Constructing, negotiating and reconstructing English Language Learner Identity: a case study of a public sector university in Postcolonial Pakistan
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Date
28/11/2016Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
28/11/2023Author
Umrani, Sumera
Metadata
Abstract
This is an instrumental case study that focuses on the construction of English
Language Learner Identity (ELLI) in postcolonial Pakistan. It is a study of students at
a public sector university in the province of Sindh. The study broadly examines how
English language learners reconstruct, redefine and negotiate their language learner
identities during their English language learning journeys. In particular, it attempts to
explore learners’ investment and agency in learning English and what ‘future possible
selves’ they want to achieve after acquiring English language skills. Consideration is
given to how learning English as a second language may be impacted by students’
gender, social class and ethnolinguistic selves and how learners’ English Language
Learner Identity is formed and reformed in postcolonial Pakistan.
This instrumental case study of the University of Sindh did not attempt to explore the
case in its entirety but rather studied a particular aspect of it. In order to gather the data
for my study I recruited three cohorts - primary (Year 1) and secondary (Year 2, 3 and
4) participants and other stakeholders from the Institute of English Language and
Literature (IELL), the University of Sindh (UoS). Year 1 students were the key
participants in the study but with the involvement of 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students, I
was able to construct a possible sense of language learner identity and language
learning evolution beyond the first year students’ experiences. Year 1 students were
interviewed twice over a twelve-month period during which time they also wrote
reflective diaries twice a month. Engagement with each of the other year groups
involved one focus group discussion with each year once only in the middle of the
data collection journey. In addition, participant shadowing and non-participant
classroom observations were also utilised to enhance understanding and to triangulate
the data. The views of other stakeholders such as the language teacher, the Director of
the Institute and the Dean of the Faculty were also gathered to supplement and inform
the data collected from students.
The key findings of this study suggested that investment, learner agency, desire for
possible future selves and historical and cultural consciousness are the main constructs
of language learner identity in postcolonial Pakistan. Learners have invested in
English language learning through a number of processes and have had unique
language learning journeys exercising their learner agency. It reinforced an
understanding of learners’ identities as dynamic and multidimensional and fluid in
nature, being continually reconstructed and negotiated over time in different academic,
social and cultural contexts leading to a hybridised English Language Learner Identity
(ELLI) situated in the ‘third space’. It was found that Year 1 students were open to
negotiating their multidimensional identities but conformed to an acceptance of the
primacy of English while their senior counterparts resisted and sometimes challenged
not only English language learning but also the significance of English as a
mechanism for linguistic and cultural manipulation. It was noticed that the nature and
extent of investment, agency and identity negotiations were related to learners’
individual experiences, social class, academic, family and ethnolinguistic background
and their year of the degree programme.