Legitimate Peripheral Participation and Language Learning: Two Quichua Learners in a Transnational Community

Abstract

Using data from a multisited ethnography of Ecuadorian transnational musicians, I applied Lave and Wenger's (1991) concept of legitimate peripheral participation and Jacoby and Ochs's (1995) notion of co-construction to examine two musicians' attempts to learn Quichua, an Ecuadorian indigenous language. Through an analysis aided by constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), I found that co-constructed notions of language beliefs, ethnic identity, and community perspectives led to perceptions of these individuals as legitimate or nonlegitimate learners of Quichua. These co-constructions played a role in a successful acquisition of Quichua for one individual, for whom Quichua was a heritage language, and a failure to succeed by the other. The results of this article enrich discussions on maintenance of threatened languages and add to the ongoing debate in second language acquisition on the importance of cognitive/individual versus social/external factors in language learning.

World languages, world Englishes and local identities

“…Indigenous people in Ecuador experience not only the pervasive influence of Spanish at all levels of society but also an ethnic distinction between themselves and mestizos (the multiracial group of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry), who are by far the largest of all the ethnic groups and comprise around 72 per cent of the population (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos ). Back () described an interesting contrast of attitudes to and use of Quichua between two members of the band: Domingo, an ethnically indigenous musician who grew up in Otavalo, and Alejandro, a mestizo from Quito, the capital city. Domingo's parents were Quichua speakers but, like many of their generation, they decided to raise their children in a Spanish‐speaking home.…”

“…Domingo left home early and went to Venezuela to work, where he was not exposed to Quichua and did not return home until he was 20. Domingo recalled the racism against indigenous people that he and his parents experienced and, as he explained to Back (: 1046),

Por una forma nuestros padres no quisieron, no querían que fuésemos indígenas en el tiempo pasado, nuestra forma de vida estaba dominada por los mestizos, los cuales eran bien racistas, chance viví también en ese, que complejo de mestizos de que eran la raza superior del Ecuador, pero ahora ya no […] mi mamá me creció hablando castellano porque había mucho racismo entonces.[In a certain way our parents didn't want, didn't want us to be indigenous in the past, our way of life was dominated by the mestizos, who were very racist, by chance I also lived through that mestizo complex where they think they're the superior race of Ecuador, but not anymore now […] my mother raised me speaking Spanish because there was a lot of racism then].

…”

“…[…] Tú tienes que estar, tienes que transmitir lo que sientes, lo que tocas […] si no transmites lo que tienes que transmitir no se siente nada. (Back : 1047)[I think that it depends on how you play, and all that you feel when you play. […] You have to be there, you have to communicate what you feel, what you play […] if you don't communicate what you have to communicate, nobody feels anything].…”

“…[…] Tú tienes que estar, tienes que transmitir lo que sientes, lo que tocas […] si no transmites lo que tienes que transmitir no se siente nada. (Back : 1047)…”

Moving Towards Legitimate Participation. A Venezuelan Girl Learning English in an Iowa City Elementary School

“…These studies have discussed fundamental aspects such as the home language maintenance, culture, identity, immigration and misconceptions about Latino people living and learning in the U.S. Research suggests that teachers need to foster students' home languages and their "Funds of Knowledge" to help them become biliterate (Cummins, 1996;Schwarzer, 2001;González, Moll & Amanti, 2005). Some other studies have highlighted the negotiation and reaffirmation of identity process through collaborative relations of power such as (Morita, 2004;Cummins, 1996) and some others have emphasized the development of second language acquisition and language identity through legitimate participation in communities of practice and the adjustment to new cultures (Back, 2011;González-Howard & McNeill, 2016;Han, 2009;Nordstrom, 2015). Bacon (2002) states that language proficiency develops when learners understand societal and academic rules, which in turn, allow them function within the culture.…”