Language and Masculinities: Immigrant Boys' Identity Negotiation and Language Learning in a U.S. High School

• In Event: Roundtable Session 53
  In Roundtable Session: Negotiating Intersectional Identities in Normative Spaces

Abstract

This paper reports a year-long critical sociolinguistic ethnographic study, which examines how three adolescent immigrant boys in a U.S. high school, negotiate their masculine identities and navigate their learning experiences. I take a discourse analysis approach to studying the intersections of language, masculinities, and schooling. Specifically I address three related questions: 1) How do these adolescent immigrant boys perform and enact their masculine identities through their languages and actions inside and outside the classroom? 2) How do they negotiate their masculine identities and navigate the gender hierarchies in school? 3) How do their masculine identities, in conjunction with other social identity markers (e.g. race, ethnicity, class etc.), impact their language learning and school experiences?

Author

• Kongji Qin, Michigan State University