ISSN 2335-2019 (Print), ISSN 2335-2027 (Online)
Darnioji daugiakalbystė | Sustainable Multilingualism | 19/2021
https://doi.org/10.2478/sm-2021-0011
Rea Lujić
Department of French and Francophone Studies
University of Zadar, Croatia
I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM
(AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE
MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
Summary. This study examines the relationship between the participation of
multilingual students in FAL (French as an additional language) classroom and language
learners’ identities associated with the related community of practice. Classroom
participation, a key concept of the study, is defined as a verbal form of learners’
investment in language learning, which can both enhance language learning and change
the identity of language learners. The research was conducted in an international
multilingual school in Croatia among eight 5th grade multilingual and multicultural
students learning French as an additional language. For data collection purposes, French
language lessons and twelve video recordings with a total length of approx. 480 minutes
were observed and taped. A qualitative analysis of the participation of each student was
conducted with the regard to the power relations among members of the classroom.
The analysis revealed that, from the chosen theoretical perspective where an additional
language is seen both as a tool of power and a tool for power, the identity of language
learners can be described as a dynamic combination of some of the following identity
positions: a language learner in a position of power, a language learner in a higher
position of power than others, a language learner in a reduced position of power but
eager for a position of power, a language learner in a reduced position of power but not
eager for a position of power. The results of this study are consistent with the main
assumptions about the identity of language learners made by other socially oriented
authors in SLA (Norton-Peirce, 1995; Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004; Darvin & Norton,
2015), according to which language learners’ identity is multiple, dynamic, discursively
shaped and context-dependent.
Keywords:
language
learners’
identity;
investment;
multilingual
context;
participation.
Introduction
It may seem that SLA researchers have only recently begun to pay more
attention to language learners’ identity; however, it has always been a subject
of interest to them, although different terms were used to describe it. During
the period of psychological and socio-psychological approach to SLA research
in the late 70s, 80s and early 90s, learners’ identity was explored as a set of
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I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM (AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
relatively fixed and long-term traits or characteristics, such as personality traits
or learning practices and behaviours. The new line of investigation in SLA,
typical of the late 90s and the 21st century, became more concerned with
the socio-cultural context of L2 learning and its dynamic relation to active
learners’ participation in those contexts (see Norton and Toohey, 2001). This
shift towards a social paradigm, to which Block (2007) refers as a social turn
in applied linguistics, was accurately portrayed by Caranagajah (2004):
From focusing on the abstract grammar system and treating
learners as a bundle of psychological reflexes, scholars have
begun to consider how learners negotiate competing subject
positions in conflicting discourse communities. After being
treated as non-entities in SLA research and feeling silenced,
we ESL students have now achieved complexity, with
researchers straining their ears to catch every inflexion and
modulation in our ‘voice.’ After being theorized and objectified,
imposed with flat stereotypical identities, we see ourselves
celebrated as hybrid subjects who defy analysis (p. 266).
In this new, so-called social paradigm, the attention was shifted away from
a learner as an object with a stable identity to a learner as an active subject
with multiple and dynamic identities, who can accept, resist or negotiate his or
her identity positions in language learning contexts. In addition to this
conceptualisation of identity, a few new notions were introduced to SLA, such
as agency, positions, positioning or subjectivity.
Among the latest concepts, one of the most cited is probably
the investment, which Norton-Peirce introduced to the field in the mid-1990s.
Investment can be described as a relative category that represents
the historically, socially, and discursively constructed commitment of learners
to language learning (Norton-Peirce, 1995). The concept has been further
developed by Darvin and Norton (2015) in their model of investment, which
proposes a comprehensive and critical examination of the relationship between
identity, investment, power relations, and language learning. According to this
approach to language learners’ identity, if a learner invests in a language, he
or she does so with the understanding that he or she will acquire a wider range
of symbolic and material resources, which will, in turn, increase the value of
their cultural capital and social power. The model is inspired by the work of
Bourdieu (1977, 1984, 1991), especially his concept of symbolic power, which
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he defined as power based on recognition; renown, prestige, honour, glory,
and authority (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 251). According to his theory, every
interaction is marked by a disproportion of power. Using the metaphor of
the language market, Bourdieu wanted to point out that the interlocutor who
has the linguistic capital of a socially desirable language at his disposal is
a more powerful participant in conversational interaction. In foreign language
teaching, the most powerful participant would be the teacher, and the least
powerful
would
be
the
learner
with
the
scarcest
foreign
language
communication repertoire. In other words, the source of symbolic power in
foreign language teaching is the range of foreign language resources that
the learner has in his or her communication repertoire. On the other hand,
the least symbolic power has a learner who is not allowed to use certain
resources from his language repertoire, which are forbidden, undesirable or
which are not understood by others. However, unlike Bourdieu who held that
an individual with less capital and power was destined for a less powerful
position, poststructuralists believe that each person possesses the ability to
act, change, and resist imposed positions. Furthermore, community members
who hold a more powerful position can not only limit but also provide access
to community members who hold a less powerful position by providing them
with good learning conditions, such as numerous opportunities to practice,
participate, and invest in language and identity.
The growing interest in identity and language education facilitated with
this methodological toolkit has resulted in a rich body of work devoted to
investment in language learning and teaching (Darvin & Norton, 2017). While
earlier research focused on language learning research in the North American
context and on the learner and the learning context (McKay & Wong, 1996;
Skilton-Sylvester, 2002; Potowski, 2004), in recent years interest in
the construct of investment has been taken up in widely dispersed regions of
the world and extended with some new concepts, such as imagined
communities (Ollerhead, 2012; Chang, 2011). Moreover, researchers have
turned their attention to the investments of language teachers (Reeves, 2009;
Carazzai, 2013; Sanches Silva, 2013).
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I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM (AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
The Study
In this study, the following research questions were addressed: What is
language
learners’
identity
and
how
can
we
describe
it
using
the methodological lens? How do members of the learning community influence
each other’s identity? What role do languages and power play in constructing
language learners’ identity in a multilingual context?
To answer these questions, the notion of participation was introduced
and defined as a verbal form of learners’ investment in language learning which
can both enhance language learning and change learners’ social identity
associated with the related community of practice. According to the chosen
theoretical approach, language in this study is considered a cultural capital that
can be transformed into symbolic power. The participation, as a construct, is
considered very useful; i.e. it provides a more tangible representation of
investment in a formal language learning context and it allows the description
of two concurrent, complex and interdependent processes: learning a language
and expressing and constructing learners’ social identity.
The research was conducted in an international multilingual school in
Croatia among eight 5th grade students learning French as an additional
language. All students were multilingual and multicultural and, therefore,
differed greatly in terms of individual characteristics, and personal and
educational experiences. Some of them were global nomads, others, Croatian
citizens. All were, so-called, dynamic multilinguals (Garcìa, 2009), which
means that their multilingual competence does not develop linearly but
dynamically. Apart from French, they all learn English (i.e. the language of
schooling) and Croatian, either as their mother tongue or as an additional
language. However, the group was very heterogeneous according to the level
of competence in the three languages.
For data collection purposes, we decided to observe French language
lessons. Twelve video recordings with a total length of approx. 480 minutes
were taped from October to April and qualitatively analysed with respect to
student
participation.
In
order
to
operationalise
their
participation,
the following criteria were proposed: chosen communicative resources (i.e.
target language – French, non-target languages – English or Croatian, and
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translingual utterances), the origin of the incentive (i.e. self-initiated, initiated
by another classroom member), and content relatedness to the language
classroom (i.e. related to the lesson, non-related to the lesson). Classroom
discourse was transcribed and all utterances of students were classified using
the aforementioned criteria to find a specific pattern that could provide
information about the identity of language learners. The participation was
always analysed with respect to other classroom members – the teacher and
other students since the power relations in the classroom and the role of
language as a tool of power were of interest to us.
Prior to the start of the research, in September 2016, the school
principal and coordinator received a written description of the research, and
written approval was requested to conduct the research at the school. Informed
consent forms for parents were made in two versions, in English and Croatian,
and submitted by the class teacher.
Results and Discussion
In our analysis, four identity positions related to language learning emerged:
a language learner in a position of power, a language learner in a higher
position of power than others, a language learner in a reduced position of power
but eager for a position of power, and a language learner in a reduced position
of power but not eager for a position of power.
In the following, each of the four identity positions, which have been
found useful for describing the identity of language learners in an additional
language classroom, if analysed through the proposed theoretical lens, will be
presented.
Language Learner in A Position of Power
All students, in this study, often positioned themselves as powerful language
learners by displaying their proficiency in French in front of other classroom
members. To illustrate this identity position, the following examples were
chosen.
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I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM (AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
Example 1
T1: Qu'est-ce que les Français mangent au déjeuner? / What
do people eat in France for lunch?
S: Au déjeuneur les Français mangent les sandwiches, des
salades ou des grillades. / French people eat sandwiches,
salads or barbecue for lunch.
Example 2
T: Pourquoi tu aimes l’EPS? / Why do you love P.E.?
S: J’aime l’EPS parce que c’est amusant. / I love P.E. because
it is fun.
Example 3
T: What can we find at the bottom part of the [eating] pyramid?
S: Les céréales. / Cereals.
Example 4
T: Qu'est-ce que tu aimes faire? / What do you like to do?
S: J'aime danser. / I like to dance.
It appears that students have always positioned themselves as powerful by
giving correct answers in French to the teacher’s questions related to
the classroom topic. The third example is particularly interesting because it
shows the student’s willingness to answer in French, even if the question is
asked in English. The following conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the chosen
communicative resources are important – the target language, which is, in this
case, an additional language, French, allows them to position themselves as
language learners in a position of power. Secondly, the content of the utterance
must be related to the language lesson. Finally, for this position, the teacher
has proven his role as a classroom member who can either hinder student
participation or allow them to participate and therefore create opportunities for
them to negotiate their identity. If the teacher asks a question that is consistent
with the actual level of proficiency of students in the target language or
immediately above it, a student gets the opportunity to position himself/herself
as a powerful language learner. On the other hand, if the teacher’s incentive
exceeds a student’s level of proficiency in the target language, this student will
most likely not be able to position himself/herself as a powerful language
learner in front of others. Finally, only students in a position of power can
express their other identity positions, those not associated with a foreign
1
T stands for the teacher and S for a student.
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language classroom, such as a sports enthusiast (see Example 2) or a dancer
(see Example 4).
Language Learner in A Reduced Position of Power but Eager for
A Position of Power
All students, in this study, often positioned themselves as language learners in
a reduced position of power but eager for a position of power. They did so by
showing their willingness to acquire the target language, i.e. a wider range of
symbolic resources. The following examples illustrate this position:
Example 5
T: Quels cours tu as le mardi? / What classes do you have on
Tuesday?
S: [x]Mardi, j'ai un cours d'Histori / [missing article / wrong
pronunciation] / Tuesday, I have a History class.
T: D'histoire. / History.
S: … d'histoire. / … History.
Example 6
S1: What does it mean?
S2: It means curly.
Example 7
S: What’s “la récré”? / What’s “the break”?
Example 8
T: Qu'est-ce que tu bois pour le petit dejeuner? / What do you
drink for breakfast?
S: Milkshake avec des fruits. Milkshake with fruits.
Example 9
S1: And how do you say “spending time with his friends”?
S2: Sortir avec des amis. / To go out with friends.
Example 10
S: Teacher, how do you say “horseback riding”?
In Example 5, the teacher revises and the student accepts the implicit feedback
from the teacher. In Example 6, the student directly asks the teacher for
the missing target language resources in order to communicate more
effectively and the teacher responds explicitly to him. Examples 7 and 8 are
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I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM (AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
an example of translanguaging that has proven to be a common way of
students languaging when they position themselves as language learners in
a reduced position of power but eager for a position of power. Furthermore,
participation in translingual utterances was important for these students not
only to learn French but also to ensure their authenticity, i.e. to show a more
complete and accurate representation of what they are, i.e. their social identity.
For instance, in Example 10, a female student wanted to position herself in
front of her colleagues and the teacher by implying she is a horseback rider.
Therefore, the permitted use of non-target languages in foreign language
teaching seems to be particularly important for groups of foreign language
beginners or groups consisting of students of different levels of foreign
language proficiency, as otherwise, beginners can only present a narrower
aspect of their identity.
However, translingual participation was sometimes the result of
selecting the line of least resistance, as shown in Example 11.
Example 11
T: Qu'est-ce que tu bois pour le petit déjeuner? / What do you
drink for breakfast?
S: Tee.
T: En français, s'il te plaît. / In French, please.
S: Le thé. / A tea.
Some self-initiated comments in languages other than French, as in
Example 12, were also noted.
Example 12
S: You know teacher what is great...galloping with your
horse...I would like to go to the mountains...
This student did not express a desire to learn French, but a desire to express
some aspects of his social identity that were not related to the French language.
Even though such participation is not entirely conducive to learning French, it
cannot be considered unfavourable either because it shows that the student
follows the course of the activity and understands the statements of other
participants in the interaction in French. In addition, such participation can
show the teacher that the student belongs to other communities of practice,
which can make it easier for the teacher to choose teaching topics and activities
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that can ultimately encourage students to participate more often.
In these examples, students positioned themselves as language
learners in a reduced position of power but eager for a position of power, while
the teacher was positioned as the most powerful participant in the related
community of practice. However, Example 9 reveals that the most powerful
participant does not have to be a teacher, but other students can take that
position. From these illustrative examples, it follows that students have always
taken the identity position of a language learner in a reduced position of power
but eager for a position of power when he or she participated in a classroom
discourse by using utterances related to the language lesson. Another
important point to note is that the chosen language resources and the origin
of the incentive did not appear to be important criteria for this position.
Language Learner Not Eager for A Position of Power
In this study, only two out of eight students repeatedly positioned themselves
as language learners not eager for a position of power. From the analysed data,
it can be concluded that students, positioning themselves in this way,
participated in non-target languages with content not related to language
teaching, as illustrated in the following few examples:
Example 13
S: Teacher, where is the Schtroumpf?
Example 14
S: Moramo li pisati na francuskom ili možemo na engleskom?
/ Do we have to write in French or can we write in English?
Example 15
S: I don’t have teacher [homework]...
Example 16
T: Peter, calme-toi! / Peter, calm down!
S: But teacher, I am just handing over a paper...
Example 13 illustrates a student’s disinterest in the lesson. This is evident in
the question that the student asked the teacher which is not related to
the French lesson. It was more than obvious from the video recording that
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I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM (AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
the student was bored and decided to entertain other students. In this case,
his participation could be described as an absence of willingness to learn
the target language or, in other words, to acquire a wider range of symbolic
sources. Moreover, he wanted to be put in a position of a class clown. Example
14 illustrates a student’s lack of agency. The student was not ready to make
an effort to learn the target language. However, it is important to emphasise
that the student pronounced this utterance quietly, perhaps not wanting to be
positioned as a language learner not eager for a position of power by other
members of the group. In Example 15, the same student showed a lack of
investment by not doing homework. He pronounced that utterance quietly
again, most likely for the same reason. In Examples 13, 14 and 15, students
positioned themselves as language learners not eager for a position of power,
however, in Example 16, the teacher tried to impose that identity position.
Nevertheless, in this case, the student resisted and tried to negotiate that
position. It seems important to emphasise two things: firstly, the student was
right, and secondly, the teacher never tried to impose that identity position on
any other student, except on those two students who repeatedly positioned
themselves as language learners not eager for a position of power. This
situation points to the power of the teacher and reminds us of the potential
danger of a self-fulfilling prophecy in education.
Language Learner in A Higher Position of Power Than Others
For some students, participating in class discourse to occupy a higher position
of power than others was a very common form of participation. It is important
to emphasise that those two students who often positioned themselves as
language learners not eager for a position of power very rarely positioned
themselves as language learners in a higher position of power than others.
The analysis of student utterances revealed the following forms as the most
common forms of demonstrating power:
-
giving feedback to other students on the accuracy of their utterance,
-
translating words or utterances to the rest of the group,
-
answering the questions which the teacher asked the entire group, and
-
answering other students’ questions.
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The following examples illustrate the ways in which students have positioned
themselves as language learners in a higher position of power than others:
Example 17
T: Qu'est-ce qu'il y a sur la table? / What’s on the table?
S1: Le gâteau. / A cake.
S2: Le gâteau d'anniversaire. / A birthday cake.
Example 18
S1: What does it mean “frisé”?
S2: It’s wavy.
S3: No, it’s more like curly.
Example 19
T: Quelle date sommes-nous aujourd'hui? / What’s the date
today?
S: C’est le 3 février. / It's the 3rd of February.
Example 20
S: Teacher, we have already written ami, amie.
In Example 17, one student gives feedback to another student’s response by
adding some details to make his statement more accurate. Example 18
illustrates the hierarchy of power among students: the first student seems to
be the least powerful among the three, the second more powerful than the first
and the third the most powerful among them. In the following exchange,
the teacher addressed her question to the entire class, but only one student
was powerful and confident enough to impose himself and by answering this
question he positioned himself as a language learner in a higher position of
power than others. Example 20 was particularly interesting to us because
the student was giving feedback to the teacher thus positioning himself as
a language learner in a higher position of power than the teacher. It seems
typical of all utterances that they were always connected to the language
classroom and that students almost always demonstrated their power on their
own initiative. However, there were several situations when the teacher
positioned a particular student as a language learner in a higher position of
power than others, the position which the student accepted – as in
the following example:
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MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
Example 21
S1: Teacher, qu’est-ce que c’est “la natation”?
T: Andrej, what is “la natation”?
S2: [addressing to the student who asked the question] It is
swimming.
It is important to mention that the student to whom this identity position was
imposed is one of the students who most often positioned himself as a language
learner in a higher position of power than others. Obviously, even though
the learner’s identity is changeable, highly depending on the context and
the interlocutor, some identity positions seemed to be more often occupied, or,
in other words, some identity positions were more stable than others. It can
therefore be concluded that the positioning game is reminiscent of a vicious
cycle and we do not know where it all begins. In this case, was the student
himself the first to position himself as a language learner in a higher position
of power and the teacher accepted the game, or was it the teacher who decided
to put the student in this position and the student subsequently accepted?
Whatever the answer, the teacher remains the most responsible and powerful
participant in the classroom, one who can create learning opportunities and
inspire or discourage students in their perseverance and commitment in
learning and using the target language.
Other Identity Positions
It should be mentioned that many other identity positions have emerged during
the study, associated with other communities of practice to which these
students belong, as illustrated in the following examples:
Example 22
S: Teacher, how many subscribers does Joyce Jonathan have?
Example 23
S: Teacher, you have already asked me, but you did not ask
Sofija.
In these two examples, one student positioned himself as a YouTuber and
the other as someone’s best friend. They did so in English and on their own
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initiative, meaning that these positions were important to their social identity
unrelated to the language classroom.
Furthermore, students at first glance often demonstrated multiple
identity positions, as in the following examples:
Example 24
S1: Je n'aime pas le foot. / I don’t like football.
S2: Really?! But football is so cool…
Example 25
T: Qu’est-ce que tu n’aimes à l'école? / What do you dislike
about school?
S: To study.
In Example 24, student number 2 positioned himself as a football fan;
furthermore, this language learner put himself in a reduced position of power.
Even though he understood the utterance of student number 1 in French, he
was not in a position of power to answer in French. However, he decided to
participate in this discussion probably because it was important for him to
position himself as a football fan. For the student in Example 25, it was
important to resist the potential portrayal of himself as a “nerd”. Since he was
not in a position of power to answer in French, he replied in English.
The importance of authenticity in classroom participation is illustrated
by the following example:
Example 22
T: Leo, qu'est-ce que tu manges? / Leo, what do you eat?
S: Je mange...what do I eat the most, or? / I eat... what do I
eat the most, or?
In this example, Leo could have chosen the path of least resistance, and thus
participate using words he knew in French. For example, he could offer
the answer “pizza” and that would be linguistically accurate and acceptable in
the context of classroom discourse. However, it was more important for him to
participate truthfully, that is, to show who he really was.
Conclusion
In this study, we advocated the idea that the identity of language learners is
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MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
multiple, dynamic, discursively shaped, and dependent on context and
community members. This idea was confirmed by our analysis.
The analysis of the data presented in this paper showed that
the identity of language learners, with regard to the power relations in
the language classroom, can be described as a dynamic combination of several
identity positions: a language learner in a position of power, a language learner
in a higher position of power than others, a language learner in a reduced
position of power but eager for a position of power, and a language learner in
a reduced position of power but not eager for a position of power.
The analysis also pointed to the importance of the role that other
members of the community play in positioning and negotiating one’s identity.
Members who hold a more powerful position have more power to restrict access
to other members in communication and, accordingly, their positioning.
They may also try to impose identity positions on other members.
A member to whom an attempt has been made to impose an identity position
may either choose to accept that position, resist it, or try to negotiate it. This
study revealed that students resist or negotiate imposed identities, especially
those that might be assessed as negative in the language community, such as
the position of a learner not eager for a position of power. Those learners
resisted using non-target languages because they were not proficient enough
in the target language. Clearly, this finding points to the importance of
nurturing the use of all communicative resources available to multilingual
students. If we describe the teacher as the most responsible and powerful
member of the foreign language classroom who shapes learning opportunities
and inspires students to persevere in learning, in a multilingual classroom
he/she is the one who should design and apply a teaching approach that would
provide multilingual students with the greatest opportunities to participate and
learn and thus enable them to increase their power. In order to do so,
the teacher should know, understand and respect the life stories of his
students, their socio-cultural background and their linguistic and non-linguistic
resources, communities to which they belong outside the foreign language
classroom, topics of interest, identity positions that are important to them, but
also their desires and hopes. All linguistic and cultural resources of students
should be considered as desirable and useful capital, resources for learning and
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teaching, and not limiting factors. This is especially important in bilingual and
multilingual educational environments, where the symbolic value of languages,
determined by the ideology of the wider social space, is expressed in school
policy and teaching approaches and can increase or decrease students’
opportunities to participate.
It is also important to emphasise that participation in a language
classroom is limited in time and number of students. This means that students
who participate more often consequently occupy more space. In other words,
students who participate more often limit the participation of others. What our
research showed was that students who participated more often on a topic in
the classroom on their own initiative, regardless of the language chosen,
usually possessed more symbolic power in the community and, therefore,
gained more power. Thus, a language classroom could be described as a place
of struggle and reproduction of power, while classroom participation could be
described as a struggle for power.
It is also important to highlight some of the limitations and ethical
considerations of this study. First of all, the researcher encountered certain
technical challenges. Namely, microphones were not intentionally used during
the recording of classes to ensure the authenticity of the class discourse and
to minimise the invasiveness of the research. However, due to this, it was not
possible to analyse student discourse during group work. Due to the same
limitation, it was not possible to analyse the students’ whispering. On the other
hand, the question of the ethics of the analysis of their whispering could also
be raised. In this research, it was shown that, depending on the forms of
participation, students express different combinations of their identity positions
in classroom, and thus different foreign language identities. In future research,
it would be interesting and important to explore the connection between
the combinations of these positions and language skills, as well as students’
perception of their agency.
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MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
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I PARTICIPATE; THEREFORE, I AM (AND I LEARN): RESEARCHING LEARNERS’
MULTILINGUAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTILINGUAL SCHOOL CONTEXT
Rea Lujić
Zadaro universitetas, Kroatija
rlujic@unizd.hr
DALYVAUJU, VADINASI, ESU (IR MOKAUSI):
BESIMOKANČIŲJŲ DAUGIAKALBĖS TAPATYBĖS TYRIMAS
DAUGIAKALBĖS MOKYKLOS KONTEKSTE
Santrauka. Šiame tyrime analizuojamas ryšys tarp daugiakalbių mokinių,
besimokančių prancūzų kaip papildomos kalbos, dalyvaujant pamokose elgesio ir kalbos
besimokančiųjų tapatybės, susijusios su konkrečia kalbine bendruomene. Svarbiausia
tyrimo sąvoka „dalyvavimas klasėje“ apibrėžiama kaip mokinio indėlio į kalbos mokymąsi
žodinė forma, kuri gali apimti kalbos mokymąsi ir pakeisti kalbą besimokančiųjų
tapatybę. Tyrimas atliktas vienoje Kroatijos tarptautinėje daugiakalbėje mokykloje;
tyrimo dalyviai – aštuoni penktos klasės daugiakalbiai ir daugiakultūriai mokiniai, kurie
mokosi prancūzų kalbos kaip papildomos. Duomenų rinkimo tikslais buvo išanalizuotos
ir įrašytos prancūzų kalbos pamokos bei 12 vaizdo įrašų, kurių bendra trukmė apie 480
minučių. Atlikta kiekvieno mokinio dalyvavimo kokybinė analizė, siekiant nustatyti klasės
narių statusą. Analizė parodė, jog iš pasirinktos teorinės perspektyvos, kai papildoma
kalba suvokiama kaip priemonė naudoti galią ir naudotis galia, kalbą besimokančiųjų
tapatybę galima apibūdinti kaip dinamišką tokių tapatybės pozicijų derinį: kalbos
besimokantis galios pozicijoje; kalbos besimokantis aukštesnėje galios pozicijoje nei kiti;
kalbos besimokantis žemesnėje galios pozicijoje, bet siekiantis galios pozicijos; kalbos
besimokantis žemesnėje galios pozicijoje, bet nesiekiantis galios pozicijos. Šio tyrimo
rezultatai sutampa su kitų socialinės krypties autorių pagrindinėmis prielaidomis apie
antrosios kalbos mokymąsi (žr. Norton-Peirce, 1995; Pavlenko ir Blackledge, 2004;
Darvin ir Norton, 2015), anot kurių, kalbą besimokančiųjų tapatybė yra sudėtinė,
dinamiška, formuojama diskurso ir priklausanti nuo konteksto.
Pagrindinės sąvokos: kalbą besimokančiųjų tapatybė; indėlis; daugiakalbis
kontekstas; dalyvavimas.
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