“You are different and not mainstream”: An Emotion-Based Case Study of Two South Asian English Language Learners

ABSTRACT

A limited ability to pursue postsecondary education often leaves English language learners (ELLs) with a gamut of negative emotional experiences. Using an emotionally oriented framework to guide our study, this article focuses on the experiences of two female South Asian students who graduated from different U.S. high schools. We explored what emotions they encountered during their college preparation process and what factors shaped such emotions. Findings from our in-depth interviews revealed that our participants encountered negative emotions such as worry, discouragement, indignation, envy, confusion, and intimidation that were related to their ELL identity. We also demonstrate that it is not only their limited proficiency in English that hinders the ELLs from attending four-year colleges but also their families’ economic status, a lack of awareness of college preparation courses, and a lack of assistance with their test preparation that contribute to the emergence of negative emotions.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotions
• English language learners
• postsecondary education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Universalists maintain that there is an innate universal framework to acquire languages.

² Relativists contend that language acquisition is a relative concept, and therefore, speakers of different languages have different views on reality based on their languages.

³ According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in fall 2014, approximately 7.3 million undergraduate students were enrolled in community colleges (AACC, 2016).

⁴ Malala is a female Pakistani education activist and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize Laureate.

⁵ Although we interviewed Ala in English, she used the Urdu terms Ammi and Abba to refer to her mother and father respectively. She said that she did so because she felt more comfortable using those terms and also because the interviewer (Author 1) would understand what she was saying due to the latter’s knowledge of Urdu.