Social Identity has always been intriguing
to me. Social identity comprises of the individual, relationships, reputation,
and other social roles. Social identity cannot be defined as a single idea;
rather it is seen as multiple. In the article “Social Identity, Investment, and
Language Learning” by Norton she argues the conception of “investment” rather
than “motivation” to grasp the multifaceted relationship of language learners
to the target language learners and their hesitant desire to speak it. The
notion of investment signifies that the language learner is seen as an
individual with social history and they are not perceived as one-dimensional.
It should be looked at as an investment because it increases cultural capital.
As we previously learned it is crucial to have cultural capital because it
characterizes the different classes and groups in relation to specific sets of
social forms. Investing in a second language is beneficial because it will give
the language learners new resources and in turn they will increase the value of
their cultural capital. “It is also an investment in a learner's own social
identity, an identity which is constantly changing across time and space”
(Norton, 18).
I see being bilingual as an investment and I
am appreciative that I was taught Spanish as a child and that my parents still
made me speak it at home even once I had learned English. I now have cousins
that refuse to speak Spanish or even teach Spanish to their kids. I feel that
the children are only being hurt by it because later in their future they will
have wished that they were taught it. Nowadays language should be looked at as
an investment especially because in other countries people learn to speak three
languages and more!
Other theories of SLA focus on social rather
than individual variables in language learning. The “social” refers to group
differences between the language learner group and the target language group. This
will make it easier to interact with the target language group. In my opinion,
students learn best when they are allowed to discuss the materials with their
classmates or when they are expected to reteach/retell it to someone else to
demonstrate mastery of material covered in class. “In the field of SLA,
theorists have not adequately addressed why it is that a learner may sometimes be
motivated, extroverted, and confident and sometimes unmotivated, introverted,
and anxious; why in one place there may be social distance between a specific
group of language learners and the target language community, whereas in
another place the social distance may be minimal; why a learner can sometimes
speak and other times remains silent” (Norton, 11). That quote from the article
stood out to me because every child learns in different way so we cannot have a one-size
fits all type of education and we cannot expect each language learner to react
the exact same way when learning a new language, new content, and interacting
with English speakers. I feel that theorists have not figure this theory out
because it is very complex and a lot of variables go into how confident or
motivated a student can be in the school environment.
This was probably the article that stood
out to me more because it dealt with language learning and investment as well
as social identity. I look forward to learning the definition of identity
because I feel that it is also a hard term to define. If our identity is always
changing then how do we know who we really are? How is that possible since we
are different people depending on our surroundings? It truly makes me wonder of
how I act different in a professional job setting, at school, at home, and with
friends. I feel that this is something that we need to keep in mind when we
become future teachers because some students may be shy, problematic, etc. I
look forward to seeing other opinions about identity and our class discussions.
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