British Identity Research Articles

Interlanguage Pragmatic Learning Strategies (IPLS) as Predictors of L2 Social Identity: A Case of Iranian Upper-Intermediate and advanced EFL Learners

Interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies (IPLS) as particularly tailored language learning strategies for acquiring L2 pragmatic knowledge have been recently paid paramount attention in the pragmatics literature. These strategies are, therefore, related to some other social variables which are central to pragmatic development such as L2 social identity. Because of the importance of the IPLS and the rarity of research about the relationship between IPLS and with L2 social identity as a highly pragmatic-oriented variable, the current study tried to investigate the contribution of various forms of IPLS to L2 social identity among a randomly selected sample of 125 upper-intermediate to advanced EFL learners at a state university in Iran. During the two-phased data collection procedure, first, the participants filled out Locastro’s (2001) L2 social identity questionnaire, and then Malmir and Tajeddin’s (2015) IPLS inventory in two subsequent sessions. Data analysis using multiple regression revealed that all types of IPLS were significant contributors to L2 social identity except for the memory IPLS. Among the other five types of IPLS, social IPLS was a significant and strong contributor to L2 social identity. Affective and compensatory IPLS were significant moderate contributors to L2 social identity; however, metacognitive and cognitive interlanguage pragmatic learning strategies were weak albeit significant predictors of Iranian EFL learners’ social identity in English as an L2. The results of this study imply that L2 teachers can enhance social identity among the learners by fostering the knowledge of various forms of IPLS.

<i>Doctor Who</i>, Family and National Identity

National identity is often intimately bound to connectedness to, independence from, and constructions of, family. Furthermore, family remains integral to neoliberal capitalism such that efforts to develop national identity along capitalist lines are likely to involve engagement with it. Legal changes in Britain over the last forty years reflect these constructions. Doctor Who is a science fiction programme in which an alien (the Doctor) has adventures with mainly human companions, travelling in time and space in a ship called the TARDIS. As the BBC’s longest-running television drama series, and one with a long-term focus on projecting Britishness, Doctor Who valuably charts how national identity has evolved. In the context of the Doctor’s companions in particular, Doctor Who’s treatment of family has altered starkly over time. This article identifies an orphan companions era in the programme’s early years in which characters’ families were either startlingly unmentioned or dead, leaving the TARDIS ‘family’ unchallenged. After a transitional phase in the 1980s in which each companion’s family assumed only fleeting significance, the programme’s post-2005 reboot ushered in an era of deep engagement with family in which families assume seminal importance. By putting family centre stage, Doctor Who captures the spirit of the age, marking a refashioning of British national identity in which family looms large. This reflects Britain’s transition from social democracy to neoliberalism. Distancing itself from conservatism, however, Doctor Who’s promotion of family goes hand in hand with the programme developing its own more progressive take on what constitutes the ‘good family’.

Rejection identification or disindentification? The association of discrimination on depressive symptoms via religious and national identity among British Muslims

Muslims comprise a small, yet important and growing percentage of the population in the United Kingdom. In addition to economic and social hardship, British Muslims are disadvantaged by hostile, Islamophobic attitudes and pervasive discriminatory practices. Previous research testing the Rejection-Identification (RIM) and Rejection-Disidentification (RDM) Models has suggested that the impacts of discrimination on the well-being of minorities may be mediated by processes of increased minority identification and decreased majority identification. The current research utilised these explanatory frameworks to investigate the relationships between personal discrimination and perceived Islamophobia, religious and national identities, and depressive symptoms in young British Muslims aged 16–27 years (N = 142). The results provide support for some, but not all, elements of the theoretical models tested. Specifically, perceived Islamophobia was directly associated with stronger Muslim identity, and personal discrimination was associated with weaker British identity. Furthermore, personal discrimination was associated with greater depressive symptoms; neither social identity was associated with more favourable mental health outcomes; and Muslim identity was weakly, but significantly, associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. This research points to the need to assess personal discrimination alongside indicators of group level discrimination, to include multiple social identities, and to be mindful of broader social and contextual factors when investigating RIM and RDM.

Race, technological modernity, and the Italo-Australian condition: Francesco De Pinedo's 1925 flight from Europe to Australia

Writing about fascism and aviation has stressed the role technology played in Mussolini's ambitions to cultivate fascist ideals in Italy and amongst the Italian diaspora. In this article we examine Francesco De Pinedo's account of the Australian section of his record-breaking 1925 flight from Rome to Tokyo. Our analysis of De Pinedo's reception as a modern Italian in a British Australia, and his response to that reception, suggests that this Italian aviator was relatively unconcerned with promoting Fascist greatness in Australia. De Pinedo was interested in Australian claims to the forms of modernity he had witnessed in the United States and which the Fascists were attempting to incorporate into a new vision of Italian destiny. Flight provided him with a geographical imagination which understood modernity as an international exchange of progressive peoples. His Australian reception revealed a nation anxious about preserving its British identity in a globalising world conducive to a more cosmopolitan model of modernity.

Writing and identity

Using a multidisciplinary approach to social justice teaching, this article explores the often invisible impact of double consciousness on adult English language learners in the United States and provides examples of classroom practice that invite students to reflect on its effects. The experience of double consciousness is examined as it relates to English language learner identities. A Critical Language Awareness (CLA) framework and identity-conscious teaching practices are explored to encourage student participation and reflection. This approach, demonstrated through examples used in writing classes, encourages the exploration of identity in the face of oppression by interrogating social constructions and fiction and nonfiction stories containing connected themes. Three classroom lessons and consequent writing are analyzed with a critical discourse lens to examine student responses and reflections on language and identity. Student writing demonstrates that encouraging English language classes to interrogate the language of institutionalized inequity and identity formation can illuminate potential influences of double consciousness, which can empower students to think critically about their identities and choose whether to take steps to mediate the ways in which they could be affected by double consciousness.

Modern Kenyan Identity: Crafting a Nation Through Monuments

To define the identity of a modern African country, within the Eurocentric interpretive framework, imposes creative limits. Therefore, this is an insider’s perspective of Kenyan identity. It begins with a summary of what constitutes modernism as a philosophy that underpins various cultural expressions. While pointing out the danger of assigning expressions of cultural identity to a state as opposed to a nation, the article surveys monuments in Nairobi. And it is with qualified confidence that modernist-looking monuments are considered cultural expressions of Kenya; they are simply symbols that try to gather the peoples into a modern collective – with (un)certain success. The colonial authority assembled various monuments in an effort to imprint British identity; these are not in the style of modernism, though they were erected when Europe was experiencing the culture of modernism. The epitome is the statue of King George V. Post-colonial monuments, seeking to wipe off colonial identity, are also more classical and less modernist, bringing to the fore the paradox of a modern culture that does not employ the modernist style. Jomo Kenyatta’s statue in Nairobi’s City Square is the epitome of post-colonial monuments. Its mounting was the gesture par excellence of overthrowing British dominion. The only modernist monuments are those affiliated to President Daniel Moi. His regime had to fight to unite the citizens. A parallel is drawn between this political effort and the artistic style of choice. A discussion of the non-prevalence of the modernist style in articulating modern identity follows. And, in conclusion, the article points out that though both colonial and post-colonial monuments are fabricated out of modern materials and techniques, they cannot be termed modernist works of art. Modernism, as a style that bespeaks a culture, is unavoidably underpinned on western culture (European and American) of the 20th century. Article received: December 18, 2019; Article accepted: January 31, 2020; Published online: April 15, 2020; Original scholarly paper

Brexit ecocriticism

ABSTRACT A range of possible ecocritical responses to the June 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum decision are reviewed. English nationalism is identified as a key factor in Leavers’ cultural identity, which motivates close attention to contemporary defences of the English countryside and depictions of English ethnic identity and pastoral loss. The potential for empathetic and depolarising treatment of conservative cultures of nature is assessed.

Dutch Naval Decline and British Sea-power Identity in the Eighteenth Century

During the eighteenth century, various British authors analysed the decline of Dutch naval power. Anticipating the politico-cultural frame of reference of the British political nation, they invoked the memory of the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch wars to dramatize the failure of Dutch sea power. They disagreed about the causes of this development, but seemed unanimous in their conviction that the British nation should not suffer a similar fate. Their choice of the Dutch Republic as an apt lesson in naval failure was motivated by the perceived politico-cultural similarities between both nations. The Dutch were seen as a copy of the ‘self’ – Protestant, globalizing, commercially oriented and averse to absolutist oppression – but they had somehow strayed from the right naval path. Thus, their analytical interest in Dutch naval failure originated from an ideological interpretation of British identity and consequently reinforced and enriched this cultural construct.

Stuart Hall and the Freedom of Diaspora

Stuart Hall and the Freedom of Diaspora

The lion king? Drawings of the lion garden ornament

Exploring the lion as a symbol of England’s colonial past the drawings presented in this research project seek to subvert the idea of the lion as a symbol of power through the decorative interventions applied to them. The history of the lion as a symbol of British identity and strength in public monuments such as Trafalgar Square is compared to the ways in which owners of ordinary suburban housing in England use lion garden ornaments as indicators of habitus, or class (Bourdieu), and conspicuous consumption (Veblen). The act of drawing brings these ornaments into the ownership of the artist who employs a number of decorative interventions that seek to undermine the lion’s symbolic status. This is a speculative set of work created during the limbo of Britain’s Brexit negotiations in 2019. It has potential implications for anyone researching the relationship between ornament and identity, or drawing and ornament.

How much was wrong with Corbynism?

How much was wrong with Corbynism?

After the rural idyll: representations of the British countryside as a non-idyllic environment

ABSTRACTThis article explores a somewhat overlooked tradition of non-idyllic representations of the British countryside, particularly characteristic of the post-Second World War period. It considers the collective significance of non-idyllic representations and discusses what they reveal about the place of the rural within contemporary British culture. The article takes a broad survey approach, highlighting the representation of rural landscapes, rural communities and rural life, and the rural economy and rural labour, across a range of non-idyllic representations. It argues that it is no longer plausible to sustain the argument that the overwhelming imagination of British rural space is idyllic. These non-idyllic representations afford spaces to explore the imprints of modernity and globalisation on the British countryside, while the special place of the rural within British national identity now seems less secure.

영어의 수문문과 통사적 동일성 조건

영어의 수문문과 통사적 동일성 조건

Military Identification: Identity Discs and the Identification of British War Dead, 1914-18

Following the ratification of the 1906 Geneva Convention, in August the British Army approved the design for its first identity disc which was designed to assist with the identification of dead or wounded soldiers. A 1914 decision to produce the discs from compressed fibre rather than from aluminium resulted in an inability to identify thousands of soldiers during and after the First World War and it remained a problem despite the introduction of the double identity disc in 1916, created at the insistence of Sir Fabian War, founder of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This article reflects upon the development of the British identity disc system between 1906-1916 and considers why so many soldiers became ‘unknown’.

British and disengaged: national identification and political engagement before and after naturalisation

ABSTRACT Empirical work has documented the socio-economic characteristics of immigrants who naturalise and the effects of naturalisation on labour market outcomes. Political engagement and national identity are, however, salient but understudied dimensions of citizenship. Using two waves of the U.K. Household Longitudinal Study, I investigate immigrants’ national identification and political engagement before and after naturalisation. I find that before naturalisation those who acquire citizenship are more likely to identify as British, be familiar with the British political system and are less interested in politics compared to those who do not. I also find that after naturalisation, the importance of new citizens give to their British identity is higher than before, but their interest in politics is lower. I argue that citizenship retains its role as a marker of national identity for immigrants and that the negative association between naturalisation and interest in politics for immigrants is compatible with the low political engagement of the British-born population. I suggest that the further decline in interest in politics following naturalisation may be explained by immigrants’ disillusionment with a political narrative that fails to include them. I reflect on the implications of my findings for the conceptualisation of citizenship, for policy, and for future research.

Identity Negotiation in Chinese University English Classroom

Through a theoretical framework that builds on the Community of Practice construct and the concepts of identity negotiation, imagined identity and investment, this case study examines how one English-as-a-foreign-language student negotiated the identity as an English learner in the Chinese university classroom setting. Then the extent that the student’s oral communication behaviors in the English classroom community were influenced by the negotiated identity is presented. The analysis shows that a student may have multiple identities in the educational setting. By constantly shifting identities in the English learning process, the focal student struggled with the English learner identity perceived by herself and that identified by her English teacher. As a result, the student’s investment in English class oral tasks and communication behaviors in EFL classroom may change with the shift of identities. Suggestions are made for EFL teachers to help students construct desirable identities in order to improve their involvement in English class oral communication activities.

Malcolm Lowry no ocaso do Império

Este artigo propõe uma leitura de À sombra do Vulcão, de Malcolm Lowry, centrada na importância da história moderna e na presença do Império Britânico na narrativa do último dia de Geoffrey Firmin. Seguindo a noção de uma “leitura contrapontística” dos textos canônicos ingleses, formulada por Edward Said, discuto que, por ter nascido na Índia, o Cônsul (britânico) não consegue ter um sentido de pertencimento à Grã Bretanha, senão que se encontra em uma situação intersticial e liminar que antecipa a ruptura entre uma identidade imperial e uma identidade nacional, uma das maiores problemáticas abordadas nos estudos teóricos atuais sobre a identidade (especialmente nos estudos pós-coloniais). A partir desta perspectiva, a ênfase na situação imperial permite uma leitura que rompe com as interpretações do México como um “paraíso infernal” que perpetuou o estereótipo do nosso país mesmo em estudos críticos sobre o romancista.

Andrea Levy: alcance reivindicativo de los títulos de sus novelas

Andrea Levy fue una escritora afro británica descendiente de jamaicanos. El objetivo de este artículo es mitigar la discriminación a través de las reivindicaciones y denuncias sociales realizadas por Levy en sus obras, concretamente, en sus títulos. Esta investigación se fundamentó en el paradigma de la Teoría Crítica que intenta conseguir la transformación social. Específicamente este artículo se centra en liberar las opresiones por género y etnia. La metodología se basó en el análisis de tipo cualitativo de la novelística y la reflexión realizada por la crítica literaria sobre la problemática. A partir de esta información, se concluyó que entre las reivindicaciones destaca la visibilización en la sociedad las identidades femeninas de origen afrocaribeño que fue tradicionalmente ignorada por la literatura hegemónica. Atendiendo a las denuncias, aparecen la indiferencia social, la discriminación y la amarga experiencia, las consecuencias de la esclavitud, la crisis de identidad y la pérdida del sentimiento de pertenencia. Por tanto, observando los títulos y el análisis de la crítica literaria, se descubrieron alcances reveladores para la interpretación de las obras a través de los títulos.

Gendered Eyewitness in Narration: Imagining Morocco in British Women Travel-Inspired Narratives in Late Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century gave unprecedented travel opportunities to Europeans to visit and write about the “Orient”. The growing imperial expansion and subsequent imperial consciousness among British travelers found ample justification in various literary forms and discursive manifestations that enhanced a zealous desire towards empire building and the construction of a British identity that grappled with its otherness in “highly asymmetrical relations of subordination.” This offered many Victorian women travelers the chance to travel beyond borders while subverting the conventional image of domesticity associated with them, just as it enabled them to embrace freedom from the compelling institutions of patriarchy at home. Studying Victorian female travel narratives to the “Orient” provides inexhaustible grounds to rethink the intricate relationship between travel, overt nationalism, gendered constructions of identity and Orientalist ideology. This paper is concerned with the traveling experiences of Amelia Perrier through her A Winter in Morocco (1873), and Frances Macnab’s A Ride in Morocco among Traders and Believers (1902). With a postcolonially-inflected consciousness, it attempts to investigate how these travel narratives reproduce the strategies characteristic of Orientalist discourse in its inscription of self and Other power relations, fueled up by a will to knowledge and control over new territories. I shall argue that late nineteenth century British women travel writers operated not only in the power structures of gender but also within the larger structures of empire, class categorization, and race dynamics.

Language Ideology in the Paxton Pamphlet War

This essay examines the literary texts of Pennsylvania's 1764 Paxton pamphlet war, giving close attention to the linguistic representations through which vying parties attempted to claim superiority in the Anglo-American sociopolitical hierarchy. Competing ethnic and political groups published creative literature (including poetry, dialogues, a farce, and a narrative) disparaging their opponents' British virtue and status by lampooning their literary and grammatical acuity and emphasizing their deviation from "acceptable" spoken English. Through analysis of the pamphlet war's portrayals of Quaker, American Indian, and Scots-Irish Presbyterian language, this essay demonstrates that the interrelated issues of language, virtue, and British identity were central to the concerns of provincial Pennsylvanians in 1764.