Norton L2 identity

Review of previous reviews

Central role of
poststructuralist view
esp. the notion of investment

Structure of this review

previous SLA vs identity theory

identity positions

the role of power

identity, resources and practices
mutually constituted

identity redefined via negotiation with peers

investment and motivation

imagined community and imagined identities

poststructuralist theories of language

structuralist: de Saussure

poststructuralist

Bakhtin: situated utterances

Hall et al. usaged view of language

Bourdieu: Power and rights

poststructuralist theory of subjectivity

Weeden: subjectivity constructed in lg.

individuals as SUBJECT OF relationships

individuals as SUBJECT TO relationships

diverse, contradictory,dynamic, changing, variable, situated, multiple, non-unitary INDIVIDUALS

pedagogical implications

offering individuals
more position possibilities

sujectivitity and lg mutually constitutive

lg learning is self negotiating

Hall and Bhabha: self as a PROCESS, BECOMING, POSITIONING

post structuralist theory of Positioning

Foucault et. al: positioning as socially given and individually struggled for

sociocultural theories of language learning

Vytgosky etc, learners seen as differentially positioned members in sociocultural context using lg. as a dynamic tool.

Lave & Wenger: legitimate peripheral participants
Learning in community of practice

Norton: investment as a complement to motivation in accounting for successful SLA

borrowed from Bourdieu's
notion of cultural capital.

lg learners seen
having complex identities

Central question:
What is the learner’s
investment in the language
practices of this classroom?

Anderson and Wenger: Imagined identities and imagined communities

when learners imagine who they might be,
and who their communities might be,when learning a lg.

pedagogical applications:

digital photograph

differentiated lg. learning programs

identity categories not "variables,
but interwoven with language learning.

race and ethnicity

Ibrahim: African learners of
french "becoming black".

McKinney: different brands
of English: LV English, becoming white

Motha: racialized identities
negotiated at schools.

gender

three broad approaches

methods rely on static, inherent and
measurable learner "variables"

qualitative research design
focusing on power and equity

reject the view that any research can
claim to be objective or unbiased

the ‘structure and
agency’ issue:
mutually constitutive

political and economic issues enable
or constrain language learning

narrative inquiry particularly enlightening

ethnography, anthropology, feminist,
poststructuralist approaches