Carolyn Hart EST650 / Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Literature Review

The Connection between Language and Identity Language is much more than a series of vocabulary words and phrases that allow us to communicate with one another. As an undergraduate at Michigan State, I minored in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). When I first decided to take on this minor, I simply thought it would be a way for me to learn strategies to aid ELL students in their attempt to learn English. I did not realize how second language acquisition could actually be a fairly big ordeal psychologically. I became fascinated with all of the social implications a language holds. Everything about a language down to the dialect, slang, how vowels are pronounced, etc. sends a social message about ones identity. As a person acquires a new language, their success in their acquisition may be based on more than just how well they employ the strategies. According to Learners ethnic group affiliation and L2 pronunciation accuracy: A sociolinguistic investigation by Elizabeth Gatbonton, Pavel Trofimovich, and Michael Magid (2005), second language learners may feel an interesting relationship with their ethnic affiliation and second language acquisition. Although one may assume the goal of second language acquisition is to become fluent in the target language, the student may feel pressure to not fully embrace the second language as a way of maintaining their ethnic identity. As stated in the article, learners who had achieved a high degree of accuracy in pronouncing the second language were sometimes perceived as being less loyal to their ethnic group than those whose second language speech retained a strong foreign accent (Gatbonton, Trofimovich and Magid, 2005). Therefore, in this situation,

Carolyn Hart EST650 / Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Literature Review

acquiring a second language shows that the second language has a purpose in an individuals life, but by maintaining a strong foreign accent, they are sending the message that they belong to their ethnic group, and are not a member of the ethnic group to which the language belongs. This language loyalty is not only present when a speaker is acquiring a whole new language, but is also present within dialect variations. African American English, or AAE, demonstrates language loyalty as well. According to Marcyliena Morgans article, The African-American Speech Community: Reality and Sociolinguists, AAE is deeply rooted in history, and is constantly changing. In her article, Morgan states that in the first conceptions of the AAE, the indigenous languages of Africa are considered to be symbolic of African culture, identity and power (p. 79). Therefore, many African Americans use this dialect as a way to communicate their roots and their culture. While the language loyalty many African Americans feel represent the social norms of their community, the controversy over AAE aligns with the white middle class social norms and values. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School vs. Ann Arbor District Board case in 1977, discussed in Morgans article, revealed many perceptions the white middle class held about AAE in institutions such as schools. The school officials at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School were accused of placing African American children in learning-disabled and speech pathology classes and [holding them] at low grade levels because of language, cultural and class differences (p. 76). As John J. Gumperz notes in his article The Speech Community, the conflict in language loyalty may even affect mutual intelligibility, as when speakers claim that they

Carolyn Hart EST650 / Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Literature Review

do not understand each other reflect primarily social attitudes rather than linguistic fact (p. 71). In other words, the school officials most likely could have understood the different dialect present in AAE they were just uncomfortable with it. This perception of a certain language reflects the social values of a community in this case, the white middle class community. Whenever socialization and reinforcement of social norms and values occurs through language, the results are powerful. This case also provides us with an example of how people who speak the dominant language or dialect in this case, Standard English can use their skills to their advantage and bring down other social groups, thereby asserting their dominance over these groups. As demonstrated in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School vs. Ann Arbor District Board case, language and identity of one group can be used to the advantage of another group. Any social community can use the differences in people, such as their language, as a way to assert themselves as superior. According to Learning English at School: Identity, Social Relations and Classroom Practice by Kelleen Toohey (2000), these social communities as innocent as a kindergarten classrooms can still carry these very heavy social implications that one group may be inferior to another group because of their differences. As the article states, classrooms are organized to provide occasions upon which some children look more and some less able, and judgments are made which become social facts about individual children (Toohey, 2000). These social facts are often times based on how well they are perceived to function within the environment based on their skills of the dominant language. During these times, a child may want to achieve high fluency of the language, so as not to send the inaccurate message I do not fit in with this community as well as you, or even I am not as

Carolyn Hart EST650 / Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Literature Review

intelligent as you. Indeed, as seen in these examples, school is a very common institution that communicates these complicated values. Language holds many social implications, both by the second language learner and the people around the second language learner. By achieving high accuracy and fluency of a second language, is one doing more than doing their homework and practicing the language? Are they really stating something about their ethnic identity, and that it may be shifting away from their ethnic background? In addition, people surrounding the second language learners may use the lack of dominant language skills as a way of pointing out the flaws in the person, thereby asserting their superiority on a person. Instead of merely noticing that a person may come from a different place, a person may be noticing a place where they are more skilled than another person. As I embark on my New Zealand and Australian adventure, I hope to explore more about the complex relationship between language and identity in the context of a new country.

Carolyn Hart EST650 / Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Literature Review

Works Cited Block, D. (1997). The rise of identity in SLA research, post Firth and Wagner. The Modern Language Journal. Gatbonton, E., Trofimovich P., & Magid, M. (2005) Learners ethnic group affiliation and L2 pronunciation accuracy: A sociolinguistic investigation. TESOL Quaterly, 39(3), 489-511 Gumperz, J. J. (1968). The speech community. Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, 66-73. Morgan, M. (1994). The african-american community: Reality and sociolinguists. Linguistic Anthropology: A Reader, 74-92. Toohey, K. (2000) Learning English at School: Identity, Social Relations and Classroom Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.