Resumen de What Motivates L3 Learners’ Investment and/or Divestment in Arabic? Understanding Learning Motivation in terms of “Identity”

Jing Liao, Ning An, Yongyan Zheng

• English

  The study extends our understanding of the relationship between identity and Arabic learning in the Chinese context from a sociolinguistic perspective. Drawing on Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment, the study explores the interplay between identity and investment in the context of Chinese learners’ motivation to learn Arabic. The sample population comprises 25 adult Arabic learners with Chinese as their first language, English as their second language, and Arabic as their third language. Qualitative data from learners’ retrospective narrative accounts and complementary semi-structured interviews were analyzed in terms of identity and investment. The findings show that these Chinese Arabic learners’ constitutive orientation towards language learning is highly related to their multifaceted and fluid identities (inherited identities, competitive identities, and imagined identities), which are complex and dynamic and can be negotiated and constructed over time, involving learners’ perceptions of affordances in capital resources and their goals of acquiring symbolic and material resources. Therefore, investment/divestment is influenced by the interconnections between identities and perceptions. The study concludes with some methodological and theoretical implications for future research on learning LOTEs (languages other than English) and investment.

• 中文

  本研究从社会语言学视阈扩展了我们对中国语境下身份认同与阿拉伯语学习之间关系的理解。基于投资模型 (Darvin & Norton, 2015)，本研究探索了中国学习者学习阿拉伯语的动机中身份认同与投资之间的相互作用。受试样本包括25位成年阿拉伯语学习者，他们的母语是汉语，第二语言是英语，第三语言是阿拉伯语。质性实验数据是学习者的回溯性叙述和作为补充的半结构化访谈，并依照身份认同与投资加以分析。研究结果表明，这些中国阿拉伯语学习者对语言学习的本性取向与他们多层面的流动性身份认同（继承身份，竞争性身份和想象身份）高度相关，这些身份是复杂而动态的，可以随着时间的推移进行协商和构建，涉及学习者对资本中给养的理解以及他们获取符号和物质资源的目标。因此，投资/撤资受身份认同与观念间相互联系的影响。本研究总结了对未来LOTE（英语以外的其他语言）和投资相关研究的方法论和理论启示。