This article begins with a critique of dominant approaches to language policy in education that are based on the notion of "rights" and "peoples." It makes the case for an approach that is based on the tripartite view of social justice, as articulated by Nancy Fraser. This view of social justice sees a complementary…

Informed by a social and critical turn of reading practices and a poststructuralist paradigm of gender, this study delved into the commonly held belief that reading and language learning is a feminine domain, and examined the connection between the construction of gendered subjectivities and English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) reading practices…

This paper reports on the findings of a multiple case study to show how 3 women constructed meaning around the processes of L2 learning and migration and (re)constructed identities through their participation in new communities of practice (CoPs). Data sources include formal classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and the participants'…

This study explores the attitudes and identities of future ESL teachers in a 4-year teacher education program in a regional university in Québec, Canada. We describe the sociopolitical context of learning English in Québec and explain studies describing the position of nonnative-speakers who teach English in various political and geographical…

Grounded in the framework of second language socialization, this study explores the identity (re)construction of Erol, a Turkish doctoral student in the United States. Drawn from a larger corpus collected for a longitudinal, mixed-method research, the data for this study came from autobiographies, journal entries, and semistructured interviews.…

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education within the context of Japan is firmly underpinned by sociohistorical constructions of racial difference and racial hierarchies that have considerable influence on contemporary student and institutional attitudes. Embracing these sociohistorical foundations, this article adopts experimental procedures…

This study examined the disciplinary enculturation experiences of three Korean students in U.S.-based Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL) programs. Guided by theories of situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and social identities (Block, 2007; Clarke, 2008; Norton, 2009), and largely drawn…

This study examined the sociolinguistic contexts of neighborhoods and schools in two predominantly Latino communities in the United States. We used census data to assess social and ethnic composition and observational data to compare and contrast environmental print, language use, and availability of community services in Spanish in these schools…

The purpose of this article is to explore Korean English learners' identity and pedagogical implications of the findings. After a brief explanation about why the manners of examining English learners' identity can be diverse according to their sociocultural context, as an agency of Korean English learners' identity representation, their…

When trying to utilize class discussions as an effective pedagogical tool, teachers need to be aware of the conflicts that may arise due to issues of personal and cultural representation, linguistic differences, and misunderstandings of the tacit "rules" for participation. Because of cultural and linguistic variances in student populations, not…

This article reports on an ethnographic case study that explored how Chinese learners' national identities were displayed and reconstructed through their English language-learning journeys in Britain. Drawing on a variety of sources (ethnographic observations, informal conversations, diaries, and narrative interviews), the analysis focuses on the…

This article discusses the language and identity challenges I faced as a critical border ethnographer from Spain doing fieldwork in Southern California. I focus on the multiple positionings that I negotiated doing fieldwork in La Clase Magica (The Magic Class), a computer-based, after-school bilingual program for Mexican/Mexican American/Chicano-a…

This article reports on a study of language and cultural identity of mother-tongue Zulu students at an English-medium South African university. The data consist of focus group interviews, questionnaires, and student opinions in essays. Findings include a strong identification of the participants with the Zulu language and Zulu culture, and a view…

Using situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) as our theoretical framework, we focused on two female graduate students in applied linguistics as each attempted to negotiate memberships in multiple communities during an international exchange program. Eleven students at six universities took part in an…

This article seeks to explore adult second language learning beyond the classroom as a process of identity negotiation, and a struggle for participation, acceptance, and legitimacy in multiple communities to which learners belong or aspire to belong. Drawing on constructivism to conceptualize language learning and notions of identity, the study…