Language Learners' Sociocultural Positions in the L2: A Narrative Approach

This paper investigates language learners' negotiation of their social selves in the target language community of practice from a narrative perspective. In order to do this, I draw from post-structuralist and sociocultural approaches to language learning and L2 identity (e.g. Belz, 2002; Kinginger, 2004; Norton, 1997, 2000; Pavlenko, 2002, 2003) which assume that learners do not communicate in a social vacuum but acquire new roles, positions and vantage points from which they negotiate their L2 selves. More specifically, I argue the need for investigating language learners' negotiations of legitimacy and agency in the L2 (Kramsch, 2003; Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2000) within a narrative perspective. As language learning and use occur socially, language learners need to be studied as negotiators in the relations of power that are established when entering into contact with the L2. Acquiring ‘audibility’ (Miller, 2004), the ‘right to speech’ (Bourdieu, 1977) and acquiring new positions in the L2 (Davies & Harré, 1990; Kramsch, 2003) are some of the issues that the L2 user faces when interacting in the target community of practice. The methodological framework put forward is exemplified through the study of several language learners' anecdotes extracted from a corpus of 20 learner interviews.