Identity & Language

genevieve patthey-chavez (ggpcinla who-is-at yahoo.com)
Mon, 20 Sep 1999 19:12:07 -0700 (PDT)

Hello Victoria,

Check out Elinor Ochs' 1992 article, 'Indexing gender,' in A. Duranti &
C. Goodwin, _Rethinking Context: Language as an interactive
phenomenon_, New York, Cambridge. (I recommend the rest of that
volume, while we're at it!) In that article, Ochs develops links
between gender, socialization, language, status, through the construct
of constitutive indexicality. Fairclough and other critical discourse
analysts use that same construct. In a nutshell, human interactions
always realize multiple functions, among them the communication &
(re)production of identities through the association of specific
language features with roles & routines. Human beings are masters at
adjusting their language choices to display different identities,
though of course repertoires have to be developed with time and
practice, and critically, with access to target language practices &
routines.

A couple more recommendations: Deborah Poole, 1992, 'Language
socialization in the second language classroom.' _Language Learning._
42, 593-616.

Deborah Poole, 1994, 'Differentiation as an interactional consequence
of routine classroom testing.' _Intl Journal of Qualitative Studies in
Education_, 7(1), 1-17.

Margerie Orellana has worked on the interplay between language, gender,
choice, classroom rituals, literacy ... but I don't have the relevant
(Reading Research Quarterly???) reference. Sorry!

regards, Genevieve
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