Investment in Studying Spanish at a U.S. University: Linguistic Identities and Discourses About Language Study

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Investigating and Sustaining Postsecondary World Language Education Enrollment and Learning Outcomes: Challenges, Initiatives, and Opportunities (Table 9)

Abstract

Amid declining postsecondary world language enrollment in the U.S. (Lusin et al., 2023) and subsequent concern for university language program survival (Anderson, 2023), understanding why students choose to study additional languages is essential. Research examining language learning motivation in anglophone contexts has called for greater attention to wider discourses surrounding language study (Lanvers et al., 2021; Ushioda & Dörnyei, 2017) and for centering identity, adopting narrative and discursive methods, and considering ecological (i.e., micro-interactional, meso-institutional, and macro-ideological) factors shaping language learning commitment (Duff, 2017). Recent studies have used interviews and questionnaires to unpack postsecondary language enrollment trends in U.S. contexts, highlighting students’ reports of their classroom experience shaping their enrollment decisions (Cinaglia, 2023; Fabbri, 2023; Morgan & Thompson, 2023). However, there is a need to investigate classroom spaces themselves to better understand how language learning commitment and opportunities for language development are interactionally negotiated and socially constructed. The present study responds to this need, combining theoretical and methodological approaches of investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015), classroom discourse analysis (Jenks, 2021), and narrative inquiry (Barkhuizen et al., 2014) to investigate how students’ in-class learning experiences both shape and are shaped by their ideas about the value and purpose of language study.
Situated in a Spanish program at a U.S. university, this yearlong linguistic ethnographic study responds to local institutional efforts to examine students’ language learning experiences and enrollment decisions, focusing on 10 undergraduate students in two Spanish courses. Data sources include weekly classroom observations (including ethnographic fieldnotes and audio recordings of classroom interaction), written reflections, semi-structured interviews, and an in-depth Language Learning Story Interview (Hiver et al., 2019). Classroom discourse data are analyzed for discursive practices including stancetaking and identity positioning in relation to ideologies of linguistic legitimacy and expertise (Mattson-Prieto & Showstack, 2022). Interview and reflection data are analyzed using narrative methods, including small story positioning analysis (Bamberg & Georgakopoulou, 2008) and cross-event narrative discourse analysis (Wortham & Reyes, 2015). Together, classroom discourse and narrative reflection data offer a multifaceted view of how students’ linguistic identities and language learning investment are discursively negotiated across spaces and over time. This study is currently underway and has been approved by the institutional review board at the researcher’s university.
Initial findings highlight how student-student and teacher-student classroom interactional practices afford and constrain opportunities for language learning and linguistic identity development. Findings also reveal how students’ narrative reflections about their classroom experiences illustrate their dynamic investment in language study vis-à-vis discourses of linguistic legitimacy. This study contributes to research on postsecondary language learning in Anglophone contexts by foregrounding classroom interactional processes as shaping language learning investment in relation to larger discourses surrounding language study (Lanvers et al., 2021). Implications are discussed for teacher development and language program administration aimed at creating inclusive classroom and curricular spaces that legitimize students’ developing multilingual repertoires and align with students’ lived experiences, with the ultimate goal of supporting continued investment in world language study.

Author

• Carlo Cinaglia, Michigan State University