| Summary: | This study aimed to explore the complexity and interrelationships of language, culture and
identity from the learners' perspectives. The focus of the study was on the exchange
experiences of five Hong Kong students in the Canadian tertiary contexts. The participants
were bilingual learners. They came from an educational background which emphasized
English as a medium of instruction. In Canada, the students had the language competence
to integrate into mainstream courses during their one year stay. This study questioned
whether language was also their passport into a new culture.
The study was divided into two phases. The first phase was a pilot study (January 1997-
May 1997). Emergent themes from the pilot study guided the research questions in the
second phase of the study ( October 1997 - July 1998). The methodology employed in
this study emphasized a naturalistic inquiry approach and co-authorship with the
participants. The research focused on a multiple case study approach with an
ethnographic link to highlight the interpretive and sociocultural perspectives of the study.
Research strategies included direct and participant observation, home visit, e-mail, phone
conversation, informal interview, intensive discussion, secondary informant, artifact and
metaphor. Personal narratives were central to the discussions in data analysis.
Data collected in the study support the learner agency framework on the issue of social
identity. Themes which emerged from the research process suggest multiple voices,
multiple interpretations and multiple realities in the process of language socialization.
Many interactive variables in the social contexts influence the construction and
reconstruction of knowledge on language, culture and identity. Language socialization is
a complex interweave of meanings between the individual and the environment.
Ambivalence, contradictions and uncertainties are recurring themes in the rites of
transition. Learners are empowered by their awareness and agency in their struggle. They
are active agents of their identities, roles and status in changing sociocultural settings.
This study urges the need for language educators to include voices of the learners in
language research and to re-examine the notions of language power, cultural diversity,
social access, claim of ownership, learner investment and human agency in language
pedagogy.
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