Identity Formation in Globalizing Contexts

The series contributes to the development of promising new approaches to the sociolinguistic, sociohistorical and linguistic anthropological study of social issues that centrally involve language. In particular, while still addressing the fundamental insights gleaned from variationist studies, foremost among which is the open-ended, heterogeneous nature of human language in all its varieties, it focuses on new, data-driven methodologies, quantitative and qualitative, in the social and cultural study of language that go beyond the more traditional concerns of sociolinguistics (for example, social networks, communities of practice, global population movements, the historical and present-day significance of demography for situations of language contact, the spatial dimensions of language, language and ideology, new dialect formation, historical sociolinguistics). The series includes monographs as well as edited volumes.

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The volume explores how new millennium globalization mediates language learning and identity construction. It seeks to theorize how global flows are creating new identity options for language learners, and to consider the implications for language learning, teaching and use. To frame the chapters theoretically, the volume asserts that new identities are developing because of the increasingly interconnected set of global scapes which impact language learners' lives. Part 1 focuses on language learners in (trans)national contexts, exploring their identity formation when they shuttle between cultures and when they create new communities of fellow transnationals. Part 2 examines how learners come to develop intercultural selves as a consequence of experiencing global contact zones when they sojourn to new contexts for study and work. Part 3 investigates how learners construct new identities in the mediascapes of popular culture and cyberspace, where they not only consume, but also produce new, globalized identities. Through case studies, narrative analysis, and ethnography, the volume examines identity construction among learners of English, French, Japanese, and Swahili in Canada, England, France, Hong Kong, Tanzania, and the United States.