Jinah Lee
580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Self-value, belonging, and EAL migrants
2017, TESOLANZ
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Abstract
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This narrative inquiry investigates the identity negotiation of six Asian migrant women in Aotearoa New Zealand, exploring the gap between their perceived self-value and imposed value as language learners. Through iterative interviews, it reveals how these women utilize strategies of diversity and hybridity to navigate their experiences and enhance their sense of belonging and self-worth. The findings underscore the importance of supportive relationships in educational settings, proposing the concept of "safe bridging places" to foster EAL learners' identities.
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Self-value, belonging and EAL migrants
Here I discuss main findings from my Ph.D. research into English as an additional
language (EAL) learner identities, in the process inquiring into our practices as EAL
education providers and educators.
Not surprisingly, many Asian migrants become language learners when they settle in
Aotearoa New Zealand. They see English language learning as necessary for
communicating with the outer world, hoping to increase chances of taking part in
various social and career related communities. They learn at both EAL institutes and
in other communities they belong to. But significantly, their language learning
identities are also built around notions of self-worth, around other identities they
have, and around their sense of belonging to the communities they participate in.
There is therefore an active, ongoing interaction between language, identity and
society.
These are some of the findings from a narrative inquiry research study of the way
language learners negotiated their identities. Six Asian migrant women living in
Aotearoa New Zealand engaged in eight iterative individual in-depth interviews over
a twelve-month period (two participants each from China and South Korea, one from
India and one from Japan). They shared stories which they perceived as significant
for their identities.
The participants’ stories displayed a gap between their perceived self-value and
imposed value as language learners. The gap was closely related to the belief that
they did not belong to the mainstream society, which they often explained as a lack
of language skills—limited language learner identities. They used the same
limitations to explain negative experiences in social interactions and a lack of sense
of self-worth.
During the interviews, the participants continued to negotiate their experiences. The
negotiation highlights the use of strategies (Marginson, 2014), like diversity and
hybridity, that the participants drew on to increase their sense of value while
reporting their negative experiences. Diversity included previous knowledge and
skills, social connections, job, title and qualifications, personal qualities, and success
of family members. Hybridity included an in-between knowledge based on the
knowledge and experiences of a bilingual and multicultural self to create a new
“indistinguishable category where origin and home are indeterminate” (Bolatagici,
2004, p. 76).
Recourse to these strategies also relates to the interview environment, by which a
safe and non-threatening process can provide space for them to re-construct their
limited identities.
These outcomes reinforce the idea that positive and enabling relations between
teachers and students can promote EAL learners' sense of self-value and belonging.
I call this a relationship of safe bridging places, drawing on the concept of “safe
houses,” which Pratt (1991) defines as “social and intellectual spaces . . . sovereign
communities with high degrees of trust, shared understandings, and temporal
protection from legacies of oppression” (p. 40).
We should therefore ask ourselves two questions: Are we providing safe places for
EAL learners? Are classrooms, schools and institutes, and our communities safe
places for them?
And we can usefully remind ourselves that the idea of safe bridging places is not
limited to classroom and communities, but includes any social interactions we have
with others, in particular EAL learners.
References:
Bolatagici, T. (2004). Claiming the (n)either/(n)or of 'third space': (Re)presenting
hybrid identity and the embodiment of mixed race. Journal of Intercultural
Studies, 25(1), 75-85. doi:10.1080/07256860410001687036
Marginson, S. (2014). Student self-formation in international education. Journal of
Studies in International Education, 18(1), 6-22.
doi:10.1177/1028315313513036
Pratt, M. L. (1991). Arts of the contact zone. Profession, 91, 33-40. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25595469
References (3)
- References: Bolatagici, T. (2004). Claiming the (n)either/(n)or of 'third space': (Re)presenting hybrid identity and the embodiment of mixed race. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 25(1), 75-85. doi:10.1080/07256860410001687036
- Marginson, S. (2014). Student self-formation in international education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 18(1), 6-22. doi:10.1177/1028315313513036
- Pratt, M. L. (1991). Arts of the contact zone. Profession, 91, 33-40. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25595469