Identity

The concept of identity is related to "how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities to the future." Besides, "an investment in the taught language is also an investment in a learner's own social identity, which changes across time and space."

Comments:

• language is seen as important in "constructing" the relationshipbetween the individual and the social;
• relations of power can influence the opportunities second language learners have to practice the target language outside the classroom.

Video

Bibliography:

Norton, Bonny. "Language, Identity, and Ownership of English". Tesol Quartely, 1997

Norton, Bonny. Fact and Fiction in Language Learning. Longman/Pearson Education, 2ooo.