Abstract:
This research explores how new migrant and international students’ who have English as an additional language (EAL) negotiate social identities (Jenkins 2008) within a new, English medium, schooling environment. Social identity in social spaces becomes linked to ‘imagined communities’ (Anderson, 1991), in which participants negotiate diverse understandings of the social. The ways in which students’ linguistic, social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1984) are used in school and these students sense of scholarly investment (Norton-Peirce, 1995) in a year of high stakes, English orientated assessment was the focus of the research. Participants were involved in semi-structured individual interviews around the ways they have constructed identities in relation to English and first language (L1) use in school. Classroom observations of participants’ interactions also helped gain an understanding of the relationship between classroom norms and identity which manifests in participants learning experiences. Journaling was also conducted allowing participants’ opportunities to develop a reflexive awareness (Adams, 2006) of their conception of their scholarly identity. Findings suggest that new migrant and international students are faced with conflicting choices. While these students hold a strong desire to retain their L1, they are immersed in a scholarly environment that places a high value on English language use. This factor coupled with the relatively low use of L1 in academic settings created a discourse of a linguistic hierarchy (May, 2007) in which English came to be a valued form of linguistic capital while L1 was not regarded as useful in a English medium school setting. This served to construct an English language focused scholarly identity among participants. The construction of an English language focused scholarly identity became subject to questioning upon the emergence of participants own reflexive awareness. Established norms around appropriate language use came to be questioned in favour of a position that sought to make use of L1 in an academic setting. Participants began to question the notion of English as a prestige language and collaboratively sought to lighten the burden of academic demands by using their L1 funds of knowledge (Moll & Gonzalez, 1997). This reflexive awareness and use of existing funds of knowledge allowed participants to expand cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) (Cummins, 1984) in both English and their L1. This research aims to reconceptualise notions of scholarly identity and ‘scholarly habitus’ (Watkins & Noble, 2013) shaped around existing funds of knowledge such that a sense of scholarly investment is enhanced among EAL students.