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date: 19 April 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This article briefly reviews an increasingly large body of research that seeks to understand the relationship between language-learner identities and their sociocultural worlds. Rather than seeing learner identities as developed individually and as expressive of the essence of individuals, current identity theorists have argued that identities are complex, multilayered, often hybrid, sometimes imagined, and developed through activity by and for individuals in many social fields. This complex notion of selves has been accompanied by a great deal of recent research on language and learning, drawing primarily on postmodern and poststructuralist theories. It begins with a consideration of current understandings of these fundamental concepts, and then reviews some of the foundational studies, before focusing on more recent research on identity and language learning. This is an exciting field that is stimulating many researchers and much debate. It is being informed in diverse ways by work in anthropology, sociology, postcolonial and cultural studies, and education.

Keywords: identities, language learner identities, language learning, foundational studies, anthropology, sociology, postcolonial, cultural studies

Kelleen Toohey

Kelleen Toohey is professor in the faculty of education at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her current research examines literacy instruction and learning in child English language learners' classrooms. Recent publications include Learning English at School: Identity, Social Relations and Classroom Practice, Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (with B. Norton). She is coauthor of Collaborative Research in Multilingual Classrooms (with C. Denos, K. Neilson, and B. Waterstone). She can be contacted at http://toohey@sfu.ca.

Bonny Norton

Bonny Norton is professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. She is also visiting senior research fellow in the Department of Education, King's College, University of London, and honorary professor in the School of Education, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her award-winning research addresses identity and language learning, education and international development, and critical literacy. Recent publications include Identity and Language Learning, Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (with K. Toohey), and Gender and English Language Learners (with A. Pavlenko). She is currently coediting a Multilingual Matters book series, Critical Language and Literacy Studies (with several others). In 2003, she was awarded a UBC Killam Prize for Excellence in Teaching and in 2007 a UBC Killam Prize for Excellence in Research. Her website can be found at http://lerc.educ.ubc.ca/fac/norton/, and she can be contacted at bonny.norton@ubc.ca.

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