Orienting to “Being Ordinary”

The (Re)construction of Hegemonic Ideologies in Interactions Among Adult Immigrant Learners of English

Bibliographic Data

ID21175583
AuthorsElizabeth R Miller (0000-0002-1820-0268, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume6
Issue4
Pages315-344
Publication date2009-12-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Inquiry in Language Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1542-7587 • E-ISSN: 1542-7595
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15427580903337446
OpenAlexW2089072971
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited30

This article investigates the construction and maintenance of ideologies regarding the legitimacy of English as the dominant language in the United States in interactions involving adult immigrant learners of English. As both the researcher and these students' English as second language (ESL) instructor, I am a participant in the ESL classroom and interview conversations that are analyzed in this study. In my analysis, I consider how these adult ESL students and I take up positions and are positioned in ways that affiliate us with particular language identities, such as "Chinese speaker," "non-native speaker of English," or "English speaker," among others. I argue that our subject positioning according to language affiliation provides one of the means by which normative beliefs about English in the United States are reconstituted. Notes 1All place names and individuals' names are pseudonyms. 2Though I see language identities as consequential in these conversations, I recognize that language and language learner identity categories are often not relevant for the learners themselves or their interlocutors as they interact in English. 3See Appendix A for transcription conventions. 4Because this is a translation, I only refer to the content of the interviewee's words rather than details in the sequential organization of the interview conversation. 5In a later interview (July 7, 2004, translated from Cantonese), Peng described this situation in the following way: "Now it is like I have to learn, so I learn. Otherwise if there's a choice then I won't learn it. It's because like my brother and sister, they don't want to learn any English, so they choose to live in China Town in Boston, as they want to escape from learning English. But I'm still here." 6Tenzin's comment here is not identified as directed toward other Tibetan immigrants, but in earlier and later conversations he noted that he did not interact with the small Tibetan community in Midtown, citing his distaste for their focus on making money (even though they typically held low prestige and relatively low paying jobs)

Comprehension approach · English language · First language · Hegemony · Ideology · Immigration · Language education · Language transfer · Legitimacy · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Normative · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology

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