This study explores senior secondary school (SSS) students' imagined community and identities against the language ideologies of English portrayed in the discourse on education in Nigeria. There has been lots of research done in the areas of identity, imagined community and L2 teaching from different perspectives and contexts (Norton, 2000; Ilori, 2013, Sung, 2013). However, no studies have under a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) angle, explored how learners' identities /imagined community are constructed and what resources or mechanisms (e.g. language ideological discourses of English) play a role in the construction of their identities/imagined community. The research draws on Fairclough‘s (2001) concept of social discourse, van Dijk‘s (2006) socio-cognitive approach to CDA and Norton's (2000) notion of imagined community, and is designed around a qualitative study involving open-ended questionnaires and official documents (e.g. language policy on education). This questionnaire which facilitated the interview process of participants (students, parents, teachers and principals) was digitally recorded, transcribed, coded and analysed thematically. Findings suggest that the English language, more than any other language is implicated in the process of imagination, as the choices students make about who they are and who they want to be are direct responses to how English is perceived in the local (social, political and educational) and global context. Therefore, examining the relationship that may exist between the ideologies that associates English with the resource of education, employment or status and students‘ imagined communities/identities may demand that neutrality should no longer be accepted as a concept when talking about imagination or identity. In this way, learners would no longer be viewed as social beings with multiple identities that emerge within specific learning trajectories (Norton, 2000), but as beings with deep-rooted ambiguities that must be represented in a reasonable and justifiable way.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:723276 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Ilori, Taiwo Abosede |
| Publisher | Anglia Ruskin University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://arro.anglia.ac.uk/702186/ |
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