Abstract
About a third of the global population learns English as a second language (L2). L2 students routinely read English literature. Many L2 readers are members of cultures with painful colonial pasts. The English language functions in part to support western cultural and economic domination. L2 students have a complex identity, as members of their own culture, but also as elites having options in the global economy. This study used content analysis, content clusters and Appraisal analysis to explore how three cultural groups with colonial histories responded to an English-language translation of a Bulgarian poem about an elite, L2-educated character in a colonial situation. Results suggest that bilingual youth do not see themselves as elite, and that authentic literature in translation helps them perceive status and positionality.
Highlights
Studying English shapes the identities of 2 billion L2 students worldwide (Crystal, 2000)
This study explored the responses of Lebanese, Hong Kong and Bulgarian participants to a literary character who is positioned in ways similar to themselves
Political violence was frequently-realised in the Lebanese subcorpus (26.18%, 67.54% positive), reflecting participants’ views of Ottoman rule, or the civil war (“He is a victim of the Turkish empire in the last century stealing his home, and no-one wins anything in the end”, “This poem has many meanings for the life we live today, especially the reasons why we still have religious wars in Lebanon”.) Most thought that hybrid identities led to conflict
Summary
Studying English shapes the identities of 2 billion L2 students worldwide (Crystal, 2000). Most L2 students do not try to assimilate to an English-speaking culture, for example British or American, but combine elements of local with aspirational aspects of international culture, creating hybrid identities (Levitt, 2001). Reading English-language literature is part of this process, as it is used to teach critical thinking and culture performance, vocabulary and grammar, idiomatic collocations and discourse structures (Paran, 2008). Literature motivates students to remain engaged in the difficult work of L2 reading (Mantero, 2002). L2 students often read translations of literature by world authors. This study explored how readers from three cultures with colonial pasts constructed the meaning of a text where the main character was both colonised and a beneficiary of L2 education. The text selected was 19th century Bulgarian poet Hristo Botev’s poem “Stranger”
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