“Disinvestment” in Learners’ Multilingual Identities: English Learning, Imagined Identities, and Neoliberal Subjecthood in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Most recent research on language learning and identity emphasizes on investing learners’ capital as affordance to affirm their identities (Darvin & Norton, 2015; Norton, 2013). Learners’ capital refers to prior knowledge, home literacies/native languages. Drawing on data from English language academies from Pakistan, this study finds a conflicting picture to the one advocated in the investment model. Gripped by the “deficit ideology,” teachers and students tend to “disinvest” in the native languages. Analyzing data through the conceptual lenses of “Neoliberal Governmentality” and “Linguistic Entrepreneurship,” we find that “enterprise culture” governs learners’ mode of investment. It reflects in their construction of English learning as a form of entrepreneurship, celebrating competition, self-entrepreneurship, and relentless self-improvement. Given the “disinvestment” tendency, the current investment model seems to overlook the power-driven linguistic hierarchies, and linguistic inequalities that may hamper the use of such capital. The paper discusses decolonial pedagogy as an alternative to current ELT.

KEYWORDS:

• Disinvestment
• imagined identity
• investment
• linguistic entrepreneurship
• neoliberal governmentality

Acknowledgement

We sincerely thank all the teachers and students who kindly participated in this study. We truly value their insights. Moreover, special thanks to all those friends/colleagues who extended their valuable support as facilitators in conducting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Syed Abdul Manan

Syed Abdul Manan holds a PhD degree in Applied Linguistics. He presently serves as Associate Professor in the Multilingual Education Program in the Graduate School of Education Nazarbayev University Nur-Sultan (Astana) Kazakhstan. His work on sociolinguistics, language policy & planning, Bi/multilingual Education, World Englishes, and linguistic landscape has been published in several impact factor journals.

Anas Hajar

Anas Hajar is a graduate of Warwick University, holding a PhD in Language Education. He is currently an Associate Professor of Multilingual Education and the PhD Program Director at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. He is particularly interested in motivational issues in language learning and intercultural engagement. Previously, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong SAR.