Gender Identities in L2 Writing: When Structure Meets Agency

• Main Authors: Kai-Lun Huang, 黃凱侖
• Other Authors: Chi-Fen Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/01477007781665273187

碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 應用英語所 === 95 === Learning a new language involves not only learning to communicate in another linguistic form, but also learning a new set of values and ideologies embedded in a particular language. Within the realms of values and ideologies, individual identities are an important but often neglected area in the current academic discourse. Despite the fact that some scholars have focused on various complex issues concerning the relationship between language use and identity, insufficient attention has been paid to understanding the impact of second language learning on the identity performance of L2 learners, especially in the Taiwanese context. Since gender is a constituting part of one’s identity, this study aims to illuminate such impacts through examining gender identities of English majors in Taiwan from their L2 writings. This study applied the approach of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to uncover L2 learners’ gender identities and employed social and cultural theories, from the perspectives of native Chinese culture (structural influences) and Western feminist thinking (individual agency), to explain their linguistic expressions of such identities. The findings indicate that both structural influences and individual agency are present in the students’ writings. Furthermore, the result also highlights conflicts experienced by the students and reveals the fluid nature of one’s gender identity, merging from the convergence of different social forces in L2 writing.