Hare, J., Darvin, R., Doherty, L., Early, M., Filipenko, M., Norton, B., Soni, D., and Stranger-Johannessen, E. (2017) “Digital storytelling and reconciliation” (pp. 200-205). In P. Tortell, P., M. Young & P. Nemetz (Eds.) Reflections... more
Hare, J., Darvin, R., Doherty, L., Early, M., Filipenko, M., Norton, B., Soni, D., and Stranger-Johannessen, E. (2017) “Digital storytelling and reconciliation” (pp. 200-205). In P. Tortell, P., M. Young & P. Nemetz (Eds.) Reflections of Canada 150. Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, Vancouver, Canada
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Given the large number of students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds in Canadian schools, our study investigates to what extent an open access multilingual digital platform, Storybooks Canada (https://www.storybookscanada.ca/), might... more
Given the large number of students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds in Canadian schools, our study investigates to what extent an open access multilingual digital platform, Storybooks Canada (https://www.storybookscanada.ca/), might serve the interests of elementary school English language learners. Our study drew on insights from 13 experienced language tutors across greater Vancouver, each volunteering for a local organization in an after-school program for multilingual learners. We sought to determine how the diverse stories on the Storybooks Canada platform could be used in classrooms and homes in British Columbia and Canada. We investigated a range of questions, including the following: Is Storybooks Canada a helpful resource to improve student reading? Can Storybooks Canada be used to build home/school partnerships? How can the stories be used within the British Columbia Curriculum? We then did a follow-up study of British Columbia’s English Language Arts curriculum in o...
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The central argument of the identity approach to second language acquisition (SLA) is twofold: First, SLA theorists need a comprehensive theory of identity that integrates the individual language learner and the larger social world;... more
The central argument of the identity approach to second language acquisition (SLA) is twofold: First, SLA theorists need a comprehensive theory of identity that integrates the individual language learner and the larger social world; second, SLA theorists need to address how relations of power in the social world affect learners’ access to the target language community. In relation to the former, a fully developed theory of identity highlights the multiple positions from which language learners can speak, and how sometimes marginalized learners can appropriate more desirable identities with respect to the target language community. In relation to the latter, identity theorists are concerned about the ways in which opportunities to practice speaking, reading, and writing, acknowledged as central to the SLA process (cf. Spolsky, 1989), are socially structured in both formal and informal sites of language learning. Identity theorists thus question the view that learners can be defined i...
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Research Interests: Language Education, Feminist Theory, Assessment, Ethnography, Critical Pedagogy, and 15 moreApplied Linguistics, Essentialism, Language, Israel, Knowledge, Language Learning, Chinese, Computer technology, H, E, C, G, J, A, and GEE
0 TESOL Quarterly's invitation to write about how my experience as a global citizen informs my work in local contexts has prodded me into this written retrospection. I had until a few years ago naively kept my two researching... more
0 TESOL Quarterly's invitation to write about how my experience as a global citizen informs my work in local contexts has prodded me into this written retrospection. I had until a few years ago naively kept my two researching strands-West-based teacher education and my ongoing work with teachers and students in India-separate, unwisely maintaining that the two strands (my home community of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, and my teacher education work in the United States) represent different social realities, with each side having little to say to the other. My justification for keeping them separate was prompted by my tendency, among other things, to overfocus on the local. What can I say about caste, gender, or class issues in my home community that will be relevant here in the West? What can I say about TESOL teacher education in the West that will resonate with the local, sociopolitical realities in India (Ramanathan, in press)? The local needs, tools, pedagogic practices, modes of learning, teaching, exams, and bureaucratic hassles are from some angles so different in the two worlds; how does one carry over to the other? But the points of seepage were always there, and the longer I stayed with my India project, the more obvious and intrusive they became. I had begun this exploration about 7 years ago to better understand the struggles that students educated in the vernacular medium (VM) go through when they encounter English medium (EM) colleges. As one who
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The end of the twentieth and early years of the twenty-ffrst century have witnessed a burgeoning interest in issues of learner identities in language and literacy education.1 This interest has been accompanied by a shift in the conception... more
The end of the twentieth and early years of the twenty-ffrst century have witnessed a burgeoning interest in issues of learner identities in language and literacy education.1 This interest has been accompanied by a shift in the conception of identity which foregrounds the sociocultural ...
Storybooks Canada (storybookscanada.ca) makes multilingual audiovisual stories available in multiple languages to promote language and literacy development. Building on a long tradition of freely available, open educational resources,... more
Storybooks Canada (storybookscanada.ca) makes multilingual audiovisual stories available in multiple languages to promote language and literacy development. Building on a long tradition of freely available, open educational resources, Storybooks Canada provides online, multimodal, mobile- and teacher-friendly access to 40 African stories in 21 of the most commonly spoken languages in Canada (including English and French)—making it possible to support and encourage the multilingualism of heritage language, immigrant, and refugee students. In doing so, the project demonstrates the potential for working against the normalized North-South directionality of knowledge flows to develop a more equitable ecosystem for the mobilization of knowledge.
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Research on language teacher identity in the field of heritage language (HL) teaching has received little attention, although identity is a central concern in HL education. Our research seeks to address this gap in the research on... more
Research on language teacher identity in the field of heritage language (HL) teaching has received little attention, although identity is a central concern in HL education. Our research seeks to address this gap in the research on language teacher identity. Drawing on the Darvin and Norton’s (2015) conceptual framework of identity and investment, we investigate the extent to which Bangla HL teachers are invested in teaching Bangla, and how their investment provides insight into their identity as heritage language teachers. The study was conducted at the community-based Vancouver Bangla School, and the data, which focuses on our focal participant, Mili, were drawn from a year-long qualitative case study. Data sources include participant classroom observations, field notes, interview transcripts, a questionnaire, and educational resources used in the class, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that Mili’s investment in teaching Bangla was deeply rooted in her...
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In the field of English-language teaching, there has been increasing interest in how literacy development is influenced by institutional and community practice and how power is implicated in language-learners ’ engagement with text. In... more
In the field of English-language teaching, there has been increasing interest in how literacy development is influenced by institutional and community practice and how power is implicated in language-learners ’ engagement with text. In this article, I trace the trajectory of my research on identity, literacy, and English-lan-guage teaching informed by theories of investment and imagined communities.
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For over a decade, the authors have worked collaboratively to better understand and address the challenges and possibilities of promoting multilingual literacy in Uganda, a country of over 44 million people where over 40 African languages... more
For over a decade, the authors have worked collaboratively to better understand and address the challenges and possibilities of promoting multilingual literacy in Uganda, a country of over 44 million people where over 40 African languages are spoken and English is the official language. This article focuses on the diverse ways that teachers promote early literacy in large multilingual classrooms, and how the innovative African Storybook digital initiative might support primary school teachers in both rural and urban areas. We begin the article with a description of our collaborative work on the African Storybook (http://www.africanstorybook.org/) and one of its derivatives, Storybooks Uganda (https://global-asp.github.io/storybooks-uganda/). Then, drawing on a collaborative study of primary school classrooms in eastern Uganda, we analyze four common strategies that Ugandan teachers use to promote multilingual literacy in their classrooms: the use of the mother tongue as a resource; ...
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While cognitive approaches remain important in second language acquisition (SLA), the social turn in SLA has gained momentum since Firth and Wagner’s (1997) call to consider the social aspects of language learning (Douglas Fir Group in... more
While cognitive approaches remain important in second language acquisition (SLA), the social turn in SLA has gained momentum since Firth and Wagner’s (1997) call to consider the social aspects of language learning (Douglas Fir Group in press 2016). This timely expansion of the field has afforded a host of non-cognitive approaches such as identity, language socialisation and conversation analytic perspectives to flourish as SLA and applied linguistics researchers explore viable ways to examine language development. Of these ‘alternative’ approaches to SLA (Atkinson 2011), the strong interest in an identity approach has been particularly encouraging, resulting in a vast body of work on identity and language learning and teaching over the last two decades (Norton and Toohey 2011). Given this positive trend, it is daunting to consider which research agendas would most productively extend this line of research in the future. At the same time, we are excited by the opportunity to collabor...
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In Uganda, what began as a national war against HIV/AIDS has become a battle for ownership of the discourse on HIV/AIDS, with life and death implications for Ugandan people, and young women in particular. One such battleground is Uganda’s... more
In Uganda, what began as a national war against HIV/AIDS has become a battle for ownership of the discourse on HIV/AIDS, with life and death implications for Ugandan people, and young women in particular. One such battleground is Uganda’s ABC program on HIV/AIDS prevention (A for abstinence, B for be faithful, C for condoms), in which diverse stakeholders are implicated in struggles over the policy and its implementation. This chapter will address three of the primary stakeholders in this battle, namely policy-makers at the macro level, teachers at the institutional level and female students at the micro level, respectively. At the macro level of policy, we consider the genesis of the ABC policy, and its relationship to national and international agendas of development. We demonstrate that the discourse of the ABC program, particularly with reference to condom usage, is a site of struggle in which national and global agendas take precedence over the daily challenges of those most af...
... Potowski (2007) has used the construct of investment to explain students' use of Spanish in a dual Spanish/English immersion program in the United States, noting that, even if a language program is well run, a learner's... more
... Potowski (2007) has used the construct of investment to explain students' use of Spanish in a dual Spanish/English immersion program in the United States, noting that, even if a language program is well run, a learner's investment in the target language must be consistent with ...
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Page 1. Non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom 159 159 Chapter 8 Non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom ...
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The construct of investment, developed by Norton in the mid-1990s, represents the historically and socially constructed commitment of learners to language learning. Now considered a significant explanatory construct in language education... more
The construct of investment, developed by Norton in the mid-1990s, represents the historically and socially constructed commitment of learners to language learning. Now considered a significant explanatory construct in language education research (Cummins 2006; Douglas Fir Group 2016; Kramsch 2013), this construct serves as a sociological complement to the psychological construct of motivation and is an index of identity and power. Of central interest is the question, " What is the learner's investment in the language and literacy practices of classrooms and communities? " Because identities are multiple and sites of struggle, the investment of learners is always a dynamic negotiation of learning in specific contexts. This chapter traces how investment has been taken up in language education research internationally, including journal special issues in Asia and Europe. The chapter addresses both the origins of the construct as well as the recent development of a comprehensive model that locates investment at the intersection of identity, capital, and ideology (Darvin and Norton 2015). Responding to the changing social and digital landscape, the model recognizes the capacity of both learners and teachers to move fluidly across both time and space in an increasingly digital world. The chapter concludes with a discussion of investment research directions for the future, given evolving conceptions of identity, capital, and ideology, and how such research can impact language education policy.
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The year 2020 marked the 25th year since Bonny Norton published her influential TESOL Quarterly article, ‘Social identity, investment, and language learning’ (Norton Peirce, 1995) and the fifth year since we, Darvin and Norton (2015),... more
The year 2020 marked the 25th year since Bonny Norton published her influential TESOL Quarterly article, ‘Social identity, investment, and language learning’ (Norton Peirce, 1995) and the fifth year since we, Darvin and Norton (2015), co-authored ‘Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics’ in the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. From the time Norton's 1995 piece was published, investment and motivation have been conceptually imbricated and often collocated, as they hold up two different lenses to investigate the same reality: why learners choose to learn an additional language (L2). In our 2015 article, we made the case that while it is important to ask the question, ‘Are students motivated to learn a language?’ it is equally productive to ask, ‘Are students invested in the language practices of the classroom or community?’ (Darvin & Norton, 2015, p. 37). We recognize that the relationship between language teachers and learners is unequal, and that teachers ...
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In this chapter, Darvin and Norton examine the potential of collaborative writing between student and supervisor as a means of academic socialization. Drawing on the model of investment (Darvin and Norton in Annual Review of Applied... more
In this chapter, Darvin and Norton examine the potential of collaborative writing between student and supervisor as a means of academic socialization. Drawing on the model of investment (Darvin and Norton in Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35: 36–56, 2015), they discuss how investing in socializing practices within the academic community is located at the intersection of identity, capital and ideology. By challenging assumptions of academic roles and existing norms of scholarly publishing, student and supervisor can reframe their identities (Norton in Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, 2013) and recognize the cultural capital that each one brings. This reconfiguration of power constructs a space where authentic collaboration can begin and where ideas are mutually valued and exchanged to produce a work that bears the inscription of both identities.
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L’année 2019 est une année phare pour The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes ( CMLR/RCLV), qui fête 75 ans d’existence et célèbre l’importance de l’influence qu’elle a exercée sur la linguistique... more
L’année 2019 est une année phare pour The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes ( CMLR/RCLV), qui fête 75 ans d’existence et célèbre l’importance de l’influence qu’elle a exercée sur la linguistique appliquée au Canada et au-delà depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. L’année 2019 a également pour l’auteure une signification toute particulière, puisqu’elle marque le 30e anniversaire de la publication de son premier article de portée internationale dans TESOL Quarterly. L’invitation que lui adresse CMLR/RCLV à collaborer au numéro soulignant le 75e anniversaire de la revue est donc l’occasion toute désignée de réfléchir à certaines des principales idées et observations issues des recherches sur l’identité et l’apprentissage des langues qu’elle a menées au fil des trois dernières décennies.
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The growing interest in identity and language education over the past two decades, coupled with increased interest in digital technology and transnationalism, has resulted in a rich body of work that has informed language learning,... more
The growing interest in identity and language education over the past two decades, coupled with increased interest in digital technology and transnationalism, has resulted in a rich body of work that has informed language learning, teaching, and research. To keep abreast of these developments in identity research, the authors propose a series of research tasks arising from this changing landscape. To frame the discussion, they first examine how theories of identity have developed, and present a theoretical toolkit that might help scholars negotiate the fast evolving research area. In the second section, they present three broad and interrelated research questions relevant to identity in language learning and teaching, and describe nine research tasks that arise from the questions outlined. In the final section, they provide readers with a methodology toolkit to help carry out the research tasks discussed in the second section. By framing the nine proposed research tasks in relation ...
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In this article the authors describe the development of a new language assessment instrument that will be used across Canada to place adult newcomers in instructional programs appropriate for their level of proficiency in English. The... more
In this article the authors describe the development of a new language assessment instrument that will be used across Canada to place adult newcomers in instructional programs appropriate for their level of proficiency in English. The development of the instrument represents one step in a lengthy process of federal and grassroots initiatives to establish a common framework for the description and evaluation of the language proficiency of adult newcomers who speak English as a second language. The authors, who were the test developers on the project, provide an introduction to the development of the instrument, referred to as the Canadian Language Benchmarks Assessment (CLBA). They describe the history of the project and challenges they faced in the test development process. In addition, they give an account of how the instruments were field tested, piloted, and scored. They conclude with a brief discussion of work in progress on the ongoing validation of the instrument.
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... If we adopt the view that the discourse of English language teaching is implicated in power relations within the classroom, the community, and society at large, we need to reexamine themethodology we adopt in our English language... more
... If we adopt the view that the discourse of English language teaching is implicated in power relations within the classroom, the community, and society at large, we need to reexamine themethodology we adopt in our English language classrooms, the content from which we ...
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This paper investigates why over 50 workers who qualified for ESL training did not participate in the EWP programs offered on-site at two garment factories in Canada. Findings are drawn from a research project commissioned by Levi Strauss... more
This paper investigates why over 50 workers who qualified for ESL training did not participate in the EWP programs offered on-site at two garment factories in Canada. Findings are drawn from a research project commissioned by Levi Strauss & Co. (Canada) in 1990. Results indicate that advertised programs, supervisor resistance, production and income anxiety, domestic and social pressure are more likely to lead to "dropout" than limitations in the programs per se. The authors conclude if an EWP program is to be effective, it must address not only the linguistic needs of the ESL workforce in a particular context, but its relationship to larger social and economic structures in the workplace and wider community.
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In the field of English-language teaching, there has been increasing interest in how literacy development is influenced by institutional and community practice and how power is implicated in language-learners’ engagement with text. In... more
In the field of English-language teaching, there has been increasing interest in how literacy development is influenced by institutional and community practice and how power is implicated in language-learners’ engagement with text. In this article, I trace the trajectory of my research on identity, literacy, and English-language teaching informed by theories of investment and imagined communities. Data from English-language classrooms in Canada, Pakistan, and Uganda suggest that if learners have a sense of ownership over meaning-making, they will have enhanced identities as learners and participate more actively in literacy practices. The research challenges English teachers to consider which pedagogical practices are both appropriate and desirable in the teaching of literacy and which will help students develop the capacity for imagining a wider range of identities across time and space. Such practices, the research suggests, will necessitate changes in both teachers’ and students’...