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SUMMARY:Identity Problems - Professor David Block\, Institute of Education
 \, London
DTSTART:20100614T160000Z
DTEND:20100614T173000Z
UID:TALK21291@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ewa Illakowicz
DESCRIPTION:Over the past 40 years\, identity has moved to centre stage in
  the social sciences in general and applied linguistics in particular as t
 he construct has been taken up with enthusiasm by a good number of researc
 hers working in linguistic anthropology\, sociolinguistics and second lang
 uage learning. As a consequence\, there have been a good number of books 
 – both collections and monographs – which have put identity at the cen
 tre of discussions about language learning and use in studies focusing on 
 bi- and multilingualism in educational contexts (e.g. Blackeldge and Crees
 e\, 2009\; Creese\, 2005\; Hadi-Tabussen\, 2006\; Heller\, 1999\, 2006\; M
 iller\, 2003) and naturalistic contexts (e.g. Block\, 2006\; Joseph\, 2004
 \; Nic Craith\, 2007\; Norton\, 2000\; Pavlenko & Blackledge\, 2004) . \n\
 nMy aim in this paper is not to rehearse exhaustively the findings and arg
 uments of these and other publications\, but to identify and discuss what 
 I see as problematic aspects of contemporary applied linguistics research 
 in which identity is central and a key construct. To this end\, I present 
 four aspects of identity research in applied linguistics which I think are
  problematic and therefore worthy of further and more in-depth exploration
  by future researchers. These aspects are: (1) the term ‘identity’ its
 elf and how it might be distinguished from ‘subjectivity’\; (2) the te
 nsion between structure and agency in much identity research and how it mi
 ght be addressed\; (3) the prospect of a psychologically-inspired approach
  to identity to complement the already dominant social orientation\; and (
 4) the need for more economically and class based orientations to identity
  (as opposed to the exclusively culture-based ones that predominate at pre
 sent). I will devote considerably more time to the last of these\, given m
 y current thinking about identity. 
LOCATION:Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, room GS5
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