Authoring the dialogic self : gender, agency and language practices / Gergana Vitanova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vitanova, Gergana.

Series:

Dialogue studies ; 8.

Dialogue studies ; 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dialogue analysis.

Oral communication.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (183 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub. Co., 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers a truly interdisciplinary perspective on key socio-cultural aspects of second language learning. Building on Bakhtin's philosophy of language and the self, it examines the complex intersections among gender, culture, and agency in the everyday discursive practices of immigrants. Bakhtin's dialogic framework still remains on the periphery of second language acquisition research. The book embraces not only Bakhtin's well-known notion of dialogue but also his core concepts of responsibility and ethics in the analysis of immigrants' narrative samples. The significance of narratives is underscored throughout the book, and a dialogic, discourse-centered approach to narrative as a genre is suggested. Authoring the Dialogical Self targets a range of disciplines. Scholars in applied linguistics, narrative studies, cultural psychology, and communication studies will find the discussed concepts relevant. The rich data samples and detailed analysis make the book appropriate for graduate courses in TESOL, language and identity, or language and gender.

Contents:

Authoring the Dialogic Self

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Introduction

About the structure of this book

1. Language, consciousness, and dialogical selves

1.1 Overview of Bakhtin's framework

1.2 A dialogic approach to language and the self

1.3 Why narratives? Why Bakhtin?

2. Introducing the participants and the setting of qualitative inquiry

2.1 The participants

2.2 Collection of narrative examples

3. Positionings in the second language

3.1 "I am like in the kindergarten": In the discourse of silence

3.2 "Sometimes people don't like immigrants": Othering language practices

3.3 "He cannot do anything because he has no language": English as a source of positioning

3.4 "I was afraid": Gender and the discourse of emotion

4. Gender, language learning, and discursive practices

4.1 Dialogue, situated ethics, and responsibility

4.2 Discourses about language learning and accuracy

4.3 Metalinguistic discourses

4.4 Gendered discourses of linguistic expertise

4.5 "Because I feel a responsibility": Discourses of responsibility, second language use, and gend

4.6 Gender and discourse in culture

5. Between the self and the Other

5.1 "Americans are very different"

5.2 "When I communicate, I live" (Kogda ya obshayus', ya jivu)

5.3 "Bol'naya tema": Culture and the languaged self

5.4 Gendered zones of dialogical selves

6. Acts of agency in a new language

6.1 Authoring selves, acts, and discourses in a dialogical world

6.2 Reflexive awareness and responsive understanding

6.3 Responsive understanding and discourses of education and values

6.4 Creativity in answerability

6.5 Resistance as an act of agency

Afterword

Legend of transcription symbols in narrative excerpts

References

Index

The series Dialogue Studies.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612721649

9781282721647

128272164X

9789027287991

9027287996

OCLC:

663885669