The Power of Identity and Ideology in Language Learning - Designer Immigrants Learning English in Singapore

This critical ethnographic school-based case study offers insights onthe interaction between ideology and the identity development of individualEnglish language learners in Singapore. Illustrated by case studies of thelanguage learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students in anEnglish-medium school in Singapore, the author examines how the immigrantstudents negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursivepositioning over the course of the school year. Specifically, the study traceshow the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex wayswith their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influencetheir learning of English. This potent combination of language ideologies andcirculating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex. Byframing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of ideologiesin shaping the trajectories and identities of language learners.

List of contents

Chapter 1: Foreign talent and Singapore.- Chapter 2: Reconceptualizing language, language learning, and the language learner in the age of globalization.- Chapter 3: Researching, analyzing, and constructing the data.- Chapter 4: The sociolinguistic context of Singapore and Oak.- Chapter 5: Designer student immigration and the designer student immigrant complex at Oak.- Chapter 6: Language ideologies at Oak.- Chapter 7 The designer student immigrant complex: Its impact on learning.- Chapter 8: Looking back and moving forward.- Appendix.

Summary

This critical ethnographic school-based case study offers insights on
the interaction between ideology and the identity development of individual
English language learners in Singapore. Illustrated by case studies of the
language learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students in an
English-medium school in Singapore, the author examines how the immigrant
students negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursive
positioning over the course of the school year. Specifically, the study traces
how the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex ways
with their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influence
their learning of English. This potent combination of language ideologies and
circulating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex. By
framing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of ideologies
in shaping the trajectories and identities of language learners.

Product details

• Authors: Peter I de Costa, Peter I. De Costa
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• EAN: 9783319807515
• ISBN: 978-3-31-980751-5
• No. of pages: 173
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 10 mm x 235 mm
• Weight: 301 g
• Illustrations: XVII, 173 p. 1 illus.
• Series: Multilingual Education; Multilingual Education
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > School education, didactics, methodology; B, Bildungsstrategien und -politik, Educational Policy, Education, Soziolinguistik, Sociolinguistics, Educational strategies & policy, Language Education, Educational Policy and Politics, Education and state, Language and education, Singapore's national bilingual policy, Student immigration in the Singapore education system, Poststructuralism and Bourdieu, The English language syllabus and the Singapore school, The discourse of crisis and the Speak Good English Movement, Multicultural multilingual Singapore