This qualitative case study describes the language learning experiences of four South Asian women from their perspectives and uses tools of ethnographic inquiry such as interviews, participant observations and document analysis. The socio-cultural factors affecting their language learning process and acculturation are analyzed. Key elements of the lived experiences of these South Asian females surfacing in the case study data are isolation and gender inequity. Socio-cultural identity emerges as a very influential factor in the language learning process. I understand this identity as socially constructed, contradictory, and fluid. Peirce's poststructuralist conception of social identity as multiple, a site of struggle, and subject to change is used in the theoretical framework. Her concept of "investment" is employed to describe immigrant women's involvement in the language learning process. An umbrella category termed the "weight of society" is used to explain the influences of socio-cultural norms on the language learning processes of the four research participants. Implications for immigrant language training policies and further research are suggested.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35371 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Steinbach, Marilyn. |
| Contributors | Maguire, Mary (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Second Language Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001641693, proquestno: MQ43957, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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