Discursive Engagement as the Collaborative Construction of Self

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Division G Section 3 Poster Session: Social Context of Multiple Languages and Literacies

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in identity working towards socially situated explanations of language learning. Research has shown that the migration process is accompanied by a reconstruction of self, which is structured around institutional practices that can create or deny ‘social space’ in a new linguistic milieu. While identity is theorized in the literature as negotiated, cross-sectional data describe identity as a stable construct post-migration. This paper reports on a 20-week linguistic ethnography of language learning in museums that aimed to foster inclusion of socially isolated migrant learners. Through microanalyses of conversational interaction and narrative interviews, this paper describes identity work in interaction and over time, and the relationship between engagement in discourse and identity trajectories.

Author

• Sherice Clarke, University of Pittsburgh