Language learning, social identity, and immigrant women

Since practice in the target language is essential for second language acquisition (SLA), it is important to understand what opportunities language learners have to practice the target language outside the classroom. With only a few exceptions, however, little research has been done on what is called "natural" SLA of adult immigrants. For this reason, current theories of SLA have been developed on the premise that language learners can choose under what conditions they will interact with target language speakers, and that motivated learners can create opportunities to interact with target language speakers.;Drawing on a longitudinal case study of five immigrant women learning English in Ontario, Canada, I demonstrate that the opportunities these language learners had to practice English were structured by unequal relations of power in the home and the workplace, which frequently limited their opportunities to speak. Using data collected over twelve months in a diary study, individual and group interviews, and two questionnaires, I argue that these power relations must be understood with reference to inequities of ethnicity, gender, and class. I illustrate how and under what conditions the participants in the study created, responded to, and sometimes resisted opportunities to speak. I argue that their actions must be understood with reference to their multiple investments in the target language and their changing social identities across time and space.;On the basis of this research, I raise questions about current SLA theories of natural language learning, acculturation, and the affective filter, arguing that SLA theory needs to address questions of power and social identity if it is to explain the natural language learning experiences of immigrant women. I draw on poststructuralist theories of social identity and Bourdieu's notion of "legitimate discourse" to explain the findings from my study, and to demonstrate their relevance for current SLA theory. Finally, noting some of the limitations of communicative language teaching for the language training of immigrant women, I suggest that classroom-based social research might help to bridge the gap between formal and natural sites of language learning for immigrant women in Canada.