Identity and Language Learning

by Bonny Norton

Under what conditions do language learners speak? How is a learner's changing identity related to the process of language learning? And what are the implications of learner identities for the English language teacher? This new edition of Bonny Norton's groundbreaking classic work draws on a longitudinal case study of immigrant women in Canada, suggesting that second language acquisition theory has not given sufficient attention to relations of power between language learners and target language speakers. This revised and updated new edition takes into account developments in sociocultural research in language learning, and addresses timely topics such as Integrating research, theory, and classroom practice, this book will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers in the fields of second language learning and teaching, TESOL, applied linguistics and language planning.

Genres: Linguistics, Canada

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a class presentation. I finished it, and we did awesome on our presentation, but overall I wasn't the biggest fan of the study itself. Kind of one sided--for a book that says it's about "gender," the study only had women. How can you broadly generalize that to male experiences in language learner, too without any male voices in your research? But oh well, could have read one of the other three books on the list that sounded way more boring than this one haha.

[Ted Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agreat book of case studies on the development of second language learning. A need to read for anyone interested in the education of ELLs.