Identity

The view on social identity that I found very interesting and very true: social identity as a multiple, a site of struggle, and subject to change.

1.      There are many similarities between the article by Norton Pierce and one by Hall. What first came to mind appears at the beginning of Pierce’s article on how the women in the study at times resisted opportunities to speak English. This reminded me of the Asian kid that was discussed in Language and Identity article. How the student faked his level of competence in order to decrease his participation in the class activity. I can see this happening in everyday classroom. I found this situation very troubling but also understandable. This also reminded me of another way English learner may try to avoid communication with other English speak. The yes or no question is another way students might avoid communication.  This type of questions allows the student to respond without given any explanation.  So at the end, as an educator, how do I know when my student clearly lack the capacity to participate or is simply putting on an act?

2.      I also found the two different theory of individuality to be very interesting:

Humanist conceptions of individuality: “unique, fixed, and coherent core”

Poststructuralist: “diverse, contradictory, dynamic, multiple”

Based on personal experiences and the information received from the article, I relate/agree with the poststructuralist conception of how social identity is. Reading about Eva’s experience and how it changed her social identity reminded me of my own personal experienced. Before coming to the USA I was a dancer, I loved dancing. I was capable of arranging choreography dance for friends to be performed at parties. When I came to the US, everything changed, all the sudden dancing was something I felt uncomfortable doing, not in front of ANYONE.  My social identity was forever change now I just enjoy watching people dance.

3.      The concept of motivation and the notion of investment was something I also found interesting in the reading.

You have instrumental (learning the language for employment) and integrative (learning the language to successfully integrate with the target language) motivation in the field of SLA.  This brought to mind the article we read by Pavlenko about New and Old immigrant. I saw Old immigrant as having  the integrative motivation because they wanted to really learn the language and be accepted into society. The New immigrants represented those with instrumental motivation because of their lack of effort to learn beyond what they needed. Their goal was to speak sufficient English to get a job. Although having a motivation for wanting to learn a 2^nd language is important, it is not as important as the conception of investment. Motivation can be easily broken but when you invest in something you absolutely do anything you can to either gain or improve, in this case your fluency in the target language. In his article Pierce talked about five immigrants living in Canada. Although all five participants were highly motivated, it was their investment that allowed them to push forward when adversity presented itself. For example n the case of Martina who came to the US to better the life on her children. She ran into some difficulties with her landlord and her experience at a fast food, but she refused to back down. In those instance she knew she “couldn’t give up” and she “didn’t give” because of what she had invested (the future of her children).  I jumped with joy when Eva, another immigrant, responded this to a costumer “I wish I didn’t have this accent because then I would not have to listen to such comments” (Pierce 25). I felt  so proud of her and how she stood up for herself. A similar incident happened earlier when a comment was made about her accent, but the 1^st time she was silenced. Although I do not know this woman I was very proud of her.

In the article by hall, I found some information I would just like to briefly comment on.

When it says “individual are assumed to play no role in defining cultural norms, only reflected them”, if this is true I wonder how people are able to make a difference in the world? How people are able to break the stereotypical behavior of a man, or woman if all we do is reflects the norms?

I agree with his idea of social identity as having different layers. It is impossible to construct our social identity with one membership because from birth we are already ascribed many different ones.

Hall also talked about the incident between the student and his advisors which made me think about our own experience towards advisors (many people have had in some shape of form a negative experience with an advisor).  I found it hurtful that this advisor, although she understood what the student wanted, she refused it because he “struggled to hard” in wanting to explain what he wanted. In the back of my mind, I am thinking if a student struggles but nevertheless continues isn’t that a positive sign? Isn’t that something we should appreciate and not reject?