The Languages We Choose to Speak: Speaker Agency, Proficiency and the Implications for English Classrooms

ABSTRACT

Using autobiographical experiences as a framework for inquiry, this article sets out to question the often unexamined assumptions that surround the definition of ‘proficiency’ in second/foreign languages. In so doing, it opens up possibilities of inquiry into the power-laden relationships between speaker agency, cultural belonging and self-expression that are equally relevant to intra-linguistic contexts. Recasting our linguistic identities as performative acts that respond to a number of personal and social agendas, the article concludes by considering some general implications of speaker agency and the emotional stakes inherent in language use for the teacher of English in the multilingual classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Language
• identity
• agency
• ESL
• multilingualism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. An account of how this spectacular case of ‘fake quote’ came into being would deserve a language autobiography of its own. [My translation.]

2. Given the indissoluble links between language, culture and society, a substantial part of the vast body of work that has sought to unveil and critique the intricate web of power relations and inequalities governing social exchanges from the standpoints of gender and sexuality has inevitably touched upon issues of language and language use. Here, therefore, I limit myself to a small number of suggestions (some in the field of linguistics and some dealing more widely with culture) as mere places to start. For authors who have focused on the relationship between language and gender, see Lakoff (1975, 2000) and Cameron (2006, 2007). For notable critiques of access to language (or lack thereof) in the field of queer studies, see Sedgwick (1990) and Koch (2007). For a closer look at the intersection between language use and transgender identities, see Prosser (1998) and Stryker (2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabrielle Basso Ricci

Gabrielle Basso Ricci completed her Secondary English PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) at the Institute of Education, UCL, in June 2018. Her academic background is in modern languages, literary translation and, more recently, gender studies. She has written on issues of language use in relation to identity within gender and sexual minorities and she has a longstanding interest in the intersections between gender, life writing, and the role of narratives in learning and wider life.