In Norton’s article about social identity and language learning, I found the section featuring Eva’s language acquisition to be particularly eye opening. I thought it was interesting that just because Eva was unfamiliar with Bart Simpson that she would might be portrayed as a “poor language learner who has not developed sociolinguistic competence”. I know plenty of people who don’t watch television, or chose to avoid such unappetizing shows like The Simpsons who are completely fluent in English and have been raised in America all their life. It then made me wonder how much of another culture must be known in order to call yourself “literate” or identify yourself with another language. Also it made me wonder why it should be more important in a social environment to be familiar with a cartoon character while being knowledgeable about politics and discussing important topics is often considered taboo?
I feel this ties in nicely with how Hall describes his theory on the second layer of group membership because when associating oneself among certain social institutions it sets in place how one decides to cope with their given first layer. Perhaps if Eva had been in a different environment she would not have been judged so harshly for not knowing the reference but it was clear that Norton still felt she may continue to struggle when interacting with members of her target language. I think that it is difficult to identify oneself in their own first language thus making it even more challenging when trying to find the appropriate place with members of a separate culture.
When Hall touches on the idea of socialization and our expectations as interlocutors going into a conversation it made me stop to reflect how often this idea repeats itself on a day to day basis. What do I look for in a conversation and what makes one conversation with someone of a certain identity more appealing and likely for repetition? It’s clear that the friends I surround myself with have similar discourse expectations or else I would find myself dreading the idea of sharing my experiences, but at what point do you realize a similar identity? This whole idea was very interesting for me and it made me wonder how my conversations were received when I was in Spain and using a completely different language. Since I rely heavily on sarcasm when trying to have a light hearted conversation, I had to evaluate my conversations after I had them to make sure that nothing I said was taken in the wrong way or misunderstood.
I thought that Norton’s study of the immigrant women was a great example of his quote “learning cannot proceed without exposure and practice.” I am a fond believer of this idea because without using the language and being surrounded by an environment that encourages its use, it will be increasingly difficult to get a substantial grasp on all levels of the language acquisition. This universal idea can be applied to all content areas really because without exposure and practice of whatever skill that is in the process of being developed its unlikely to thrive to its maximum potential. I had never felt more confident in my Spanish then when I was surrounded by others who spoke the language in Spain, and was pushed everyday to try something new and foreign.
All in all, I feel that the reading materials about identity and language once again made me reevaluate my own beliefs and thoughts and reflect on how I am using these ideas on a day to day basis without really even noticing it.
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