26.31, Review: Applied Linguistics: Rivers, Houghton (2013)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-31. Sat Jan 03 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.31, Review: Applied Linguistics: Rivers, Houghton (2013)

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Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:24:25
From: Ksenia Gnevsheva [ksenia.gnevsheva at pg.canterbury.ac.nz]
Subject: Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education

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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-5008.html

EDITOR: Damian J. Rivers
EDITOR: Stephanie Ann Houghton
TITLE: Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Ksenia Gnevsheva, University of Canterbury

Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education, edited by
Damian J. Rivers and Stephanie Ann Houghton, comprises an introduction by the
editors and 10 chapters which explore learner (and teacher in several of the
chapters) identity in foreign and second language education for a number of
first language (L1) and second language (L2) pairs. It is a collection of
qualitative research studies with a variety of methods employed, which give
voice to the participants and allow a valuable glimpse of raw data.

Chapter 1, “The Institutional and Beyond: On the Identity Displays of Foreign
Language Teachers”, by Jose Aguilar, sets out to explore the manifestations of
the “situated identity” (Zimmerman 1998) of L2 teachers in Scotland, France,
and Spain and the coherence between these manifestations and pedagogical
rationales. Conversation analysis used in the study revealed that teachers’
self-categorization often facilitated language learning activities and was
sometimes used for creating a pleasant classroom environment conducive to
communication. The author rightfully calls for more attention to the teacher’s
identity construction and its inclusion in teacher-training courses.

Damian J. Rivers in Chapter 2, “Implications for Identity: Inhabiting the
‘Native-Speaker’ English Teacher Location in the Japanese Sociocultural
Context”, continues with the theme of teacher identity and analyzes 5
narratives of Native Speaker (NS) teachers of English who have different
lengths of residence in Japan. The categorization of NS teachers as the
excluded ‘Other’ in  Japanese society is exemplified through the discourse of
periphery and isolation that permeates the narratives describing their
professional identity. In conclusion, Rivers briefly discusses the
implications of such exclusion upon the individual (NS teachers) and broader
society (collegiality in the workplace and education nationwide).

In Chapter 3, “Professional Identities Shaped by Resistance to Target Language
Only Policies”, Brian A. McMillan discusses his experiences as a French
Immersion teacher in Canada and an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Teacher
in Japan. He discusses how his professional identity was shaped through his
exploration and development of his teaching philosophy with regard to the
Target Language Only policy informed by his own beliefs, experiences as a
learner and teacher, research, and institutional policies. The description of
lived experiences and brief summary of professional identity development in
the conclusion is quite insightful; however, it leaves the reader wanting to
hear more about the details of that development. 

Claudia Kunschak and Felix Girón’s Chapter 4, “Language, Culture and Identity:
Transcultural Practices and Theoretical Implications”, explores transcultural
practices in 4 groups: intermediate and advanced English learners and Chinese
and international English teachers in a Chinese university. The 5
transcultural practices identified are code-switching, using English for
distancing, critical evaluation of language, culture, and identity,
reflexivity towards the Other and Own cultures, and awareness of Own culture. 

Melina Porto’s Chapter 5, “Social Identifications and Culturally Located
Identities: Developing Cultural Understanding through Literature”, is a
detailed analysis of one Argentinian EFL student’s engagement with a text and
the complex interplay of her positionings in relation to age, social
groupings, religion, gender, race and ethnicity.

Deborah Cole and Bryan Meadows in Chapter 6, “Reimagining Sociolinguistic
Identification in Foreign Language Classroom Communities of Practice”, suggest
that the nationalist paradigm in foreign language teaching be replaced with
the communities of practice one. After discussing the advantages of using the
nation as the frame of reference for identity, language, and culture, the
authors argue that it is simplistic and essentialist and does not prepare
foreign language learners well for encounters with the Other in today’s
globalized world. The authors exemplify the propositions of the community of
practice model with the organization of a foreign language program in an
American high school. 

John W. Schwieter’s Chapter 7, “The Foreign Language Imagined Learning
Community: Developing Identity and Increasing Foreign Language Investment”,
discusses student involvement in a magazine project in an advanced Spanish as
a Foreign Language University class in English-speaking Canada. The use of
imagined learning communities is found beneficial for the students’ teamwork,
motivation, and creativity as it is  able to relate classroom activities to a
large range of identity positions.

Chapter 8, “Foreign Language Motivation and Social Identity Development”, by
Lou Harvey employs semi-structured interviews with the aim of exploring 3 ESL
students’ identities in relation to their perception of choice and agency in
the learning of English, the nature of their English contact experience,
perceived benefits of learning English, and their desire to participate in UK
social life. The focus of the study is not limited to the education setting
but draws on the broader ESL sojourn experience, which shapes and guides the
participants’ identity negotiation.

Sonia Gallucci’s Chapter 9, “Emotive Accounts of the Self during an ERASMUS
Sojourn Abroad”, is a case study of narratives of one British learner of
Italian, which discusses a year-abroad student’s identity development and its
manifestation through her use of emotive language. The focus is on the most
frequent word “nervous”, which the participant uses when finding herself
negotiating power relations.

Stephanie Ann Houghton in the final Chapter 10, “Setting Standards for
Intercultural Communication: Universalism and Identity Change”, adapts Byram’s
(1997) intercultural communicative competence (ICC) model by adding a stage of
identity development to create the Intercultural Dialogue Model (ID Model)
(Houghton 2012). The study explores the progression of the EFL students
through the ID Model course and their identity development facilitated by
their exploration of and critical engagement with Self and Other (peer and
foreigner)’s  system of values, particularly universalism (caring about the
welfare of all people). 

EVALUATION

The major strength of this book is that it brings together research conducted
in several countries, which allows readers to explore additional language
identity development in a variety of different settings; this is invaluable
because, as Kunschak and Girón exemplify in Chapter 4, this process can
proceed differently for language learners from different cultures, educational
contexts and so on. Though the title of the book may be misleading, the
content is not limited to research on foreign language education and includes
research on second language settings as well, such distinction being argued to
be irrelevant by the editors. This breadth of research is supported by a
number of L1-L2 pairs as well as a range of participant ages (from highschool
students to adults) and methods (conversation, interview, and essay analyses,
to name just a few). 

Another advantage of the collection is that it does not disregard teacher
identities (both NS and NNS), which are an important ingredient in education
but are often overshadowed by learner identities in research. In this book
teacher identity is discussed in connection with classroom interaction and
institutional policy. The chapters are organized thematically in that the
volume starts with the discussion of teacher identity and continues with
learner identity.

The research presented in this volume has a strong connection to L2 pedagogy.
The data in several of the chapters come directly from classroom
communication, such as teacher-student conversations and essays. Several of
the chapters discuss successful syllabi that treat learner identity
development as an essential part of the course. A few authors offer
implications for language pedagogy, teacher training, and institutional
policy.

To sum up, this is a valuable volume for both identity researchers and
additional language teaching practitioners.

REFERENCES

Byram, M. 1997. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Houghton, S.A. 2012. Intercultural Dialogue in Practice: Managing Value
Judgment in Foreign Language Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Zimmerman, D.H. 1998. Identity, context and interaction. In C. Antaki and S.
Widdicombe (Ed.), Identities in Talk. 87-106. London: Sage.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ksenia Gnevsheva is a PhD Candidate in Linguistics at the University of
Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her research interests include Second
Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, and how these two work together.








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