Shifting Goals in Italian Learning: Imagination, Multilingualism, and Agency in the Narratives of Underrepresented Foreign Language Learners

Abstract

There are many studies looking at foreign language learners’ investment and motivation to learn languages (Csizèr and Kontra, 2020; Muir and Dörnyei, 2020; Norton and Gao, 2008; Pomerantz, 2001), yet, little is known regarding how foreign language learners’ choices can be influenced by their sociocultural contexts, institutional and societal ideologies; how do foreign language learners make sense of their learning over time and how do they decide whether to begin or continue learning a foreign language. This dissertation examines two underrepresented foreign language learners’ engagement in learning Italian, their agentive practices, and their sociocultural contexts (Bourdieu, 1986;1977;1981; Bakhtin,1981). Drawing from theories of agency (Ahearn, 2001) and positioning (Harrè, 2012; Harré, R. and Van Langenhove L., 1999), this longitudinal study qualitatively examines the two learners’ experiences over the course of four years. Specifically, it investigates the following two questions: 1. What guided participants to take Italian courses at a large public R1 university in the southwestern US? 2. How did these participants decide whether to continue learning Italian on upper division levels? Findings show that the two underrepresented foreign language learners of Italian, at the focus of this study, engaged in language learning for its symbolic value. While in the beginning their aim was to achieve (nativelike) proficiency, by the end, they agentively shifted their goals for their other personal needs. Both of the participants struggled against dominant discourses that excluded them from participating in foreign language learning; yet they imagined for themselves multilingual subjectivities (Kramsch, 2009) and futures as Italian speakers. Thus, this dissertation provides new insights on the connections between multilingual subjectivities and agency, and invites us to reevaluate the dominant position given to language proficiency in foreign language research and education. The study concludes with implications for future research and recommendations for foreign language programs to consider the classroom as a potential space of inclusivity and to consider how we represent and what assumptions we make about learners. Pedagogical implications include social justice that promotes students’ engagement and better foster their needs, such as project- based learning using the multiliteracies framework (Paesani et. al 2015; Warner and Dupuy, 2018), linguistic landscape (Malinowski, 2015), and imagination.