NAVIGATING IDENTITY: STUDENTS’ CULTURAL JOURNEY IN ENGLISH WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Dian Agustina Purwanto Wakerkwa

Abstract


Language is a fundamental component of culture, facilitating the exchange of cultural knowledge and the formation of identity among cross-cultural users. This study investigates EFL students’ intercultural experiences and how these experiences are reflected in their writings as they attempt to negotiate and maintain their cultural identity. As a part of English language learning, producing written texts requires comprehension of linguistic traits entangled in culture. The success of foreign language learning has a greater chance when cultural considerations become integral to the learning process. Therefore, lecturers and students must recognize the inseparable relationship between language and culture and that culture is not limited to the ways it is expressed through words. The data were gathered from students’ argumentative essays on a culturally sensitive topic and analyzed using Ivani?’s identity framework, focusing mainly on the autobiographical and discoursal selves, supplemented by in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that despite diverse cultural experiences, all students expressed similar perspectives on the issue, aspiring to be recognized as individuals with a moral foundation inherent to their culture.  

Keywords: written discourse; cultural experience; culture; identity, EFL students


Full Text:

PDF

References


Amoah, J. K. (2013). The identity question for African youth: Developing the new while maintaining the old. The Family Journal, 22(1), 127-133.

Athanases, S. Z. (1998). Diverse learners, diverse texts: Exploring identity and difference through literary encounters. Journal of Literacy Research, 30(2), 273-296.

Bennett, D. (1998). Introduction. In D. Bennett (Ed.), Multicultural states: Rethinking difference and identity (pp. 1-26). London: Routledge.

Bhugra, D., & Becker, M. A. (2005). Migration, cultural bereavement and cultural identity. World Psychiatry, 4(1), 18-24.

Cauce, A. M. (2002). Examining culture within a quantitative empirical research framework. Human Development, 45, 294-298.

Goffman, E. (1956). The presentation of self in everyday life. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.

Gurin, P., Dey, E. L., Hurtado, S., & Gurin, G. (2002). Diversity and higher education: Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72, 330-367.

Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: Community, culture, difference (pp. 222-237). London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Hemmings, A. (2009). Ethnographic research with adolescent students: Situated fieldwork ethics and ethical principles governing human research. Journal or Empirical Research on Human, 4(4), 27-38.

Holliday, A. (2010). Complexity in cultural identity. Language and Intercultural communication, 10(2), 165-177.

Hyland, K. (1998). Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text 18(3), 349-382.

Hyland, K. (2008). Disciplinary voices: Interactions in research writing. English Text Construction, 1(1), 5-22.

I?ik-Ta?, E. E. (2018). Authorial identity in Turkish language and English language research articles in sociology: The role of publication context in academic writers’ discourse choices. English for Specific Purposes, 49, 26-38.

Ivani?, R. (1998). Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford: OUP.

Liu, C., & Tseng, M. (2021). Paradigmatic variation in hedging and boosting: A comparative study of discussion in narrative inquiry and grounded theory research. English for Specific Purposes, 61, 1-16.

Matsuda, P. K. (2015). Identitiy in written discourse. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 140-159.

McGinnis, J. R., McDonald, C., Hestness, E., & Bresllyn, W. (2016). An investigation of science educators’ view of roles and responsibilities for climate change education. Science Education International, 27(2), 179-192.

McLean, N. (2013). Researching academic identity: Using discursive psychology as an approach. International Journal for Academic Development, 17(2), 97-108.

Rafi, M. H. (2017). Bilingualism and identity construction in the digital discourse. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 12(3), 254-271.

Rasmussen, J. (2017). Recent research on the discursive construction of national identity. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 12(2), 181-187.

Riley, P. (2007). Language, culture and identity: An ethnolinguistic approach. London: Continuum.

Wakerkwa, D. A. P., Kristina, D., & Rochsantiningsih, D. (2019, April 27). Students’ academic discourse for publication competence and the reflected identities [Paper Presentation]. In Reimagining New Cyber-Based Research in English Education, Literature, Linguistics, and Translation. 3rd English Language and Literature International Conference (Indonesia), Semarang, Central Java (pp. 127-134). Muhammadiyah Semarang University.

Zilliacus, H., Paulsrud, B., & Holm, G. (2017). Essentializing vs. non-essentializing students’ cultural identities: Curricular discourses in Finland and Sweden. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 12(2), 166-180.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.31932/jees.v7i2.4032

Article Metrics

Abstract view : 90 times
PDF - 9 times

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.