Shaping your Identity as a Speaker of English: The Struggles of a Beginner Language Learner

Abstract

This paper is based on a study that intended to explore how three young adult learners of English constructed their identities as speakers of English through their positioning in oral tasks in an English class. It focuses on the story of one of the participants of the study: a beginner female English learner. Data collection methods used included class video and audio-recordings, interviews, and diaries kept by the participants. Findings indicated that learners’ positioning in spoken interactions not only directly affected their use of English, but also led them to non-linear transformations of their identities as speakers of English. These results pinpoint the need to gain awareness of the centrality of students’ identities in both their learning process and in language teaching practices and the need to observe how positioning operates in the language classroom.

Group Learning and University Students’ EFL Learner Identity Construction: A Multiple Case Study in China

“…Although research on EFL learner identity construction has become paramount in EFL/ESL education (Collazos & Gómez, 2019), it is only in recent years that the research has grown in many areas, one of which is about how learners construct their identity through English interaction with their peers (Ortiz-Medina, 2017). In educational context, group learning, with its advantages of encouraging learners to become active ones by developing collaborative Open Journal of Modern Linguistics and co-operative skills, and lifelong learning skills, contributes a lot to the reinforcement of EFL learners' language interaction with their peers.…”

Editorial

“…Some of them touch on issues such as positioning, identity configurations and subjectivity of teachers, learners and other actors in the frame of policies and institutional demands (e.g. Montenegro, 2012;Rojas, 2012;Ortiz-Medina, 2017). Others have undertaken community involvement in language curriculum and development (e.g.…”

“…Estos ejemplos ponen de relieve el lenguaje desde esa perspectiva conceptual que se ocupa de las prácticas socialmente sensibles, las cuales se acercan genuinamente a puntos de vista locales específicos. Algunos de ellos se refieren a cuestiones como el posicionamiento, las configuraciones de identidad y la subjetividad de docentes, estudiantes y otros agentes en el marco de las políticas y las demandas institucionales (por ejemplo, Montenegro, 2012;Rojas, 2012;Ortiz-Medina, 2017). Otros han emprendido la participación de la comunidad en el desarrollo y los planes de estudio de idiomas (por ejemplo, Rincón y Clavijo, 2016;Bolaños, Gómez, Flórez, Ramírez y Tello, 2018;Comber, 2018); así como nuevas alfabetizaciones en relación con la tecnología y la sociedad que afectan a la formación de los docentes de idiomas (por ejemplo, Quintero, 2008;Castañeda, 2012;Ekiaka, Feng y Reyna, 2014).…”

English Learners’ Identity Formation as Low and High Investors in their Learning Process

“…However, identity, as a situated and context-dependent phenomenon, also needs to be investigated in other contexts, of which EFL learners' identity construction in their own home countries is of primary importance. For instance, in Colombian EFL education where the present study was conducted, research on EFL learners' identity construction has recently grown in areas including (1) studies on female and male preschoolers resisting and confronting power relations and gender discourses in the English language classroom (Castañeda, 2008); (2) studies on how the use of the native language in the English classroom and the power established between the teacher and students represent determinant factors in the struggle to construct language learners' identity (Gómez Lobatón, 2012), and (3) research on how learners construct their identity through English interaction with their peers, depending, for instance, on their speaking competence development and knowledge-power relations (Ortiz-Medina, 2017).…”