Multilingual Education Peter I. De Costa The Power of Identity and Ideology in Language Learning Designer Immigrants Learning English in Singapore Multilingual Education Volume 18 Series Editors Andy Kirkpatrick Department of Languages and Linguistics, Griffith University Brisbane, Australia Bob Adamson Head, Department of International Education & Lifelong Learning Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR Editorial Board Jan Blommaert, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands Feng Anwei, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China Ofelia Garcia, The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, USA Saran Kaur Gill, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Mingyue (Michelle) Gu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin NT, Hong Kong SAR Gu Yueguo, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Hartmut Haberland, Roskilde University, Denmark Li Chor Shing David, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR Li Wei, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK Low Ee-Ling, National Institute of Education, Singapore Tony Liddicoat, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Ricardo Nolasco, University of the Philippines at Diliman, Manila, The Philippines Merrill Swain, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada Virginia Yip Choy Yin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR The book series Multilingual Education publishes top quality monographs and edited volumes containing empirical research on multilingual language acquisition, language contact and the respective roles of languages in contexts where the languages are not cognate and where the scripts are often different, in order to be able to better understand the processes and issues involved and to inform governments and language policy makers The volumes in this series are aimed primarily at researchers in education, especially multilingual education and other related fields, and those who are involved in the education of (language) teachers Others who will be interested include key stakeholders and policy makers in the field of language policy and education The editors welcome proposals and ideas for books that fit the series For more information on how you can submit a proposal, please contact the publishing editor, Jolanda Voogd E-mail: jolanda.voogd@springer.com More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8836 Peter I De Costa The Power of Identity and Ideology in Language Learning Designer Immigrants Learning English in Singapore Peter I De Costa Wells Hall B257 Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan, USA ISSN 2213-3208 Multilingual Education ISBN 978-3-319-30209-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30211-9 ISSN 2213-3216 (electronic) ISBN 978-3-319-30211-9 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016934854 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland Preface In this book I present a critical ethnographic school-based case study that focuses on the language learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students These students were specially recruited by the Singapore government as part of a national foreign talent policy The book draws on varied data gathered over an academic year, including video- and audio-taped classroom interactions, audio-taped interviews with the focal students and their Singaporean classmates and teachers, observations of the students outside of the classroom, and artifacts Inspired by the work of Jan Blommaert (2010, 2015), Pierre Bourdieu (1984, 1991), Bonny Norton (2000, 2013), and Stanton Wortham (2006), this study adopts a poststructuralist view of language and language learning Specifically, language is seen as an act of semiotic reconstruction and performance engaged by the language learner Particular attention was paid to how the immigrant students negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursive positioning over the course of the school year The book also considers how the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex ways with their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influence their learning of English In particular, I argue that this potent combination of language ideologies and circulating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex By framing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of identity and ideology in language learning East Lansing, MI, USA Peter I De Costa v Acknowledgments I am deeply indebted to the administrators, teachers, and students at the school I call Oak Girls’ Secondary School I understand the risks they took in allowing me access to their school and thank them for their trust For an entire year, they allowed me to be a small part of their lives I am particularly grateful to Daphne, Daniella, Jenny, Wendy, and Xandy, who came to play a central role in this research project Boundless thanks are owed to my dissertation advisor, Jane Zuengler, for her unstinting support over the years Her patient guidance and expert advice were instrumental in seeing my dissertation, upon which this book is based, to completion in May 2011 I am also deeply appreciative of the insightful input from my dissertation committee members: Margaret Hawkins, Stacey Lee, Sally Magnan, and Junko Mori This project would also not have been possible without the generous financial support provided by the Second Language Acquisition Program and the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during my doctoral studies The funding I received by way of a university dissertation fellowship and travel grants enabled me to collect my data, present my work at conferences, and eventually write the thesis I am honored that the thesis was conferred the Second Language Research Special Interest Group dissertation award by the American Educational Research Association in 2013 I would also like to recognize the opportunities afforded to me by graduate student awards from the American Association for Applied Linguistics and the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia Equally helpful were the travel awards to present my research at various conferences during my three years (2010–2013) as a visiting assistant professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies However, it is primarily in the last two years that this book was revitalized through the generous support I received from the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) at Michigan State University The CAL Research Award I received in 2014 and the generous conference funding I received from MSU have been instrumental in helping me update my review of the literature and to refine my earlier analyses My work has benefitted immensely from open dialogue with my students at Michigan State University, particularly those enrolled in my graduate seminar (LLT vii viii Acknowledgments 855: Identity and Ideology in Multilingual Settings) and my research assistants, Sarut Supasiraprapa and Yaqiong Cui Jolanda Voogd and Helen van der Stelt at Springer showed much encouraging enthusiasm I thank them for their forbearance and understanding in seeing this book to print I thank my family and friends for the support and encouragement they have provided me over the long years of this project I had the privilege of having my parents, Augustine and Sally De Costa, believe in me from the start I am especially grateful to James Seals, who encouraged me to continue writing and to convert my thesis into a monograph Thanks for keeping it real for me As I work on the final revisions to this manuscript, it is only fitting that I wrap up this book project, which began exactly eight years ago, on a gorgeous winter morning in San Francisco Looking out at the Bay, I am reminded by Aihwa Ong’s work on Flexible Citizenship In many ways, I embody the designer immigrant whom I write about in this book Having spent my Christmas break in Singapore, I am relishing my brief stay here in California, a state that has always been welcoming of immigrants It’s been almost five years since I wrote the first full draft for my dissertation, with most of my writing done while looking out at a different bay in Monterey But now, as I look at the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, I think about my own Pacific shuttle and how blessed I am to be able to move back and forth between multiple worlds Without all of these people and places in my life, I would not have completed this book on mobility, which is as much mine as it is theirs January 2016 San Francisco Contents Foreign Talent and Singapore 1.1 Global Flow of Migrants 1.1.1 Designer Immigration: A Worldwide Phenomenon 1.1.2 Language as a Filtering Tool 1.2 Critically-Oriented Research on Model Minority and Immigrant Youth 1.3 Making the Case for Designer Immigrants 1.4 Overview of the Chapters References Reconceptualizing Language, Language Learning, and the Language Learner in the Age of Globalization 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Globalization and Educational Processes 2.3 Poststructuralism and SLA 2.4 Pierre Bourdieu and SLA 2.5 Consequences of Globalization and the Commodification of Languages 2.5.1 Language as Ideology, Semiotic Reconstruction, and Performance 2.5.2 Language Learning Through an Ideology and Identity Lens 2.5.3 Imagined Communities, Social Imaginaries, and Circulating Ideologies 2.5.4 Symbolic Competence and Enregistering the Globalized Language Learner References Researching, Analyzing, and Constructing the Data 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Critical Ethnographic Case Study Research Concerns 9 10 13 13 14 15 16 18 19 22 24 26 27 33 33 34 ix 158 The Designer Student Immigrant Complex: Its Impact on Learning Table 7.2 End of the year examination grades English Social studies Jenny 61 (B4) 75 (A1) Daniella 58 (C5) 60 (B4) Daphne 65 (B3) 66 (B3) A1 = 75 or higher, A2 = 70–74, B3 = 65–69, B4 = 60–64, C5 = 55–59, C6 = 50–54, D7 = 45–9, E8 = 40–44, F9 = 39 or lower process of utilizing the ‘scholar’ label to her own advantage, Jenny had come to embody the normative ‘scholar’ 7.3.10 Relating the Designer Student Immigrant Complex to Examination Performance In the final analysis, the different ways in which the three immigrant students negotiated the designer student immigrant complex ultimately influenced their academic performance at the end of the year: Jenny topped the class, Secondary 3C, in terms of overall academic performance; Daphne did better than average; and Daniella performed at an average level One may ask where language fits into this and, more importantly, how did the three designer immigrant students fare in their English language performance? To address this, I turn to their end-of-the-year examination performance in two subjects – English and Social Studies Their grades for Social Studies are highlighted because, next to English, this subject involved a high level of English usage, more so than any other subject The results of these three immigrant students are reflected in Table 7.2 Daphne ended up with the highest English grade (B3) among the three students A commendable grade, it was not, however, substantially better than the grade (B4) Jenny attained One needs to remember that unlike Daphne, who was seen as the strongest English student by Mdm Tay from the start, Jenny began the year by being the relative underdog Viewed in this light, Jenny can be seen as having made huge strides in her English language development, while Daphne appears to have plateaued Next, while Daniella’s grade (C5) was certainly above passing (C6) level, she had the weakest English score among the three students The different levels of English language development were also closely related to their performance in Social Studies Given that Social Studies examination questions required strong adherence to the expository genre, Jenny, who had demonstrated a strong ability to engage in literate talk, was able to translate that cultivated skill to a distinction grade (A1) for the subject By contrast, Daphne, who was generally the most fluent of the three students, only managed a B3 grade One possible reason underlying this is that she was more comfortable with the narrative genre than the expository genre Where Daniella was concerned, having limited access to engage in literate talk may have also impacted her final Social Studies grade Finally, the References 159 grades in Table 7.2 serve as an indicator of how differentiated negotiation of the prevailing ideologies subsequently diminished or enhanced access to using and learning English Such access ultimately shaped the learning trajectories of the three immigrant learners 7.4 Conclusion [I]deologies not win the day just like that, they are not simply picked up by popular wisdom and public opinion They are being reproduced by means of a variety of institutional, semi-institutional and everyday practice (Blommaert 1999, p 10) Blommaert (1999) reminds us that ideologies are reproduced through practice Applying his observation to this chapter, I illustrated how the standard English ideology and the other circulating ideologies, which constructed Daphne, Daniella, and Jenny as exemplary students, influenced how they positioned themselves and how they in turn were positioned by others An analysis of interview data and corroborating interaction and written data yielded the following key finding: the varied acts of positioning influenced by both language and circulating ideologies, which collectively formed the designer student immigration complex, worked in potent ways to ultimately influence not only their language learning experience but also their general learning outcomes References Agha, A (2007) Language and social relations Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bartlett, L (2007) Bilingual literacies, social identification, and educational trajectories Linguistics and Education, 18, 215–231 Bauman, R (2004) A world of others’ words: Cross-cultural perspectives on intertextuality Oxford: Blackwell Baynham, M., & De Fina, A (2005) Introduction: Dislocations/relocations: Narratives of displacement In M Baynham & A De Fina (Eds.), Dislocations/relocations: Narratives of displacement (pp 1–10) Manchester: St Jerome Publishing Blackledge, A (2006) The magical frontier between the dominant and the dominated: Sociolinguistics and social justice in a multilingual world Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 27, 22–41 Block, D (2008) On the appropriateness of the metaphor of loss In R Rubdy & P Tan (Eds.), Language as commodity: Global structures, local marketplaces (pp 187–203) London: Continuum Blommaert, J (1999) State ideology and language in Tanzania Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Blommaert, J (2005) Discourse Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Blommaert, J (2010) The sociolinguistics of globalization New York: Cambridge University Press Bourdieu, P (1977) The economics of linguistic exchanges Social Science Information, 16, 645–688 160 The Designer Student Immigrant Complex: Its Impact on Learning Bourdieu, P (1984) Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Bourdieu, P (1991) Language and symbolic power (trans: Raymond, G., & Adamson, M.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Campano, G (2007) Immigrant students and literacy: Reading, writing, and remembering New York: Teachers College Press Canagarajah, A S (2000) Negotiating ideologies through English: Strategies from the periphery In T Ricento (Ed.), Ideology, politics, and language policies: Focus on English (pp 107–120) Amsterdam: John Benjamins Clark, J B (2009) Multilingualism, citizenship and identity London: Continuum Clegg, J (1992) The cognitive value of literate talk in small-group classroom discourse Thames Valley Working Papers, 1, 1–22 Creese, A., Bhatt, A., Bhojani, N., & Martin, P (2006) Multicultural, heritage and learner identities in complementary schools Language and Education, 20, 23–43 Cummins, J (2000) Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire Clevedon: Multilingual Matters De Fina, A (2006) Group identity, narrative and self-representations In A De Fina, D Schriffin, & M Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity (pp 351–375) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Erickson, F (2001) Co-membership and wiggle room: Some implications of the study of talk for social theory In N Coupland, S Sarangi, & C Candlin (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and social theory (pp 217–234) London: Longman/Pearson Education Gal, S (1991) Between speech and silence: The problematics of research on language and gender In M di Leonardo (Ed.), Gender at the crossroads of knowledge: Feminist anthropology in the postmodern era (pp 175–203) Berkeley: University of California Press Goffman, E (1967) Interaction ritual: Essays in face-to-face behavior Garden City: Anchor Goffman, E (1981) Forms of talk Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press Gumperz, J (1982) Discourse strategies Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hall, S (1991) Ethnicity: Identity and difference Radical America, 23(4), 9–20 Hawkins, M (2005) Becoming a student: Identity work and academic literacies in early schooling TESOL Quarterly, 39(1), 59–85 Hymes, D H (1996) Ethnography, linguistics, narrative inequality: Toward an understanding of voice London: Taylor & Francis Kayi-Aydar, H (2014) Social positioning, participation, and second language learning: Talkative students in an academic ESL classroom TESOL Quarterly, 48(4), 686–714 Matsuda, A (2003) Incorporating world Englishes in teaching English as an international language TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 719–729 Miller, J (2003) Audible difference: ESL and social identity in schools Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Miller, E R (2009) Orienting to “being ordinary”: The (re)construction of hegemonic ideologies in interactions among adult immigrant learners of English Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 6, 315–344 Norton, B (2013) Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation Bristol: Multilingual Matters Peirce, B N (1995) Social identity, investment, and language learning TESOL Quarterly, 29, 9–31 Pennycook, A (2010) Language as a local practice New York: Routledge Rymes, B R., & Pash, D (2001) Questioning identity: The case of one second language learner Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 32(3), 276–300 Schultz, K (2009) Rethinking classroom participation: Listening to silent voices New York: Teachers College Press Seargeant, P (2009) The idea of English in Japan: Ideology and the evolution of a global language Buffalo: Multilingual Matters References 161 Silverstein, M (1979) Language structure and linguistic ideology In P Clyne, R Hanks, & C Hofbauer (Eds.), The elements: A parasession on linguistic units and levels (pp 193–247) Chicago: University of Chicago Talmy, S (2004) Forever FOB: The cultural production of ESL in a high school Pragmatics, 14(2–3), 149–172 Talmy, S (2008) The cultural production of the ESL student at Tradewinds High: Contingency, multidirectionality, and identity in L2 socialization Applied Linguistics, 29(4), 619–644 Toohey, K (2000) Learning English at school Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Wallace, C (2002) Local literacies and global literacy In D Block & D Cameron (Eds.), Globalization and language teaching (pp 101–114) London: Routledge Wortham, S (1994) Acting out participant examples in the classroom Amsterdam: John Benjamins Wortham, S (2006) Learning identity: The joint emergence of social identification and academic learning New York: Cambridge University Press Wortham, S., & Reyes, A (2015) Discourse analysis beyond the speech event New York: Routledge Wright, W (2015) Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.) Philadelphia: Caslon Young, R F (2009) Discursive practice in language learning and teaching Malden: Wiley-Blackwell Chapter Looking Back and Moving Forward Abstract In this concluding chapter, I recapitulate key points of interest raised in the preceding chapters In particular, I reiterate how unequal power relations ultimately affected language learning possibilities among marginalized individuals and emphasize the need to reconceptualize language learning through an ideology and identity lens Such an understanding, I point out, focuses on how learners engage in acts of discursive positioning in relation to language ideologies and circulating ideologies around them Following this overview of the book, I discuss implications of this study for second language acquisition (SLA) scholarship and emphasize how the findings are relevant to educators, researchers, and policy makers Directions for future SLA research are also discussed in order to expand our understanding of the dynamics of language learning Keywords SLA • Unequal power relations • Dynamics of language learning • Policy makers 8.1 Overview A central concern of this book has been the consideration of how unequal power relations ultimately affect language learning possibilities among marginalized individuals It is important to note that a poststructural framework leads researchers to problematize dimensions of truth, which in turn serve as a defense strategy against the ready-made identities offered by others (McNamara 2012) In the context of this study, this framework helped problematize the label of ‘scholar’ that had been assigned to designer immigrant students Also discussed was the need to reconceptualize language along ideological, semiotic and performative lines (De Costa 2010b) In taking this view of language, I foregrounded the usefulness of the construct of stylization as a means of examining how language is used and learned today among youth Correspondingly, a shift in how language is viewed had to be mated with a new understanding of language learning as conceived through an ideology and identity lens Such an understanding focuses on how learners engage in acts of discursive positioning in relation to language ideologies and circulating © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 P.I De Costa, The Power of Identity and Ideology in Language Learning, Multilingual Education 18, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30211-9_8 163 164 Looking Back and Moving Forward ideologies around them It is against this backdrop and Singapore’s linguistic landscape in which this study on designer student immigration was set As demonstrated throughout this book, the plight of my five designer immigrant students – Daphne, Daniella, Jenny, Wendy and Xandy – was further complicated by circulating ideologies in the national discourse on foreign “scholars” and at Oak Girls Secondary School that framed them as focused and hardworking students who were better and brighter than their Singaporean classmates, which in turn resulted in a designer immigrant student complex This complex in essence accounted for how circulating ideologies interacted with language ideologies to impact the language acquisition experience of these learners An examination of the language ideologies at Oak revealed that its official linguistic norms were defined by a language ideology that favored the use of standard English, while the unofficial linguistic norm favored the use of Singlish These conflicting ideologies were sustained through a tight language management policy and were made manifest in the spoken and written discourse produced by and surrounding my focal learners In slight contrast to Bucholtz and Hall’s (2004) observation that marked identities are ideologically associated with marked language, it became apparent that the marked identities of my designer immigrant students were also ideologically defined by unmarked language – standard English – that they were expected to produce This marking in turn resulted in my focal students reproducing Oak’s standard English monoglot ideology This reproduction, however, needed to be seen in relation to the investments of the immigrant students and how they were able to marshal their linguistic resources in ways to support their English language development Importantly, the combination of a standard English language ideology and the circulating ideologies that discursively constructed the immigrant students as high academic achievers also resulted in varying levels of impact on their language and general learning outcomes, thereby illustrating Cameron’s (2001, p.6) observation of the power of the academic institution “to things to them.” 8.2 Implications of the Study Beyond the immediate setting and population that are its main foci, this study contributes to the developing critical poststructuralist SLA research literature in L2 studies that examines the influence of unequal power relations in learning processes As Pavlenko (2002) notes, central to poststructuralism in L2 studies is the view of language as symbolic capital and the site of identity construction… and the view of L2 users as agents show multiple identities are dynamic and fluid … [These] theor[ies] allow us to examine how linguistic, social, cultural, gender, and ethnic identities of L2 users, on the one hand, structure access to linguistic resources and interactional opportunities and, on the other, are constituted and reconstitiuted in the process of L2 learning and use (p 285) 8.2 Implications of the Study 165 Indeed, while other researchers also have focused on the role of identity (e.g., Block 2006; Miller 2003; Norton 2000) and ideology (e.g., Bartlett 2007; Miller 2009) in the language learning process, this study is unique in analyzing language learning through an expanded ideological framework that acknowledges that language ideologies are constantly interacting with other ideologies By using such framework to examine how a group of immigrant students negotiated the language and circulating ideologies in their school, this study (a) contributes to what Blommaert (2005) has argued is a central need for research to explore the relationship between linguistic ideologies and other ideologies such as socio-political and cultural ideologies, and (b) is in line with Darvin and Norton’s (2015) call to examine the nexus of identity, ideology and capital when considering the investments of language learners In focusing on how my focal immigrant students were positioned at Oak and the collective impact that language and circulating ideologies had on their learning outcomes, this study extends and refines the extant literature regarding the role of ideology and identity in L2 learning Specifically, as the findings revealed, the circulating ‘scholar’ ideology in which they were framed was open to contestation by some of my focal learners Daphne and Daniella, for example, were critical of the steep expectations placed upon them Ironically, though, their desire to acquire standard English resulted in the reproduction of the very label they actively sought to resist In other words, in adopting the unmarked standard English variety, the markedness of their identity as ‘scholars’ ended up being heightened This notable contradiction merits further attention as it defies the canonical expectation that marked identities are ideologically associated with marked language (Bucholtz and Hall 2004) This study is also unique in that it puts forward the notion of a designer immigrant student complex, a complex that (1) I argued emerged as a result of the concerted pressures from the twin ideologies discussed earlier, and (2) builds upon Park’s (2009) Bourdieusian conceptualization of ideological complexes as habitus components that help construct dispositions An investigation of the dispositions of my immigrant participants and, in particular, of the effects of this complex revealed that a focus on learner affect is crucial because unfortunately, as Kramsch (2009) rightly laments, SLA researchers have paid “more attention to the processes of acquisition than to the flesh-and-blood individuals who are doing the learning” (p 2) The latter is necessary, Kramsch (2009) adds, because language for young language learners “is not just an unmotivated formal construct but a lived embodied reality” (p 4) Such a sobering call to take into consideration their embodied realities is also vital for two reasons First, and as the findings about the emotional distress encountered by Daniella and Daphne illustrated, it addresses the growing research on affect in SLA (e.g., Benesch 2012; De Costa 2015a, in press; Dewaele 2005; Garrett and Young 2009; Pavlenko 2005, 2013; Prior 2016; Swain 2013) Importantly, affect was inexorably linked with the embodied realities of these two immigrant students; after all, both girls agonized over learning English and their agony was inextricably linked with their discursive positioning as ‘scholars’ in interactions and in the large ‘scholar’ narrative Second, the notion of embodied realities is crucial as it allows us to engage in theoretical reconstruction by engaging 166 Looking Back and Moving Forward in comparative and historical analyses of learner participants (Cumming 2008) Admittedly, as Larsen-Freeman (2008) rightly pointed out in a symposium on theory in TESOL, “not all theories are broad and adaptable to transcend particular fields” (p 293) Indeed, I have not put forward a large and all-encompassing language theory in this study Rather, I have illustrated how an ethnographic exploration of the learning trajectories of my focal learners affords an intellectual springboard to interrogate current SLA theory This springboard stems from empirical longitudinal data that illuminated the emergent designer student immigrant complex Importantly, such a complex offers a major contribution to the field as it exemplifies the need for an expanded ideological framework to advance SLA research, a framework which also takes into account the reality that language learning outcomes are inevitably linked to general learning outcomes However, it is not just towards SLA research that this study hopes to contribute I would argue that my efforts at incorporating language ideologies with circulating ideologies are also highly compatible with recent calls in sociolinguistics to draw on social theory and “its own analytic resources, to develop much more differentiated and hence, arguably, better social theoretic accounts of structure and agency, through its analysis of local practices of talk” (Coupland 2001, p 16) On a broader level, the blending of ideologies and the investigation of linguistic stylization as demonstrated by my focal learners also enriches what Blommaert (2009) has described as “a sound sociolinguistics of globalization [which looks] not just look at the world and its languages, but also to the world and its registers, genres, repertoires and styles.” He goes on to add that we need to examine “language that is invested by real-world interests and language that matters to real people” (p 257) In light of these observations by Blommaert, this study contributes toward research on a sociolinguistics of globalization and language policy in several ways First, by shifting the focus toward the language learner and studying the investments made by my focal learners, I demonstrated the need to engage a crucial piece of the language policy puzzle which has long been overlooked In contrast to earlier language policy research which used language ideology as a guiding construct (e.g., McGroarty 2008; Wee 2006) to examine language ideologies on a national language policy level, this study explored how language ideologies were created on a discursive interpersonal level In other words, as we saw in this study, language ideologies are not only reflected in what people say but also refracted in their interactions with others In Jenny’s case, for instance, her situated beliefs about standard English which were articulated in interviews were also borne out in her interactions with others Next, by analyzing how my focal learners negotiated a standard English language ideology over the course of a school year, I illustrated the complexities they often encountered in learning a dominant language These complexities ran the gamut from Jenny’s successful enactment of the prevailing standard English ideology at Oak and Daniella’s limited success in fully engaging her Singaporean peers to Daphne’s willingness to embrace Singlish while interacting with her peers In styling themselves differently on a linguistic level, we also saw different bonds of solidarity established between the Singaporean students and their immigrant 8.3 Future Directions 167 counterparts This in turn has enlarged our sociolinguistic understanding of how interactions are played out against a backdrop characterized by a globalized flow of peoples, cultures, and ideas and where English is increasingly used as a lingua franca (De Costa 2012) Even though this study was situated in a Singapore school, its findings have universal implications for language policy and planning at the school, national and international level because the need to address a standard language ideology is a universal one After all, as Blommaert et al (2005) aptly remind us, different national and social contexts represent different regimes of language What is crucial, though, and as I have illustrated in this study, is that we (a) examine these regimes in ways that expose the myriad of political factors that shape the dynamics of language learning, and (b) recognize the fact that both students (De Costa 2010a) and teachers (García and Menken 2010) have the potential to be active language policymakers in their own right By examining the plight of designer immigrant students, this book also responds to calls for researchers to “study up” (Nader 1972) While some applied linguists such as Blommaert (2003) have pointed out that the existence of world-elites raises new issues of inequality in the face of globalization, my investigation of how scholarship students had to negotiate social challenges at Oak provides evidence for the need to reexamine such essentialist thinking Specifically, this study adds to the growing body of work on “model minorities” by troubling the designer immigrant student stereotype Admittedly, as a group, designer immigrant students are distinguished by the fact that they are (a) seen to possess a special form of cultural capital as mediated through their specialized skills, (b) selected on the basis of these skills, and (c) therefore expected to contribute towards the knowledge economy of their host countries While such characteristics help define designer immigrant students, one also needs to acknowledge that variability exists within this group of students It is such variability that needs to be explored, lest designer immigrant students be painted in overly broad brush strokes That more applied linguists are starting to examine the language learning experiences of a seemingly exclusive group of Asian students is evidenced in the work of Shin (2012) and Song (2010) Crucially, there is a compelling need to focus on the challenges encountered by Asian model minorities in light of the growing number of Asian and Asian American students who are perceived to be successful in countries such as the US (Briefing 2015; Pew Research Center 2012), where it is predicted that Asians will become the largest immigrant group within the next 30 years 8.3 Future Directions As I have discussed throughout this study, designer student immigrants represent an emergent population that has received little attention in L2 studies While the still developing L2 research literature at the K-12 level on model minority students in the United States appears to have slowed recently (but see Harklau 2000; McKay 168 Looking Back and Moving Forward and Wong 1996), by all indications, data on international migration trends at the tertiary level suggest that this is a population that continues to grow While earlier wars may have been fought over physical resources such as land and oil, current and future wars between nations may take the form of talent poaching Admittedly, this study is based in Singapore and examines a national talent recruitment policy through the eyes of five immigrant learners at the secondary school level However, one can predict that it is only a matter of time before other developed countries, faced with comparable declining populations and forced to recruit from abroad in order to maintain productivity levels, start to engage in similar recruitment exercises targeting pre-tertiary level students Future research will therefore look at designer immigrant students in other K-12 contexts beyond Singapore in the hope of finding new ways to better understand how languages are learned in a contemporary world characterized by transcultural flows (Back 2015; Pennycook 2007) Specifically, such research ought to be done in relation to wider social policy issues For example, in the Singapore context research needs be conducted on the effects of immigration policies Recent population data out of Singapore (SingStat 2015) revealed a reduced growth in the non-resident population, which may be attributed to the social tensions that emerged as a consequence of the government’s aggressive national recruitment strategy These social tensions that arise from reactions to immigration policies, however, are not particular to Singapore On a broader level, more applied linguistics research on ageing (e.g., Bialystok et al 2014; Ramanathan 2008; Van der Hoeven and de Bot 2012) should be conducted in conjunction with research on designer immigration because the latter is seen as a panacea to an ageing population Together, such a complementary approach to applied linguistics constitutes a commitment to the field’s enduring commitment to addressing and resolving language-based problems in the real world (Bygate 2005) As noted earlier, there has been a growing interest in affect in SLA In line with this research shift, I anticipate that more SLA researchers interested in identity will examine the relationship between emotions and identities, which is currently underexplored Commenting on this dearth in research, Lemke (2008) observed that, “traditional notions of identity elide the significant role of fear, desire, anger and other powerful feelings in shaping the forms of action” (p 23), adding and emphasizing the need to examine “how identities are grounded in embodied experience, fear, and desire” (p 41) Within the emotional (re)turn in SLA, one area that has received much attention of late is desire For example, the link between the individual and society and language desire was recently complexified by Motha and Lin (2014), who conceived of desire as a co-constructed and multilayered phenomenon, while also emphasizing the neoliberal impulses that shape English language learning Further, they argued that educators in TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) need to consider not only the desires of learners but also those of teachers, institutions, communities, and states or governments Desire is also the focus of Chowdhury and Phan (2014), who critique how the desire for international education has created convenient identities for international TESOL students Significantly, as these researchers remind us, desire (a) extends beyond the individual to include national and international domains, and (b) can be both inspiring 8.3 Future Directions 169 and oppressive Put differently, the desires of people, which “are disciplined … by the social conditions under which the subjects live” (Ibrahim 1999, p 352), warrant further investigation Based on the findings of this study, future researchers working with immigrant populations will also have to recognize the need for a reconceptualization of language along structuralist terms Building on developments in sociolinguisics and linguistic anthropology, I explored how my focal learners negotiated surrounding ideologies through linguistic stylization Such acts of stylization, I argued, contrasted with the notion of a standard language variety Moving forward, I foresee that emergent SLA and sociolinguistic research will take into consideration and develop a related construct put forward by Blommaert (2010) Making a distinction between English1 and English2, Blommaert notes that while the former is “an ideologically conceived homogeneous and idealized notion of ‘English-the-languageof-success’”, the latter encompasses a “dynamics of reappropriation, localization and relocalization in which an unattainable English1 is transformed into an attainable resource, [thereby] lowering the threshold of access while maintaining its status, appeal and perceived transferability into upward and outwards trajectories” (p 100) Such a construct represents (a) a departure the from standard/colloquial variety distinction in that it takes into account the linguistic investments of immigrant learners, and (b) a valid response to Avineri et al.’s (2015) call to recognize the wealth of linguistic resources that these economically and culturally diverse students bring to the classroom, while balancing their investments against the practical realities which they encounter Importantly, it helps to attenuate, but by no means dissolve, the unequal values accorded to the standard language variety as opposed to the local colloquial variety (Tupas 2015) My call for a reconstituted understanding of language is part of a larger social agenda for applied linguistic research to generate usable knowledge (Ortega 2005, 2012; Spada 2005) that (a) is directly relevant to K-12 educators and immigrant students, and (b) addresses the difficult circumstances, myriad pressures, and multiple challenges faced by them daily in real classrooms, with real consequences It is worthwhile to incorporate findings from studies such as this into pre- and inservice teacher education and professional development seminars so that the educational needs of these students may be more gainfully met One way to this would be to have teacher participants engage in individual case study analyses of learners such as Jenny, Daniella, and Daphne For example, teacher participants would be asked to examine how these case learners were positioned in the case study data and to analyze the different ideologies embedded in the data In order to this, guiding discussion questions would be provided Additionally, the teacher participants would be asked to reflect on the pedagogical implications that can be drawn from their analyses Conducting such seminars not only forges closer connections between schools and universities but also fosters the conduct of ethical research because research findings ought to be shared with a more diverse set of people, not just members of the academy (De Costa 2015b) Put differently, future research needs to acknowledge the considerable resources that teachers and researchers have to offer as they work collaboratively to formulate research agendas of mutual 170 Looking Back and Moving Forward interest and benefit These collaborations will help extend our understanding of the learning trajectories of adolescent designer immigrant language learners whose experiences have not been fully recognized, much less studied, in contemporary applied linguistics research References Avineri, N., et al (2015) Invited forum: Bridging the “Language Gap” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 25, 66–86 Back, M (2015) Transcultural performance: Negotiating globalized indigenous identities Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Bartlett, L (2007) Bilingual literacies, social identification, and educational trajectories Linguistics and Education, 18, 215–231 Benesch, S (2012) Considering emotions in critical English language teaching: Theories and praxis New York: Routledge Bialystok, E., Poarch, G., Luo, L., & Craik, F I M (2014) Effects of bilingualism and aging on executive function and working memory Psychology and Aging, 29, 696–705 Block, D (2006) Identity in applied linguistics In T Omoniyi & G White (Eds.), The sociolinguistics of identity (pp 34–49) London: Continuum Blommaert, J (2003) Commentary: A sociolinguistics of globalization Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 607–623 Blommaert, J (2005) Discourse Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Blommaert, J (2009) A market of accents Language Policy, 8, 243–259 Blommaert, J (2010) The sociolinguistics of globalization New York: Cambridge University Press Blommaert, J., Collins, J., & Slembrouck, S (2005) Spaces of multilingualism Language & Communication, 25(3), 197–216 Briefing (2015, October 3) Asian-Americans: The model minority is losing patience The Economist Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21669595-asian-americans-areunited-states-most-successful-minority-they-are-complaining-ever Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K (2004) Language and identity In A Duranti (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp 369–394) Malden: Blackwell Bygate, M (2005) Applied linguistics: A pragmatic discipline, a generic discipline? Applied Linguistics, 26(4), 568–581 Cameron, D (2001) Working with spoken discourse London: Sage Chowdhury, R., & Phan, L H (2014) Desiring TESOL and international education Buffalo: Multilingual Matters Coupland, N (2001) Introduction: Sociolinguistic theory and social theory In N Coupland, S Sarangi, & C Candlin (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and social theory (pp 1–26) Harlow: Longman Cumming, A (2008) Theory in an applied field TESOL Quarterly, 42(2), 285–291 Darvin, R., & Norton, B (2015) Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36–56 De Costa, P I (2010a) Language ideologies and standard English language policy in Singapore: Responses of a “designer immigrant” student Language Policy, 9(3), 217–239 De Costa, P I (2010b) Reconceptualizing language, language learning, and the adolescent immigrant language learner in the age of postmodern globalization Linguistics and Language Compass, 3(1), 1–12 References 171 De Costa, P I (2012) Constructing SLA differently: The value of ELF and language ideology in an ASEAN case study International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 22, 205–224 De Costa, P I (2015a) Re-envisioning language anxiety in the globalized classroom through a social imaginary lens Language Learning, 65(3), 504–532 De Costa, P I (2015b) Ethics in applied linguistics research In B Paltridge & A Phakiti (Eds.), Research methods in applied linguistics: A practical resource (pp 245–257) London: Bloomsbury De Costa, P I (in press) Scaling emotions and identification: Insights from a scholarship student Linguistics and education [Special issue on scalar approaches to language learning and teaching] Dewaele, J M (2005) Investigating the psychological and emotional dimensions in instructed language learning: Obstacles and possibilities The Modern Language Journal, 89, 367–380 García, O., & Menken, K (2010) Moving forward: Ten guiding principles for teachers In K Menken & O García (Eds.), Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers (pp 249–261) New York: Routledge Garrett, P., & Young, R F (2009) Theorizing affect in foreign language learning: An analysis of one learner’s responses to a communicative-based Portuguese course The Modern Language Journal, 93(2), 209–226 Harklau, L (2000) From the “Good Kids” to the “Worst”: Representations of English language learners across educational settings TESOL Quarterly, 34(1), 35–67 Ibrahim, A E K M (1999) Becoming black: Rap and hip-hop, race, gender, identity, and the politics of ESL learning TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 349–369 Kramsch, C (2009) The multilingual subject Oxford: Oxford University Press Larsen-Freeman, D (2008) Does TESOL share theories with other disciplines? TESOL Quarterly, 42(2), 291–293 Lemke, J (2008) Identity, development, and desire: Critical questions In C Caldas-Coulthard & R Iedema (Eds.), Identity trouble: Critical discourse and contestations of identification (pp 17–42) London: Palgrave Macmillan McGroarty, M (2008) The political matrix of linguistic ideologies In B Spolsky & F Hult (Eds.), Handbook of educational linguistics (pp 98–112) Malden: Blackwell McKay, S L., & Wong, C S (1996) Multiple discourses, multiple identities: Investment and agency in second-language learning among Chinese adolescent immigrant students Harvard Educational Review, 66(3), 577–608 McNamara, T (2012) Poststructuralism and its challenges for applied linguistics Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 473–482 Miller, J (2003) Audible difference: ESL and social identity in schools Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Miller, E R (2009) Orienting to “being ordinary”: The (re)construction of hegemonic ideologies in interactions among adult immigrant learners of English Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 6, 315–344 Motha, S., & Lin, A M Y (2014) “Non-coercive rearrangements”: Theorizing desire TESOL Quarterly, 48, 331–359 Nader, L (1972) Up the anthropologist: Perspectives gained from studying up In D Hymes (Ed.), Reinventing anthropology (pp 284–311) New York: Pantheon Books Norton, B (2000) Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change New York: Longman Ortega, L (2005) For what and for whom is our research? The ethical as transformative lens in instructed SLA The Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 427–443 Ortega, L (2012) Epistemological diversity and moral ends of research in instructed SLA Language Teaching Research, 16(2), 206–226 Park, J S.-Y (2009) The local construction of a global language: Ideologies of English in South Korea Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter 172 Looking Back and Moving Forward Pavlenko, A (2002) Poststructuralist approaches to the study of social factors in second language learning and use In V Cook (Ed.), Portraits of the L2 user (pp 277–302) Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Pavlenko, A (2005) Emotions and multilingualism Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Pavlenko, A (2013) The affective turn in SLA: From ‘affective factors’ to language desire’ and ‘commodification of affect’ In D Garbyś & J Bielska (Eds.), The affective dimension in second language acquisition (pp 3–28) Tonawanda: Multilingual Matters Pennycook, A (2007) Global Englishes and transcultural flows New York: Routledge Pew Research Center (2012, June 12) The rise of Asian Americans Retrieved from http://www pewsocialtrends.org/2012/06/19/the-rise-of-asian-americans/ Prior, M T (2016) Emotion and discourse in L2 narrative research Buffalo: Multilingual Matters Ramanathan, V (2008) Applied linguistics redux: A Derridean analysis of Alzheimer life histories Applied Linguistics, 29(1), 1–23 Shin, H (2012) From FOB to cool: Transnational migrant students in Toronto and the styling of global linguistic capital Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16(2), 184–200 Singapore Department of Statistics (Singstat) (2015) Yearbook of statistics, Singapore Retrieved from https://www.singstat.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-documentlibrary/publications/ publications_and_papers/reference/yearbook_2015/yos2015.pdf Song, J (2010) Language ideology and identity in transnational space: Globalization, migration, and bilingualism among Korean families in the USA International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13(1), 23–42 Spada, N (2005) Conditions and challenges in developing school-based SLA research paradigms The Modern Language Journal, 89(3), 328–338 Swain, M (2013) The inseparability of cognition and emotion in second language learning Language Teaching, 46(2), 195–207 Tupas, R (Ed.) (2015) Unequal Englishes: The politics of Englishes today Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Van der Hoeven, N., & de Bot, K (2012) Relearning in the elderly: Age-related effects on the size of savings Language Learning, 62(1), 42–67 Wee, L (2006) The semiotics of language ideologies in Singapore Journal of Sociolinguistics, 10(3), 344–361 Appendix Transcription Conventions … ? , (xxx) Indicates a brief pause A period indicates falling pitch A question mark indicates rising pitch, not necessarily a question A comma indicates continuing intonation A hyphen indicates an abrupt cut-off of utterance Remark by transcriber © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 P.I De Costa, The Power of Identity and Ideology in Language Learning, Multilingual Education 18, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30211-9 173 ... Reconceptualizing Language, Language Learning, and the Language Learner in the Age of Globalization Abstract This chapter considers how education in general and language learning in particular... Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Journal of Asia Pacific Communication, Language Learning, Language Policy, Language Teaching, Linguistics and Education,... Keywords Language learning • Designer immigrants • Identity • Ideology • Migration • Singapore • Social engineering © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 P.I De Costa, The Power of Identity