Identity

2/7
Social influences have a great impact on cultural identity, and a large part of this is language.  An immigrant that comes into this country and is surrounded by a language variety that exists in the region, obviously they are going to adopt words into their vocabulary that others may not use.  My friend from the bilingual program had to learn English when she lived in Texas.  Socially, she was exposed to many users of the phrase “ya’ll.”  When she moved here she changed her speech again, in order to match the speech of her peers.  This goes for racial and ethnic speech as well.

The article talks about crossing and what social instances do to affect speech.  I found it shocking that Asian adolescent students faked not having very good English skills in order to get out of class activities.  As a bilingual educator this is important to recognize crossing.

Norton’s article was similar to the content of Hall.  Norton investigated how social identity affects our language learning.  The story of Martina made me think of something I was talking about with a friend, how public speaking or performance makes us nervous.  With years of practice everyday in our own language some of us still suffer from this anxiety.  However, each time you practice and the more good feedback you receive makes you more confident that the next time it will be better.


I thought it was so noble of Martina to eventually be independent enough to do things that a mother should do for their children.  Martina was not satisfied with her identity as a non-fluent English speaker.  She practiced and took uncomfortable leaps to gain fluency, just like we have been thrown into uncomfortable situations and deal with the embarrassment.  However, not every speaker of English ever overcomes the fear of public speaking and avoids it all together.  I think that there was something deep inside of Martina that pushed her to have a new social identity in Canada.  Norton expresses the notion that communicative competence must include a speaker’s ability to claim the right to speak.  Claiming the right to speak implies the speaker has confidence in their speech rather than native like speech.  Becoming fearless of the odd looks you might receive or the confusion that might occur are aspects of claiming the right to speak.  I think that this is crucial for communicative competence.  I do not think that speakers have this level of competence, because of some perceived notion of their social identity at a plateau.  


Like we saw and affirmed in class, that immigrants often struggle because it is like starting all over again, I think that part of the new beginnings that language learners have is reaffirming their old identity and a change in their old identity.  De Fina says that the way people use their “socially established resources” or “social categories (race, gender, ethnicity, ect.)” to tell their stories is an indicator of identity.  I took this to mean, that when people join different groups, meet new people, or move new places, they may change their identities to the changes they encounter or they may keep the identities that they already have.  


Overall I was astounded at how complex identity is.  Before reading the articles, I thought that there were two types of identities, the way you perceive yourself and the way others perceive you.  Situation identities, use social languages, discourses, and conversations are categories that Gee believes influences our identities.  So basically what ever you say, think or feel in any situation and with or against any certain person.  

I want to know whether you think identity acts with culture as one or if they are independent of each other.  Even perhaps if identity is a sub category of culture or if culture is a component of identity.