Discourses, Identities and Investment in Foreign Language Learning: (154 Second Language Acquisition)

This book explores discourses of foreign language education in Ireland through an ethnographic lens. Taking a critical approach to SLA, it locates students' language ideologies within wider discourses of language learning, such as discourses of gender and language learning and discourses of elite multilingualism. It also examines the role of the imagined identity in language learning investment in a world where English and a limited number of other 'global' languages dominate the foreign language learning experience. The ethnographic approach provides a unique insight into the way in which dominant discourses of identity, gender, and foreign language learning are both constructed and resisted in the institutional context, shaping our understanding of what it means to be a gendered being and what it means to be a language learner in a globalised world. This book will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of SLA and sociolinguistics, as well as language teachers and language policymakers.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Transcription Conventions Introduction Chapter 1: Language Education in Ireland: Sociolinguistic and Scholarly Contexts Chapter 2: Language Learning and Identity, Ideology and Elite Multilingualism Chapter 3: Gender and Language Education: Theoretical Approaches and Current Trends Chapter 4: Fieldwork in SMSS: Community, Space and Identity Chapter 5: Language Choice, Discourse and Investment Chapter 6: Addressing the Issues and Moving Forward References Index

About the Author :
Jennifer Martyn is Assistant Professor at Dublin City University, Ireland. Her research interests include the sociolinguistics of language learning, language learning discourses, and gender and language learning.

Review :
Jennifer Martyn’s book offers a valuable insight into the reality of bi- and multilingualism in a predominantly anglophone country. The Irish experience is deftly extrapolated and used as a starting point for an in-depth reflection on discourses around investment in foreign language learning. Indeed, the author’s discussion of identities, power relations, and commodification of language and education is relevant to anyone involved in promoting and supporting multi- and plurilingualism. This book offers a rare and valuable insight into secondary school students’ perceptions, experiences, and practices of foreign language learning. It sheds light on the dynamics of implicit factors underlying the construct of their learner identities. Bringing together the global and local, the theoretical and empirical, the book will appeal to practitioners, educators, researchers, and other key stakeholders in foreign language education policy. This ambitious book offers rich insights into discourses of gender and language learning in an Irish secondary school context. Additionally, its exploration of central concepts in contemporary SLA research, such as identity, linguistic investment and elite multilingualism, make it a valuable resource for language scholars, educators and policymakers alike. With many commendable features, the book makes an important contribution to the field. Its clear and expert exposition greatly facilitates the reader’s understanding of its content, and it thus lends itself to use in various courses and at various levels [...] Its innovative case-study approach will be of interest to all those involved in language education.