| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 外國語文學系 === 104 === Aboriginal Taiwanese constitute 2 % of the total population. Since the 1980s, increased public attention has been paid to social and educational issues of the indigenous peoples in Taiwan. Though the supporting effort is still ongoing, aboriginal Taiwanese still remain on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic and academic ladders (Ericsson, 2004). With regard to English learning, several studies have indicated aboriginal students’ inferior English academic performance at school (e.g. Chang, 2004; Su, 2006). However, the analyses offered by previous studies have merely focused on students’ present academic participation and learning outcomes without taking their personal histories and past learning experiences into consideration. Through the lens of capital (Bourdieu, 1977; 1986) and investment (Norton, 2000; Norton Peirce, 1995), this study explores how aboriginal students' available resources, social interactions, life histories, and English learning experiences shape and reshape their English learning investment and practices. This study demonstrates that even if aboriginal Taiwanese students learn English owned diverse forms of capital benefiting English language learning, they still struggle with other-imposed and self-perceived ethnic identities to make English investment. In the process of English investment and practices, they keep assessing their investment choices, learning objectives, and reconstructing their identities. The findings shows that aboriginal Taiwanese students have the ability to make selection of investment, which not only give them positive returns but also help them achieve successfully in English or nonlanguage areas.
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