EDU5244
Discussion questions week 4
The five readings this week cover in greater detail the issues I discuss in this
week’s lecture. Norton is the major source in our field for anything to do with
identity. There are others, of course, such as Kramsch, Dörnyei, Ushioda,
MacIntyre, Henry, and Csizér. However, Norton still seems to be leading the field
in this area.
Norton, B. (2013)
Kanno, Y, & Norton, B. (2003)
These two texts should be read closely together. Norton (2013) updates much of
her earlier work in this introduction to her recent edited volume, which she
generously has supplied open source on her website. She goes into some of the
post-structural theory that informed her work and how many in the field have
taken up her ideas. In particular, she looks at how she has used Benedict
Anderson’s notion of imagined communities to extend her work. This piece can
be skimmed through for the purpose of getting an idea of how (and why) the
notion of identity has become so extensive in SLE.
The piece written by Kanno and Norton (2003) is an earlier iteration of how the
notion of imagined communities is relevant to our field. It is a little more concrete
than Norton (2013). I’ve included it chiefly for the concrete vignettes the authors
provide and (in part) to demonstrate how the first author (now a professor at
Temple University in Philadelphia) has been mentored by a well-known scholar.
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What is the relationship between second language identity and
investment?
How does the notion of imagined communities extend the notion of
investment?
Is there a real difference between motivation and investment?
Hinkel, E. (2014)
Hinkel’s work can sometimes be controversial. She argues that culture can be
explicitly taught and is unapologetic about her position that it is American culture
(in her Seattle context) that should be taught. In her view, teaching language
proficiency is not sufficient in an ESL program. Culture is often invisible to
language learners and it is the responsibility of teachers to make it explicit
(noticeable) for the learner. She believes that different national cultures can more
or less be defined and that cross-cultural awareness is integral to SLE.
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Should teachers have the responsibly to make the link between language
and culture explicit?
Can culture be taught?
What culture should be taught?
Carroll, S., Motha, S. & Price, S. (2008)
Using the data from two studies (a narrative and an ethnography), these authors
argue that imagined communities is a complex notion best viewed in conjunction
with Foucault’s concept of regimes of truth. There is a slight suggestion here that
Norton’s original conception of imagined communities was somewhat inadequate
(take a look at Norton’s own assessment in the 2013 piece).
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What do you think of this assessment of imagined communities?
Does combining it with regimes of truth work for you?
How does using a narrative study and an ethnography further the
arguments made by the authors?
Block, D. (2007)
This article is another survey of how identity has been taken up in SLE. In this
one, however, the author argues that it was a landmark article by Firth and
Wagner in 1997 that set off the focus on identity in the field. This 1997 article
argued that identity was being very narrowly defined. Block makes the point that
identity has a long history in the field and is a far more complex concept than
many suppose. He concludes by calling for a greater focus on social class in the
field and a nuanced approach to the potential contributions of psychoanalysis.
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What do you think of his argument?
Should we focus more on social class?
How problematic would it be to focus more closely on psychoanalysis?