Transnationalism, Multilingualism, and Identity

Abstract

Applied linguistics is a field concerned with issues pertaining to language(s) and literacies in the real world and with the people who learn, speak, write, process, translate, test, teach, use, and lose them in myriad ways. It is also fundamentally concerned with transnationalism, mobility, and multilingualism-the movement across cultural, linguistic, and (often) geopolitical or regional borders and boundaries. The field is, furthermore, increasingly concerned with identity construction and expression through particular language and literacy practices across the life span, at home, in diaspora settings, in short-term and long-term sojourns abroad for study or work, and in other contexts and circumstances. In this article, I discuss some recent areas in which applied linguists have investigated the intersections of language (multilingualism), identity, and transnationalism. I then present illustrative studies and some recurring themes and issues.

Introduction: Identity, Transdisciplinarity, and the Good Language Teacher

“…A revisiting of what constitutes a “good teacher” and “good teaching” has become all the more pressing in light of advances in digitally mediated learning (Kern, ; Thorne, Sauro, & Smith, ) and the complexities associated with transnational learners who increasingly populate second and foreign language classrooms (Duff, ; Menard–Warwick, ; Menard–Warwick, Heredia–Herrera, & Palmer, ; Risager, ). While wide‐ranging in its avenues of exploration, the research literature recognizes that language teacher identity is “a potential site of pedagogical intervention and an area of explicit focus in teacher preparation” (Morgan & Clarke, , p. 825).…”

A Critical Praxis: Narrowing the Gap Between Identity, Theory, and Practice

“…It is from this personal perspective that we feel legitimized in saying that teacher training programs need to make some changes in order to make teachers aware of how identities and their attendant ideologies affect the classroom. Future and current teachers need to take into account the political and critical dimensions of language learning and teaching, especially in an era of globalization and transnationalism (Duff, 2015). As observed by Pennycook (2012), the education of second language teachers would benefit students and teachers by providing a "critical education" (p. 138).…”

A Transdisciplinary Framework for SLA in a Multilingual World

“…The fabric of L2 learners’ social groups and communities has also been altered by mobility, a term which denotes global movements not only of people, but also of objects, capital, and information across the globe. The movement of people is of great consequence for understanding today's multilingualism, especially the form of human mobility related to migration known as transnationalism, or “the crossing of cultural, ideological, linguistic, and geopolitical borders and boundaries of all types but especially those of nation‐states” (Duff, , p. 57; see also Appadurai, ). The patterns of such crossing or movement, as Duff notes, are further complicated by virtual and multigenerational experiences as well as by temporary mobility patterns, for example, involving short‐term sojourners for tourism, study abroad, or work—and also by the multiple boundary crossing experiences of returnees (Kanno, ; Kubota, ).…”