Language and Culture

This state-of-the-art exploration of language, culture, and identity is orchestrated through prominent scholars' and teachers' narratives, each weaving together three elements: a personal account based on one or more memorable or critical incidents that occurred in the course of learning or using a second or foreign language; an interpretation of the incidents highlighting their impact in terms of culture, identity, and language; the connections between the experiences and observations of the author and existing literature on language, culture and identity. What makes this book stand out is the way in which authors meld traditional 'academic' approaches to inquiry with their own personalized voices. This opens a window on different ways of viewing and doing research in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. What gives the book its power is the compelling nature of the narratives themselves. Telling stories is a fundamental way of representing and making sense of the human condition. These stories unpack, in an accessible but rigorous fashion, complex socio-cultural constructs of culture, identity, the self and other, and reflexivity, and offer a way into these constructs for teachers, teachers in preparation and neophyte researchers. Contributors from around the world give the book broad and international appeal.

David Nunan is Vice President for Academic Affairs at Anaheim University, California, Emeritus Professor at the University of Hong Kong, Professor in Education at the University of NSW, and Senior Academic Advisor to Global English Corporation in San Francisco. Julia Choi is Teaching and Research Assistant in the Faculty of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Foreword Bonny Norton Preface David Nunan & Julie Choi Acknowledgments 1 Language, culture and identity: Framing the issues David Nunan & Julie Choi 2 Coat hangers, cowboys, and communication strategies: Seeking an identity as a proficient foreign language learner Kathleen Bailey 3 Speaking Romance-esque David Block 4 - Collaborating on community, sharing experience, troubling the symbolic Michael Brennan 5 Achieving community Suresh Canagarajah 6 Another drink in Subanun Mark Cherry 7 Nonghao, I am a Shanghai noenoe: How do I claim my Shanghaineseness? Alice Chik 8 Living on the hyphen Julie Choi 9 Negotiating multiple language identities Mary Ann Christison 10 Minna no Nihongo? Nai! Martha Clark Cummings 11 Elaborating the monolingual deficit Julian Edge 12 The foreign-ness of native speaking teachers of colour Eljee Javier 13 Otra estaciòn - a first Spanish lesson Rod Ellis 14 Bewitched: A microethnography of the culture of Majick in Old Salem Bud Goodall 15 Am I that name? Stacy Holman-Jones 16 English and me: My language learning journey Angel Lin 17 Adaptive cultural transformation: Quest for dual social identities Jun Liu 18 On this writing: An autotheoretic account Allen Luke 19 Changing cultures and identities in bicultural names: From parents to children Steve Marshall and Tim Mossman 20 The festival incident Michael McCarthy 21 Berlin Babylon Stephen Muecke 22 Changing stripes-chameleon or tiger? Denise Murray 23 Vanishing Acts Cynthia D. Nelson 24 Dog Rice and Cultural Dissonance David Nunan 25 'Where am I from': Performative and metro perspectives of origin Emi Otsuji 26 Sweating cheese and thinking otherwise Alastair Pennycook 27 Multilingual couple talk Kimie Takahashi 28 Transforming identities in and through narrative Sumiko Taniguchi 29 A short course in Globalese Nury Vittachi Afterword Claire Kramsch