The Relationship between Learner Identity and Language Learning

1. The Relationship between Learner Identity and Language Learning DaeJong Kim. Student Culminating Experience in Multicultural Education New York University

2. Introduction Aperson who learns a target language will go through the process of language and cultural identity formation within the context where he/she learns the target language (e.g., Cervatiuc, 2009; Halic, Greenberg, & Paulus, 2009; Hirano, 2008; Pomerantz, 2008) How? Why?

3. What is this study for? The purpose of this study is to explore the formation of learner identity through comparing two different second language learners with different lengths of stay in N.Y so that we can see how learner identity affects language learning and vice versa Why duration of stay matters?

4. Literature review The findings of Hirano’s (2008) study were categorized into three: (1) her student’s experience of difficulties in learning English in the past had an effect on the construction of his identity as a limited English learner; (2) the student’s identity and his learning difficulty somehow affected each other; (3) appropriate teaching methods can boost the transformation of a student’s identity.

5. Literature review The findings of study (Halic, Greenberg, & Paulus, 2009) are the difficulties of mastering the language, the perceptions of English as both an obstacle and a way to access learning success, the construction of new identities between the “home” culture and the host culture (p.84).

6. Literature review The findings of the Cervatiuc’s study are as follows: (1) they created a “counter-discourse” to prevent them from feeling reduced or limited by native speakers for their lack of English proficiency; (2) they tried hard to be members of social networks so that they could improve their English with native speakers

7. Method Participants Instrument Data collection Data analysis procedure

8. Participants Hang (53) : female Was born in Korea Has been working as an accountant for 35 years Has been studying in New York for 3 months at level 1 Young (32): female Was born in Korea Has been working as a manager until she came to N.Y Has been studying English in New York for 3 years Is now preparing TOEFL to go to college in order to major in restaurant management

9. Instrument One-to-one in-depth interviews Each interview starts with one open-ended question: “How would you describe your current level of English as compared to when you first came to New York?” Background experience as a foreign and second language learner perceptions of themselves and English

10. Data collection The data was collected through one-to-one in-depth interviews with the two participants. The interviews were conducted in Korean in order to elicit more information from both participants since they are both Korean. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and then translated into English for data analysis.

11. Data analysis procedure 1. Read through all the transcripts of interviews to understand the whole picture 2. Pull out distinctive factors or themes from each interview 3. Select and organize the most relevant interpretations to the research question

12. Findings

13. Learning English Learning English as a foreign and a second language The two participants’ experience of learning English as a foreign and second language included full of challenges in which they must had to find ways to improve English in order to achieve their goals.

14. Recognition of learning difficulties As both participants started to take English seriously as a fundamental and inevitable step toward their future goals, their desire to improve English and anxiety about improvement seemed to force them to spot their learning difficulties

15. Self-awareness Self-awareness of learning difficulties and attitude toward English and themselves The increase of both participants’ awareness of themselves and their learning difficulties gave them a second thought about what kind of a language learner they were

16. Reform learning strategies and identity They started to attempt to do things that they thought it could help them move on to the next stage of second language acquisition In this stage, gaining or keeping confidence in oneself and one’s language ability seems very important

17. Applying Reformed Strategies to Language Learning with Reformed Learner Identity New second language learning experience starts again from this stage

18. Findings

19. Discussion and Conclusion The most interesting thing unrevealed through this study was that their self-awareness of their learning difficulties acted as a catalyst for their own reformation of their learning strategies and learner identity Motivation Awareness

20. Suggestions How to help students deal with learning difficulties How to raise students’ self-awareness of themselves as a language learner

21. Thank you ! Let’s celebrate this moment!