Language and Identity: Discourse in the World

✍ Scribed by David Evans

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 250
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Language not only expresses identities but also constructs them. Starting from that point, Language and Identity examines the interrelationships between language and identities. It finds that they are so closely interwoven, that words themselves are inscribed with ideological meanings.
Words and language constitute meanings within discourses and discourses vary in power. The powerful ones reproduce more powerful meanings, colonize other discourses and marginalize or silence the least powerful languages and cultures. Language and culture death occur in extreme cases of marginalization.
This book also demonstrates the socio-economic opportunities offered by language choice and the cultural allegiances of language, where groups have been able to create new lives for themselves by embracing new languages in new countries. Language can be a ‘double-edged sword’ of opportunity and marginalization. Language and Identity argues that bilingualism and in some cases multilingualism can both promote socio-economic opportunity and combat culture death and marginalization.
With sound theoretical perspectives drawing upon the work of Bakhtin, Vygotsky, Gumperz, Foucault and others, this book provides readers with a rationale to redress social injustice in the world by supporting minority linguistic and cultural identities and an acknowledgement that access to language can provide opportunity.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Contributors
Part 1: Theoretical Overview
1. Introduction
Themes of the book
References
2. The Identities of Language
Universal Grammar
Descartes’s theory of knowledge
Post-structural accounts of language and identity
Saussurean structuralism
Discourse and social practice
Social constructivism, intersubjectivity and cultural identity
Fairclough – discourse and social power relations
Rationale of systemic functional linguistics
Language as cultural capital; language as ideological capital
Conclusion
References
3. How Language Shapes Social Perception
Introduction
Linguistic relativity
Numbers in the minds
Language and identity
Language as indicator of identity
Conclusions
References
Part 2: Languages, Discourses and Identities in the World
4. Quebec’s Shift from Ethnic to Civic National Identity: Implications for Language Attitudes Among Immigrants in Montreal
Introduction
Socio-historical background
Method
Participants
Procedure
Materials
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Notes
References
5. Trilingualism and Uyghur Identity in the People’s Republic of China
Prologue
Introduction
The Uyghur language
Teaching and learning of Chinese by Uyghurs
English in Xinjiang
The study
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
6. ‘Queensland for Ever & Augus un ballybug go braugh’: The Expression of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Irish Emigrant Letters
Introduction
Locating language in identity
Locating identity in first-generation emigrant letters
Conclusion
Notes
References
7. Indigenous Languages, Cultures and Communities in the Amazon: Strengthening Identities
Prologue
Introduction: Language death, culture death
Education in the Amazon region of Brazil: The historical context
Paulo Freire: Conscientização, Praxis and contextualism
New developments in native education in Brazil
Conclusion
References
Part 3: Critical Pedagogies
8. The Language of Leisure and Physicality: Constructing and Re-constructing Identity
Introduction
Leisure: A place for reconstructing adolescent identity
Unicycling: A lifestyle sport
Identity: Developing a sense of self
Culture and subculture: The link with language
Unicycling narratives: Constructing and reconstructing identity
Conclusion
References
9. Drama and the Identity of the Language Learner
Introduction: Language learning, dramatic play and identity
Negotiating ‘Thirdness’ through drama and game
Teacher plays a leading role
The third culture of the foreign language learner
Trainee confidence in L2 – class profile
Developing L2 identity through drama: The challenge
Learner subjects in this discussion: The trainee teacher
The developing picture of language learning in the United Kingdom
The primary practitioner: Complex identity
Drama in foreign language learning
Constructing a language portrait: First steps in overcoming lack of confidence
Workshop encounters with language learning
Perceived limitations in language subject knowledge
From ordinary to extraordinary stories
Into the unknown: How principles of learning are underpinned
Re-defining roles: From hesitant to confident L2 speaker
Foreign language identity: A cross-language comparison
The experience of speaking Spanish
The experience of speaking German
The primary practitioner in the classroom setting: Learner and teacher role
Language beyond words
References
10. Towards a Cultural Paradigm of Alterity in Modern Foreign Language (MFL) Learning
Introduction
Identity in language learning
The third identity issue as the negotiation of identities
Socio-economics and social investment as a motivating ideology in language learning
Cultural capital
Audibility
Dornyei’s theory of imagined future selves
A cultural theory
The third place
Exploration of identity in MFL learning
Self and ‘Other’
Conclusion
References
11. English Language Teacher Identity: A Framework for Teacher Learning and Professional Development
Abstract
Introduction
English language curriculum development and the role of the teacher
The role of identity
Identity, learning and communities of practice
Practice
Community
Identity
Meaning
InSITE
Mutual engagement
Joint enterprise
Conclusion
References
12. Conclusion
Index