Reflection…

Identity

Individual Group

Objectives

At the end of this session, you will be able to:

• elaborate on the concept of ‘identity’

• investigate the relationship between language & identity

• place your identity individually & as a group in relation to local &

international determinants of language in society (gender, ethnicity,

class, age, education, employment)

Identity – The Term

• “The fact of being who or what a person or thing is” (Google).

• “The distinguishing character or personality of an individual”

(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).

For example:

They produced their passports as proof of their identity.

The identity of the criminal is unknown.

Research Literature

Where do I belong? • “mutual images and stereotypes

and on emotions linked to the outer layers of the onion, but not to values. Populations that fight each other on the basis of their different “felt” identities may very well share the same values” (Hofstede, 2001:10).

• “The sociolinguistics of identity focuses on the ways in which people position or construct themselves and are positioned or constructed by others in socio-cultural situations through the instrumentality of language and with reference to all the variables that comprise identity markers for each community in the speech of its members” (Omoniyi & Goodith, 2006).

The relationship between language & identity

Hamers & Blanc (2000)

• Language is a transmitter of culture

• It is the main instrument for internalization of culture

That is, language transmits culture and is also used to internalize culture by an individual

What do you understand from Social identity?

Social identity is created when people:

• Categorise their surroundings

• Place themselves in a group with which they share common characteristics

• And distance themselves from other social groups

Language as marker of identity

In multicultural societies, social groups distinguish themselves from others based on linguistic, cultural and ethnic characteristics.

Hamers and Blanc (2000:203) continue to connect language to ethnic identity.

They demonstrate that language is often the most important marker of ethnic identity in the context of intercultural and interethnic encounters.

Language as a defining part of ethnic identity

Trudgill (2000)

• Language is an essential part of ethnic group membership

• Individuals often identify themselves on the basis of their mother tongue

• Ethnic groups construct their separateness and identity thorough language

Bottom line:

• language can be used to construct and define one’s identity

• that language can be used to not only create identity, but to separate one’s identity from that of others.

The identity theory

Kathryn Woodward (1997) introduces theories on identity in her book Identity and Difference.

Identity and Difference

• identity is constructed through the marking of difference

• This difference takes place “…both through the symbolic systems of representation, and through forms of socialexclusion” (Woodward 1997:29).

• social difference is established through a classificatory system, a system which divides people into opposinggroups (e.g., us & the, or self & other)

Identity and Representation.

• meanings are produced through signifying practices and symbolic systems

• representation “…as a cultural process establishes individual and collective identities” (Woodward 1997:14).

• social practice is symbolically marked and that every social practice has to be understood

Does ‘identity’ change over time?

• The identity of an individual is complicated and can change over time

with age, environment & acquired knowledge (Edwards, 2009)

• Identities are constantly changing in social context and through

symbolic systems, one of which is language (Woodward 1997:23).

• Think of examples

TASK 1: The link between ‘identity’ & ‘language’

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his mother language that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela

Discuss the article (https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/185439-Language-and-identity)

• the link between language evolution & identity.

• Education, migration, employment…

• Native / Mother language/Regional Languages

• Contextual language – variations of the second/foreign language

Question to consider

• Who does the language belong to?

The link between ‘identity’ & ‘language’

• Language can be a means of solidarity, resistance & identity within a

group

• The language that a person speaks is that language that a person

identifies with (Frere & Macedo, 1987; Heath, 1983; Le Page, 1986,

Milroy, 1987)

• “To try to dictate and purge a person’s language is to try to change

the individual, to alter that person’s identity, which can make

profound, probably unnecessary and possibly detrimental demands

on his or her culture and person” (Laneheart, 1996:322).

TASK 2: Critical questions

• Who does a language belong to?

• Regional & national varieties

• Migrant varieties

• Professional contextual varieties

• What is the role of social groups in the development of

linguistic identity?

TASK 3: Assignment project

How has your identity evolved over a period of time?

Map & explain with respect to:

• Schooling

• Medium of Instruction

• Family background

• Higher education

• Educational choices

• Friendships (local, national, international)