Discourse and Identity among ESL Learners: A Case Study of a Community College ESL Classroom

Research in the Teaching of English Aug 2014

Discourse and Identity among ESL Learners: A Case Study of a Community College ESL Classroom

Yueh-ching Chang National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University ; Melanie Sperling University of California, Riverside

Abstract

While research in L2 language and literacy in academic contexts has shed light on learning language per se (e.g., students’ development of syntactic complexity), classroom situations, in which ESL students engage in English and make it meaningful to them, have received far less attention. With a sociocultural perspective, this qualitative case study examined the discursive practices of a face-to-face community college ESL classroom and of its online discussion forums. We found that the discourse in the face-to-face classroom tended to prioritize shaping students’ academic knowledge and identity, pushing aside knowledge and identities that were peer- or life-worldbased. In contrast, the online forums afforded discourses through which students displayed peer-based, life-world, and academic knowledge and identities, while negotiating responses to academic assignments. The study suggests that classroom-based online forums can provide a space for the legitimate display of students’ nonacademic discourses in the service of academic work.

Journal: Research in the Teaching of English
Published: 2014-08-01
DOI: 10.58680/rte201425911
Open Access: Closed
Topics: two-year college qualitative research multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

Schneider (2018)

Learning How to Support Multilingual Writers

Pedagogy

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