Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2011
Abstract
There has been increasing interest recently in the way that additional language learners' identities are affected and changed by their experiences in developing proficiency in another language. In the case of migrants, this is also affected by familiarity with their new country and language, and their transition into life in a new social and cultural environment. National and linguistic elements of identity are only part of people's multifaceted identities. However, these are of particular significance for language teachers and central to identity shifts involved in language acquisition and settlement in a new country. We present data from two adult EAL (English as an additional language) learners' accounts of their developing bilingual identities in the Adult Migrant Education Program (AMEP). In particular, we focus on one student's self-reflexivity as she described how her experiences of travelling back to her homeland of People's Republic of China (PRC) contributed to the development of her emerging bilingual identity. This is supported by a shorter extract from a Colombian student's experience, as she described her difficulties in communicating something of her Australian experience to her family in Colombia. The study suggests ways in which language teachers can assist their adult immigrant learners to explore this aspect of their growth as bilingual speakers in their new language.
Keywords
migration; ESL; bilingualism; diaspora; sociolinguistics
Discipline
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Sociology of Culture
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
TESOL in Context
Volume
21
Issue
1
First Page
42
Last Page
58
ISSN
1030-8385
Publisher
Australian Council of T E S O L Associations (A C T A)
Citation
WILLIAMS, Alan, & SETIJADI, Charlotte.(2011). Visiting 'Home': Contacts with the homeland, self-reflexivity and emergent migrant bilingual identities. TESOL in Context, 21(1), 42-58.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2754
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons