Blog Post #2: Culture + Language + Self-Identity = ?

This week, Aneta Pavlenko’s article, “‘The Making of an American’: Negotiation of the Identities at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” outlines the differences between American immigrant narratives during the Great Migration (1880-1924) and current times. Pavlenko examines sociohistoric circumstances that affect these narratives and draws connections among identity, assimilation, Americanization, and English as a cultural carrier.

As I read this article, I was struck by the power of language to define and “otherize” speakers of different languages, as well as influence them. Language, a powerful cultural carrier, shaped the personal and national identities of immigrants. In the case of American English, English transformed from a language of national unity used to help immigrants assimilate to American life to a language that now entails that new English speakers in the U.S. must lose significant parts of their identities associated with their native languages and cultures. In other words, English in contemporary America implies that the idea of monolingualism is part of America’s national identity. This article reminded me of my grandmother, who was a first-generation American. Her parents, who immigrated from Sweden in the late 1800s, often spoke Swedish at home, yet they forced their children to speak English. As a result, my grandmother could understand several Swedish expressions, but she never developed any fluency in speaking the language. She and her parents viewed speaking English as an essential part of becoming American, and even today, she mentions her dad’s fluent English ability with pride. English was not only practical for conducting daily life in America, but it also became a status symbol, similar to the immigrant narratives described in Pavlenko’s article. However, I can’t help but think that a significant part of a person’s heritage is lost with the rejection of his or her native language. Language is a link to previous generations and can form an important part of someone’s personal or community identity. This history leads me to question how we teach English in an American-based ESL context today. What are some practical ways that we, as educators, can teach our students to utilize the power of English without rejecting their other cultural and linguistic heritages?

Holliday et al. also examine the role that culture can play in self-identity. The authors believe that people create and negotiate personal and cultural identity through communication, so we must view a person’s identity according to “thick description—seeing the complexity of a social event by looking at it from different aspects” (9). In addition, this non-essentialist perspective requires individuals to carefully consider their choices in the “cultural supermarket” in order to “attain maximum…credibility” (99). Identity, culture, and behavior are all interrelated. Because of the complexity of this relationship, I believe that we, as teachers, need to be careful to not only see our students as individuals, but also to see them as part of a social network in which they are using cultural elements in order to influence how they (and others) view themselves. Students may choose to assimilate to or deviate from social norms, depending on their own sense of identity. Thinking about the various elements that go into one’s self-identity can seem overwhelming, so I think it is important to make sure that students realize that their identities are always changing. Our classroom environments should provide places where they feel free to express themselves authentically, experiment, and ask questions.