‘Flatbread and lollipops:’ social funds of identity in the trilingual journey of a refugee-background student

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper was to examine the role of social Funds of Identity (FoI), as expressed in significant others, in the promotion of language learning for a young refugee-background child. It is based on an ethnographic study that spanned across two years, shortly after the relocation of the child and her family in the U.S. The findings are structured in three themes: (a) activities that promoted language learning; (b) artifacts that symbolized achievement in language learning; and (c) discourses that promoted a multilingual learner identity. The significance of this study lies on its aim to expand the FoI with attention to specific ways in which FoIs are negotiated in the dialectic space of interactions.