Crafting Voices: Exploring Language Identity Among English Majors in Higher Education
Fouzia Malik
Education officer, Sindh Education Literacy Department, Pakistan
Jehanzeb Khan
Lecturer, Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology Khuzdar Pakistan
Zahra Khan
Assistant Professor Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Bahria University Karachi Campus Pakistan
Abstract
This qualitative survey research aims to investigate how undergraduate and postgraduate English major students at a public university in Karachi construct their identities. This study is based on Norton's (2013) poststructuralist approach to identity theoretical framework and meets the local context's time requirement. A qualitative survey of 154 undergraduate and postgraduate students was conducted through Google Forms to explore these students’ identity construction. Thematic analysis was performed on the gathered qualitative data, and codes were developed to generate major themes. The participants' responses provided deep insight into how the learners of English as a second language constructed their identities, keeping their past, present, and future perspectives. The findings revealed that learners negotiate and recreate a flexible, hybridised, multifaceted identity in a third place, specifically in the individuality of each person and environment and in response to social conditions across time and space. The L1 identity of the participants was found to be more potent than the L2 identity. The study also explores the implications of the findings for English major teachers in higher education institutions, aiming to understand the process of identity construction and develop strategies to develop or assess learners' personalities.
Key terms: Language identity, Affiliation, Expertise and Inheritance in Identity, Motivation, tertiary students, English major
