A Preschooler's Learning English as an L2: Influence of Multiple Types of Agency

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Second Language Research SIG Poster Session

Abstract

Agency is regarded as the fundamental construct in second language learning (L2). Nonetheless, little is known about children’s multiple types of agency and relationships between agency and L2 learning. With an ethnographic case study, more than 80 hours of data were collected during 2015-2016. In the findings, eight types of agency illustrated how Han, the focal child, identified his position relative to others, actively decided his roles, and enacted his agency to represent himself in different ways. By comparing English learning to the eight types, this study was able to identify the strong relations between Han’s English improvement and his agency of attempting to control interactions with socially unpowerful peers.

Author

• Youngae (Young) Choi, Nevada State College