast to a post-structural view of identity as constantly being recreated in discourse, according to a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, identity is formed through the internalization of mediated activity, which suggests an element of continuity.
To summarize, I conceptualize identity as comprising three dialectically related aspects: I conceive of identity as socially constructed but internalized in the individual; as a process that changes over time and space, but also as a coherent and continuous psychological function that mediates agency. My conception of agency is also informed by a Vygoskian sociocultural perspective. Following the work of Wertsch , I conceive of agency as mediated by tools and artefacts, as well as by interactions in a social context.
I define agency as the mediated ability of individuals to act according to their goals and desires. In my analysis of identity and agency in the SLA process, I am especially interested in connecting Eriksonian and Meadian conceptions of identity with sociocultural theory, as discussed by Penuel and Wertsch and Holland and Lachiotte My analysis also draws upon concepts from this framework.
The notion of legitimate peripheral participation, which deals explicitly with power relations, and the centrality of issues of identity in this social practice theory of learning resonate with my research context of immigrant professionals who are learning a new language and culture, and seeking entry into a new community of practice. I believe that it is fruitful to use concepts from both sociocultural theory and the community of practice framework in examining issues of identity and agency in my study of the professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers.
Both approaches highlight the importance of mediation and social interactions in learning, but each has a different emphasis. The community of practice framework focuses explicitly on identity formation in the learning process, and the notion of legitimate peripheral 52 Identity, Agency and Professional Language and Culture participation addresses power relations.
However, as discussed above, Vygotsky did not deal explicitly with issues of identity. Thus, I maintain that combining these two approaches can provide insights and further our understanding of the relationships between identity, agency and second language learning. As I discussed in Chapter 1, the declassing of immigrant professionals is a major issue in many contemporary societies.
My study aims to better understand the professional acculturation processes of high-skilled immigrants in order to improve their integration into their destination societies and hence, improve the quality of their lives. As I discussed in Chapter 2, the rise of social perspectives in SLA research since the mids resulted in an increase in the use of qualitative research methods that aimed to understand the experiences of language learners in naturalistic contexts and from the perspectives of the learners themselves.
The studies discussed in Chapter 2 used a variety of qualitative methods such as interviews, autobiographies, diary studies, ethnographies and case studies. In this chapter, I discuss the use of qualitative research methods in SLA research. The first part of this chapter focuses on the characteristics of qualitative research. First, I discuss ontological and epistemological characteristics of qualitative research.
Second, I describe three qualitative research methods that have been used in the study of identity issues in SLA — in-depth interviews, narratives and case studies — and the strengths and limitations of these methods. Finally, I discuss the evaluation of qualitative research.
In the second part of this chapter, I discuss practical issues related to conducting qualitative research in SLA, including research design and sampling, data processing and analysis and research ethics. Throughout the chapter, I illustrate the various aspects of conducting qualitative research in SLA with examples from my study.
My study was guided by the following questions: What are the affordances and constraints to the successful professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers IETs in Ontario? If so, what is the nature of these relationships? Affordances facilitate goal-directed action while constraints limit goal-directed action. As I discussed in Chapter 2, I define identity as consisting of three dialectically related aspects: Because of the nature of my research questions, which seeks to better understand the lived experiences of immigrant teachers and their professional acculturation and integration into a new education system, I chose to use qualitative research methods.
Ontology deals with the nature of existence and reality; epistemology deals with the theory of knowledge. A quantitative paradigm holds a realist ontological view of the existence of Qualitative Research in SLA 55 an objective reality and an objectivist epistemology that inquiry and knowledge can be value-free. In contrast, a qualitative paradigm holds a relativist view of reality, which asserts that reality is cognitively and socially constructed, and that there are multiple realities.
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A qualitative paradigm has a subjective epistemology, which views knowledge as constructed in the interaction between the researcher and the object of research. In terms of methodology, Guba and Lincoln also contrasted the interventionist methodology of quantitative research and the hermeneutic methodology of qualitative research. As noted by Johnson , this overview of the two contrasting paradigms was given by two scholars who favoured naturalistic and constructivist approaches to research.
Johnson stated that the important point is awareness of the fact that all research is guided by philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality and knowledge.
Croker discussed another approach to research that encompassed both qualitative and quantitative research — pragmatism. A pragmatic researcher focuses on the consequences or impact of research and selects methods based on the goals of the research rather than ontological or epistemological concerns. In a pragmatic approach to research, the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods is not mutually exclusive. This is the philosophical underpinning of mixed methodology research, which has become more prominent in applied linguistics in recent years. Johnson concluded that a diversity of methods is a positive development in applied linguistics research because it expands ways of examining and understanding phenomena.
Qualitative research — also referred to as interpretative, naturalistic research — focuses on meaning in context. Its main means of gathering information are interviewing, observing and analysing documents. Given that the aim of my research study was to better understand the lived SLA experiences of internationally educated teachers, the use of qualitative research methods was suitable for this study. As discussed earlier, the key philosophical assumption of qualitative research is the view that reality is mentally and socially constructed. Merriam identified the following essential characteristics of qualitative research: Qualitative studies are often undertaken because there is a lack of theory, or existing theory does not adequately explain a phenomenon Merriam, Regarding theory, Duff clarified that exploratory qualitative research is not atheoretical.
Another characteristic of qualitative research is an emergent design.
Ideally, a qualitative study is flexible and responsive to the changing conditions of a study; however, in practice, such a design is not always possible because of the need to specify the research design in order to obtain approval from ethics review boards and funding agencies. Nevertheless, as I will demonstrate with examples from my study, a degree of flexibility is essential to qualitative research.
Strengths include the use of qualitative research in exploratory areas, the ability of qualitative research to make Qualitative Research in SLA 57 sense of highly complex situations and the ability to reach a broader, fuller and deeper understanding of a phenomenon.
Longitudinal qualitative research studies have the potential to examine the dynamic nature of processes studied in applied linguistics. The flexibility in the research process can assist in the gathering of meaningful findings. Finally, qualitative research often generates rich material for a research report, which makes it easier to produce a convincing and vivid case. Limitations of qualitative research include the small sample size that is typical in qualitative research, and hence, the lack of generalizability.
Another limitation is the researcher as the primary instrument for data collection and analysis; thus, a qualitative study is affected by the competence, personal biases and idiosyncrasies of the researcher. Because of its focus on a few specific cases, qualitative research can lead to theories that are too narrow; because of its rich data, qualitative research can lead to theories that are too complex. Many of the strengths and limitations of qualitative research are closely related to the fact that the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis.
On the one hand, the researcher can maximize opportunities for collecting rich and meaningful data by responding to the situation and participants; on the other hand, the researcher can make mistakes and miss opportunities. Merriam maintained that an effective qualitative researcher needs to have enormous tolerance for ambiguity, have sensitivity and be a good communicator.
Because of the emergent design of qualitative research, a researcher needs to adapt to unforeseen events in data collection. A qualitative researcher also needs to be sensitive to the physical setting, the people, the overt and covert agendas, the nonverbal behaviours and the information being gathered. In addition, good communication skills are crucial in the data collection process in order to establish rapport with participants and an atmosphere of trust.
An interview study can comprise single or multiple interview sessions with participants. Interviews can also be conducted with individual participants or with focus groups. There are three main types of interviews: In a structured interview, the researcher employs a precisely worded interview schedule. As noted by Richards, this type of interview is a kind of spoken questionnaire that aims for precision and comparability. In-depth semi-structured interviews are the most common type of interview for qualitative research.
A semi-structured interview is guided by a list of questions, but allows for flexibility in the manner and sequence of the questions, and importantly, allows both the researcher and the participant to explore certain topics in greater depth. In-depth qualitative interviews capture experiences that researchers may not otherwise be able to access, for example, experiences in real life contexts and retrospective accounts of experiences over time.
In previous identity-in-SLA research, including the studies discussed in Chapter 2, in-depth interviews have often been used in combination with other qualitative data collections methods. Menard-Warwick also used in-depth interviews with her participants in addition to classroom observations.
In interview research, as in all qualitative research, the researcher is the primary instrument for collecting data. This has advantages as well as disadvantages. As Merriam explained, during a qualitative interview, the researcher needs to respond to the interview context and participant, for example, to probe with further questions in order to gather meaningful information.
This requires the interviewer to be highly skilled and sensitive to the context and to the participant. Being sensitive means knowing when to probe, when to be silent and when to change directions in the interview. Merriam also stated that what is crucial for qualitative research interviewers is good communication skills.
A good interviewer empathizes with participants, is able to establish rapport and is able to ask good questions and listen intently. Limitations of qualitative interview research are also related to the fact that the researcher is the primary instrument. Insufficient knowledge of the research topic or lack of sensitivity to the context and participant may impact the quality of the information collected.