'Language of the Enemy': Foreign Language Education and National Identity

Abstract

The focus of the present paper is on the relationship between national identities and foreign-language education policies and practices. The paper examines this relationship through a juxtaposition of three sociohistoric contexts in which sociopolitical events led to major changes in foreign-language education: post-World War I United States, post-World War II Soviet Union, and post-communist Eastern Europe. On the example of these case studies, it is argued that shifts in national identity images and sociopolitical allegiances have implications for foreign-language policies and practices. It is also argued that foreign-language learners may choose to construct oppositional identities in language classrooms: some, for patriotic reasons, may reject the languages imposed on them, while others may instead reject the dominant national identity and create an alternative one through the means of a foreign language.