Language Learning and Identity Development. A Narrative Analysis on Linguistic Autobiography
Language Learning and Identity Development. A Narrative Analysis on Linguistic Autobiography

Summary/Abstract: Drawing on the theory of identity development through language learning, this paper aims to apply a narrative approach to an autobiography of a language learner in order to highlight the manner in which memories related to language acquisition (be it rooted in family experiences, school context or cultural encounters) trigger an identity transformation. In other words, the narrative analysis developed in this paper tries to explore the link between how foreign languages are learned and the kind of person the learner is becoming through the act of learning. We are particularly interested in the linguistic means that indicate the identity development while learning foreign languages. The paper entails a double perspective on the term narrative: as method of analysis (looking at how the story is constructed) and as genre (the linguistic autobiography being, in fact, a narrative self-reflection). Thus, the paper suggests a research with narrative means on a narrative piece of writing.

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