“Muslim-American Identity Acquisition”: Religious Identity in an Arabic Language Classroom

Abstract

The social turn in second language acquisition (SLA) has led scholars to involve a more social semiotic approach in their research (Johnson, 2004; Ortega, 2013). In heritage language contexts, this means greater attention to learners as individuals who construct, enact, and resist multiple identities in the classroom (Gee, 2000; McKay & Wong, 1996; Norton & Toohey, 2011; Pierce, 1995). For Arabic heritage language learners (HLLs) the question of identity is fraught with complexities across linguistic (Ryding, 1991; Abu-Rabia, 2000), cultural (Temples, 2013), political (Brown, 2009), social (Sehlaoui, 2008) and religious domains. This paper examines the role of religious identity for second-grade Arabic language learners at a K-12 Islamic school. This sociocultural linguistic study highlights the ways in which learners’ religious identities intersect, support, and overlap with their social and academic identities in a language course exclusively for Muslim HLLs. Findings point to the ways that identity is negotiated through talk, highlighting how Muslim learners draw on their religious identities in Arabic class to support and strengthen their academic and social identities. Religion can serve as a resource for HLLs even in the absence of ethnic and/or ancestral links to the language given adequate ideological and implementational space (Hornberger, 2005).