Canadian Immersion Students’ Investment in French

Marshall, Kelle L.; Bokhorst–Heng, Wendy D.

doi:10.1111/modl.12663

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Both Xuan and Hui were becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that the local students with whom they studied had different job prospects (economic capital), which were partly related to their Portuguese learning. In the light of their accounts, although linguistic proficiency is an essential part of cultural capital, it seems that it does not necessarily convert into symbolic or economic capital in the local linguistic marketplace (Marshall & Bokhorst-Heng, 2020).…”

Section: Frank Yang Gong Yongyan Zheng and Andy Xuesong Gaomentioning

confidence: 99%

Portuguese language learning and capital access: a study on university students in Macau

Gong,

Zheng,

Gao

2023

PortaLin

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This paper reports on an inquiry into a group of students’ Portuguese language learning with a focus on their access to economic, social, and cultural capital. The inquiry problematizes the traditional uncritical assumption of a shared pursuit of linguistic competence among students. Drawing on individual in-depth interviews with 14 participants at a university in Macau, this article illustrates how local and mainland Chinese students related their Portuguese language learning to the acquisition of different forms of capital, respectively. Specifically, our analysis reveals that economic capital dominated in the local participants’ pursuits, with cultural and social capital being less influential, whereas among mainland Chinese participants the influence of economic capital was weak and unsustainable, with a balanced distribution of cultural and social capital. The findings also suggest that the participants’ family contexts and social networks shaped their pursuits of different forms of capital in Portuguese learning, implying that educational institutions and teachers need to reframe their learning resources and pedagogical strategies for Portuguese language learners in Macau, placing greater emphasis on reinforcing students’ social connections with Portuguese or local Macanese communities.

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Section: Frank Yang Gong Yongyan Zheng and Andy Xuesong Gaomentioning

confidence: 99%

Portuguese language learning and capital access: a study on university students in Macau

Gong,

Zheng,

Gao

2023

PortaLin

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“…For example, in our analysis of NB's FI Grade 12 'cultural diversity' learning objectives (Marshall & Bokhorst-Heng, 2020b) we noted how language ideological debates, both national (Heller, 1999) and provincial (Marshall & Bokhorst-Heng, 2020b), and their resulting language policies have contributed to an ambiguous framing of the FI program's cultural objectives and conception of its overall L2 Journal Vol 12 Issue 3 (2020) 80 purpose. Elsewhere (Marshall & Bokhorst-Heng, 2020a), we note similar ambiguity in the curriculum documents related to the development of learner identity, which then makes way for a dominance of neoliberal priorities in which language learning is defined as "linguistic instrumentalism" (Kubota, 2011). In such a view, language is defined according to economic or symbolic value, and the skills acquired through language learning are characterized as leading to social mobility and economic opportunity.…”

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confidence: 96%

Examining Students’ Co-construction of Language Ideologies through Multimodal Text

Bokhorst–Heng¹,

Marshall²

2020

Self Cite

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French immersion (FI), one of the hallmarks of French as a Second Language education in Canada and mandated in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially English/French bilingual province, is often the target of language ideological debates surrounding its purposes and expected outcomes. Yet, notably absent in FI scholarship has been a focus on the ideologies informing students' investment in French, including what bilingualism might mean for their language learning and identity. In this article, we discuss nine Grade 8 French immersion students' co-construction of language ideologies regarding bilingualism. In a focus group, these students created a promotional video regarding the merits of bilingualism whose audience was comprised of fictional peers in a predominantly Anglophone province. Our analysis was guided by Darvin and Norton's (2015) model of investment. We employed the tools of multimodal critical discourse analysis to consider the students' construction of language ideologies through their video production. Through macro and micro analyses, we identified five primary ideologies: Bilingualism (a) is a matter of personal decision; (b) provides access to jobs; (c) provides access to economic capital; (d) provides access to Francophone communities of practice; and (e) provides access to symbolic capital. We discuss how the students have "remixed" the dominant provincial ideologies on bilingualism into their own, considering the implications of these ideologies on their investment in French. Finally, we suggest how multimodal practices provide a means to develop language students' meta-cognition and expand their investment in their target language.

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A transnational multilingual language learning journey

Massó

Costa

2023

ARAL

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This study presents the case of a multilingual refugee (Maji) of Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English, from Burundi living in the U.S., and examines the language ideologies and identities embedded in his transnational narratives. We analyze our focal participant’s multi-layered transnational experiences using Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment that foregrounds the intersection of ideology, capital, and identity. Specifically, we center on dominant ideologies in Maji’s discourse and how he negotiated his ethnic, social class, and gendered identities. Our findings revealed that Maji, who adhered to discourses that promoted the English superiority, the prestige of dialectal forms of Swahili, Spanish, and English, and English as a global commodity displayed his awareness of language hierarchies and dominance. Yet, Maji, who drew on French for meaning-making, displayed contradictory ideas by framing French as a useless language in the U.S. as compared to English. Our study sheds light on the complexity of multilinguals’ identity construction and discusses pedagogical implications on how to support language minority students’ multilingualism.

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Canadian Immersion Students’ Investment in French

Cited by 7 publications

References 30 publications

Portuguese language learning and capital access: a study on university students in Macau

Portuguese language learning and capital access: a study on university students in Macau

Examining Students’ Co-construction of Language Ideologies through Multimodal Text

A transnational multilingual language learning journey

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