Yemeni EFL Learners’ Identity Conflicts: An Exploratory Case Study

Abstract

The importance of the concept of “identity” in the context of language learning is unassailable. Stemming from this premise, the current study is intended to explore the identity conflicts of a group of Yemeni learners who were studying English, as well as the techniques and strategies used to mitigate and/or lessen the conflicts between their actual identity and the identity associated with the target language, i.e., English. This research project used a qualitative exploratory case study research design with a sample of 20 students who were requested to write their journal diaries. Following that, semi-structured interviews were conducted using the double-sampling technique to select 10 of the previously sampled students who were proven to have written the most stimulating and intriguing journal entries. From the results of the study, tangible identity conflicts between the Yemeni culture and society at large and the implied behaviors and conventions accompanying the intensive study of the English language became apparent. The students exhibit a high level of motivation and they also exert their efforts using different techniques and strategies to excel at the learning and/or acquisition of the speaking skill of the English language. These conflicts may be consciously or subconsciously realized by the language learners, but what has been proven is that their attitudes, motivation and general inclinations towards the goal of speaking with a native or a native-like accent are unquestionably genuine. Lastly, the study suggested or recommended a revamp of the current textbooks giving teachers more training sessions in order to improve their individual repertoire, as well as a higher degree of awareness upon the part of the Yemeni society at large that these conflicts can interfere with the strong motivations, both aspirational and actual, to achieve the learning outcomes of the nation’s most promising future leaders and pioneers.

Imagined Communities and Identities in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learning: A Literature Review

“…Yashima and Zenuk-Nishide (2008) claim that "if the classroom practice fails to link the learner to the imagined community which each learner wishes to be part of, it can alienate him/her" (p. 569). In another work carried out by Attamimi, Al-Tamimi, and Chittick (2019), some of the participants show their lost in enthusiasm when the classroom practices do not match their interest and expectation. Fatima, one of the participants, felt the language used in her collese was mostly academic and limited, leaving her no chance to fully use her linguistic capacity.…”