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Identity Reimagined

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The Personal World of the Language Learner

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of looking at the subject as a temporary ‘figuration’ and the different kinds of ‘me’ that learning new languages allows us to be. In order to do this, it reviews recent identity approaches in Second Language Acquisition that see the identity of the language learner either as a place of struggle (Norton, B. (2000). Identity in Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity and Educational Change. London: Longman), as a reflection for the self (Pavlenko, A. (2001). "In the World of the Tradition I Was Unimagined": Negotiation of Identities in Cross-Cultural Autobiographies. International Journal of Bilingualism, 5(3), 317–344, Pavlenko, A. (2002). Poststructuralist Approaches to the Study of Social Factors in Second Language Learning and Use. In V. Cook (Ed.), Portraits of the L2 User(pp. 277–302). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters) and as a product of the imagination and symbolic thought (Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press). The conceptualisation of identity as a ‘figuration’ aims at highlighting the intersubjectivity and fleetingness of the language learning experience by drawing on nomadic philosophy and anthropological approaches to the subject (Braidotti, R. (1994). Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press; Holland, D.; Skinner, D.; Lachicotte, J.R., & Cain, C. (2001). Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. London: Harvard University Press). Unlike the poststructuralist approach to ‘identity’ that saw it as a deteriorated state, a state of discomfort and ambivalence, the nomadic idea of ‘figurations’ introduces a more positive vision, one where the learner is allowed to take non-linear paths that are contingent and respond to the particular situation. Viewing the self as fractured does not herald a demise of the agency of the self, but rather opens up the possibility for the learner to take a new lease of life, to feel liberated and empowered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. King’s College London, London, UK

    Cristina Ros i Solé

  2. The Open University, London, UK

    Cristina Ros i Solé

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  1. Cristina Ros i Solé
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Solé, C.R.i. (2016). Identity Reimagined. In: The Personal World of the Language Learner. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52853-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52853-7_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52852-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52853-7

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