A qualitative study on learner identity of American Chinese learners and foreign language

learning Jia YU

INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA

A "socially and contextually" (Larsen-Freeman 2007, pp. 773) overview of second language acquisition (SLA) - post Firth and Wagner (1997)

A poststructuralist view on identity Autobiographical narratives in research on

L2 learners' identity

AIM/JUSTIFICATION Few research on Chinese learners' identity (I only find one article and it is very negative

to Chinese teachers in the U.S.) Previous research on negotiation of identity f

ocused primarily on spoken data, and most narrative-based studies recently on identity focused on bilingual autobiographical writers, who have a high competency in the target language, and are only representative of middle and upper-middle class learners (Pavlenko 2001a).

REFERENCES

Block, D. (2007). The rise of identity in SLA research: Post Firth and Wagner(1997). Modern Language Journal, 91, 863-876.

Coffey, S. & Street, B. (2008). Narrative and identity in the "language learning project". Modern Language Journal, 92(3), 452-464.

Firth, A. & Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA research. Modern Language Journal, 81, 286-300.

Pavlenko, A. (2001a). "In the world of the tradition, I was unimagined": Negotiation of identities in cross-cultural autobiographies. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 5(3), 317-344.

Pavlenko, A. (2001b). Language learning memoirs as a gendered genre. Applied Linguistics, 22(2), 213-240.

Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment and language Learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9-31.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS How do individual learners construct their subjectivity(chil

dhood, family, school...) over time in narratives?From their personal stories with specific reference to people, t

ime and event, questions include: How do individual learners legitimize their use of Chinese? How do individual learners construct particularly sites of p

rofessional and personal identities that structure agency? How do individual learners make both symbolic and materi

al investment on learning Chinese , as regard to the rising power of China?

How do they choose to align with or not align with the native Chinese group?

METHODOLOGY

SUBJECTS/SOURCES

Two successful Chinese learners, who either "had studied languages to a degree level or who had gained proficiency by living in the target language country and/or using foreign language(s) in their professional life" (Coffey and Street 2008, pp.453)

MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS

Elicited narratives on language learning Individual semi-structured interviews

PROCEDURE

First, for the written account, participants are asked to write a language learning autobiography with prompts.

Second, participants are contacted to set up a semi-structured interview for about an hour, after the written accounts are collected and briefly examined. Interviews will be recorded and transcrbed.

TYPE OF DATA AND ANALYSIS

First, identity the figured world of language learners - people, places, and events

Second, describe the important narrative character that shapes the telling of the narrative. It allows us to understand how learners position themselves with reference to the narratives.

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS /LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Not enough data is collected.

EXPECTED FINDINGS

The learners are social actors, who derives and act upon different positions that are institutionally and culturally situated, and that are also dynamic and individually situated.

I am able to identify a number of discursive worlds, both material and symbolic, that are figured in the autobiographical accounts.