Multilingual Masculinities in the Classroom

Abstract

In the next two chapters my aim is to explore what the spoken interaction among peers in the classroom can tell us about the identity positions that the students both inhabit and are ascribed. In this chapter, I examine the interactions of the male students, analysing their perceptions of their fellow undergraduates, the language and literacy practices of the academic community and their linguistic repertoires in relation to the questions for my study. In this and the next chapter I start with the premise that heritage languages, vernacular and standardised varieties of English invoke different identity positions and that these emerge in interaction. I view the interaction in the classroom as ‘artfully designed’ to project a particular persona with peers (Cameron, 2003). I argue that when subjected to the gaze of their male peers, much of the talk seems concerned with what the male students perceive as ‘“acceptable” maleness’ (Coates, 2003: 196), or ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Connell, 1995), which many of them associate with doing being one of the lads. Drawing on Imelda Whelehan (2000), I use ‘laddishness’ to refer to practices that have become widely associated with forms of adolescent male behaviour embedded in discourses of popular culture, particularly practices that value having a laugh, acting cool and appearing tough.