A Study Of Learners' Self-Identity In L2 Learning

Research on L2 learning is developing rapidly as an increasing number of investigators from different disciplines become concerned with language learning. In fact, millions of immigrants and their families in the world, especially those in Europe and in America, need to learn a second language if they are to advance economically and socially. Unlike linguists and cognitive scholars, sociologists and psychologists focus their study on both the social context and individual learners as well. They come to recognize the problem, that is, whether or not the attainment of L2 learning will threaten the learners' self-identity.Lambert (1974) first points out explicitly, in his social psychological model, that linguistic distinctiveness is a basic component of personal identity and hence the development of proficiency in a second language has implication for the individual's self-identity, and, in turn, the individual's self-identity has implication for L2 learning. He also focuses on the self-identity change by distinguishing subtractive and additive bilingualisms in the model. In the years that followed, there were some other models with their unique contributions from different aspects in understanding the language learning process, yet none of them could cover all sides of the process with in-depth knowledge of self-identity. Thus this paper represents an attempt to study the change in self-identity of the learners by suggesting a model in a comprehensive way based on the analysis of the state-of-the-art models and theories. Within this model, various factors that influence the learner's self-identity will be stressed and the change in self-identity of the learner will be discussed together with its characteristics.Self-Identity is first a philosophical term to explain the features of the world. On the one hand, world is nothing but process and flux; on the other hand, there must be something which remains exempt from change. In mathematics, identity means an equality of two algebraic or analytic expressions that holds true over a given set of numbers. Because self-identity is widely used by social psychologists accounting for the L2 models, its psychological implication will befocused on in this paper. First, self-identity is an internal process by which one defines and integrates various aspects of the self. Second, one may have multiple identities based on the place he holds in the structure of the society. Third, self-identity can be defined as a process of identifying oneself as a member of a shared category, which addresses issues of inter-group relations, considering how people define themselves as members of an in-group in opposition to members of a different social category. Accordingly, continuity, differentiation, categorization and multiplicity are concluded to be the characteristics of self-identity. Ethnic identity and gender identity are two major ways in which people define themselves and are defined by others. Other common types of self-identity include occupational identities, religious identities, political identities, etc.. Each of these identities carries with it a set of meanings and entails a set of behaviors and actions. Language is an important one among the variety of presentations of a person's identity. When one learns a new language, his self-identity would no longer be the personal thing and should be considered under the social context. The change may be seen as a continuous process, sometimes characterized by specific stages. In this sense, self-identity is, on the one hand, a feature of the individual, reflecting an internal process of self-definition; on the other hand, self-identity emerges in a social context and is shaped by the immediate circumstances as well as the broader culture.Lambert (1974) differentiates the self-identity change in two bilingualisms in his social psychological model. For subtractive bilingualism, there is pressure to replace or reduce the original self-identity that may produce feelings of loss of identity and result in alienation. While the learner o...