Identity and Language Learning

Early Developments

The relationship between identity and language learning is of interest to scholars in the fields of second language acquisition (SLA), language education, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics. It is best understood in the context of a shift in the field from a predominantly psycholinguistic approach to SLA to include a greater focus on sociological and cultural dimensions of language learning, or what has been called the “social turn” in SLA. Thus while much research on language learning in the 1970s and 1980s was directed toward investigating the personalities, learning styles, and motivations of individual learners, contemporary researchers of identity are centrally concerned with the diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts in which language learning takes place, and how learners negotiate and sometimes resist the diverse positions those contexts offer them. Further, identity theorists question the view that learners can be defined in binary terms as motivated or unmotivated, introverted or extroverted, without considering that such affective factors are frequently socially constructed in inequitable relations of power, changing across time and space, and possibly coexisting in contradictory ways within a single individual.

Many scholars cite educational theorist Bonny Norton’s conceptualization of identity (Norton Peirce, 1995; Norton, 1997; Norton, 2000/2013) as foundational in language learning research. Her theorization highlights how learners participate in diverse learning contexts where they position themselves and are positioned in different ways. Drawing from poststructuralist Christine Weedon's (1987) notion of subjectivity and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's (1991) power to impose reception, Norton demonstrated how learners construct and negotiate multiple identities through language, reframing relationships so that they may claim their position as legitimate speakers. .

Contemporary Ideas

Since Norton's conception of identity in the 1990s, it has become a central construct in language learning research foregrounded by scholars such as David Block, Aneta Pavlenko, Kelleen Toohey, Margaret Early, Peter De Costa and Christina Higgins. A number of researchers have explored how Identity categories of race, gender, class and sexual orientation may impact the language learning process. Identity now features in most encyclopedias and handbooks of language learning and teaching, and work has extended to the broader field of applied linguistics to include identity and pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and discourse. In 2015, the theme of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) conference held in Toronto was identity, and the journal Annual Review of Applied Linguistics in the same year focused on issues of identity, with prominent scholars discussing the construct in relation to a number of topics. These included translanguaging (Angela Creese and Adrian Blackledge), transnationalism and mutilingualism (Patricia Duff), technology (Steven Thorne) and migration (Ruth Wodak).

Closely linked to identity is Norton's construct of investment which complements theories of motivation in SLA. Norton argues that a learner may be a highly motivated language learner, but may nevertheless have little investment in the language practices of a given classroom or community, which may, for example, be racist, sexist, elitist, or homophobic. Thus, while motivation can be seen as a primarily psychological construct, investment is framed within a sociological framework, and seeks to make a meaningful connection between a learner’s desire and commitment to learn a language, and their complex identity. The construct of investment has sparked considerable interest and research in the field. Darvin and Norton's (2015) model of investment in language learning locates investment at the intersection of identity, capital, and ideology. Responding to conditions of mobility and fluidity that characterize the 21st century, the model highlights how learners are able to move across online and offline spaces, performing multiple identities while negotiating different forms of capital.

An extension of interest in identity and investment concerns the imagined communities that language learners may aspire to join when they learn a new language. The term “imagined community”, originally coined by Benedict Anderson (1991), was introduced to the language learning community by Norton (2001), who argued that in many language classrooms, the targeted community may be, to some extent, a reconstruction of past communities and historically constituted relationships, but also a community of the imagination, a desired community that offers possibilities for an enhanced range of identity options in the future. These innovative ideas, inspired also by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998), are more fully developed in Kanno and Norton (2003), and Pavlenko and Norton (2007), and have proved generative in diverse research sites. An imagined community assumes an imagined identity, and a learner’s investment in the second language can be understood within this context.

Towards the Future

There is now a wealth of research that explores the relationship between identity, language learning, and language teaching. Themes on identity include: race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and disability. Further, the award-winning Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, launched in 2002, ensures that issues of identity and language learning will remain at the forefront of research on language education, applied linguistics, and SLA in the future. Issues of identity are seen to be relevant not only to language learners, but to language teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. There is an increasing interest in the ways in which advances in technology have impacted both language learner and teacher identity, and the ways in which the forces of globalization are implicated in identity construction. Many established journals in the field welcome research on identity and language learning, including: Applied Linguistics, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Language Learning, Language and Education, Linguistics and Education, Modern Language Journal, and TESOL Quarterly.

Key Books

Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. London/New York: Continuum

In this monograph, Block insightfully traces research interest in second language identities from the 1960s to the present. He draws on a wide range of social theory, and brings a fresh analysis to studies of adult migrants, foreign language learners, and study-abroad students.

Burck, C. (2005/7). Multilingual living. Explorations of language and subjectivity. Basingstoke, England and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

This book presents a discursive and narrative analysis of speakers' own accounts of the challenges and advantages of living in several languages at individual, family and societal levels, which gives weight to ideas on hybridity and postmodern multiplicity.

Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

In this second edition of a highly cited study of immigrant language learners, Norton draws on poststructuralist theory to argue for a conception of the learner identity as multiple, a site of struggle, and subject to change. She also develops the construct of “investment” to better understand the relationship between language learners and the target language. The second edition includes an insightful Afterword by Claire Kramsch.

Pavlenko, A. and Blackledge, A. (Eds). (2004). Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

The authors in this comprehensive collection examine the ways in which identities are negotiated in diverse multilingual settings. They analyse the discourses of education, autobiography, politics, and youth culture, demonstrating the ways in which languages may be sites of resistance, empowerment, or discrimination.

Toohey, K. (2000). Learning English at school: Identity, social relations and classroom practice. Cleveland, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Drawing on an exemplary ethnography of young English language learners, Toohey investigates the ways in which classroom practices are implicated in the range of identity options available to language learners. She draws on sociocultural and poststructural theory to better understand the classroom community as a site of identity negotiation.