Second Language Research Miles, C.

Second Language Research

Miles, C. (2007). Identity's playground: Linking second language use with strategic competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication Issue 13, 5.

Miles offers a case study that examines how a French immigrant of Senegalese descent negotiates his second language identity at a multicultural and multilingual workplace environment in the United States. The study covered a period of six months as the subject was followed and interviewed at his place of employment. Miles uses this study to explore the relationship between strategic competence and social identity, and he does this by examining how the participant's social identity and successful employment are linked to strategies of second language use and identity negotiation.

Miles (2007) notes, "If language can be considered a tool which human beings use to engage in social acts then exploring other factors, such as social identity issues and socio-cultural strategies... may lead to a more complete understanding of how strategies develop" (p. 5). Miles cites Cohen to the effect that the strategy often followed is that of "getting along in the target culture" and seeing social strategies as "actions which learners choose to take in order to interact with other learners and with native speakers" (Miles, 2007, p. 5).

The subject was a French immigrant of Senegalese descent working in a multicultural and multilingual workplace environment in the United States. The study is qualitative. Miles considers the idea of Strategic Competence from Canale and Swain's communicative competence model, which is generally associated with second language learners' ability to employ a variety of tools that facilitate the learning of the target language. Miles notes that language use strategies aer often associated with the social and affective realm of second language acquisition, though these elements have not been researched that thoroughly. Miles says that many researchers are satisfied to see social strategies as no more than devices for "getting along" in social situations, while Miles says these strategies are actually more complex and are contextually dependent. They also develop at a subconscious level so that the language user may not be aware of their use. Language can be seen as a tool used by human beings to engage in social acts. The use of language also involves social identity issues and socio-cultural strategies. An element of choice is involved in the ay the speaker presents him or herself in certain contexts and does so in order to interact with other learners and with native speakers so that social identity intersects with social strategies.

Miles cites those studies that have addressed some of the issues raised and then offers his own research, which he says follows the view that an investigation of learning strategy should examine non-classroom situations showing people gaining skills in a new language. Miles addresses such a situation in the manufacturing and processing sectors of the economy, sectors employing many immigrant workers. The jobs in these sectors are often entry-level low-wage positions with high rates of recidivism. The site was a small processing and packaging plant in the Midwest, a plant that had experienced a demographic shift hat changed its social climate. Before 1995, the majority of workers were English speakers, while after that date, many West Africans speaking a variety of languages, though most spoke French as the primary language of the region of West Africa from which they came. These new workers created difficulties for traditional Anglo-American workers and managers.

One of these workers served as the liaison between the immigrant workers and management, and he is Mamadou. He is 37 years old, born in France, of Senegalese descent. His native language is French, but he also speaks Wolof, Fulani, and American English. He was from a middle class background and was educated in the French school system. He knew virtually no English when he arrived in 1997. he took a job as a factory line worker in the plant and learned English rapidly, using his skills to move up in the company.

The methodology for the study of this worker was an ethnographic case study intended to understand the individual dynamics of this individual at his place of employment, using theory-based or operational construct sampling. In this approach, the sample becomes representative of the phenomenon of interest, with the interest in this case being the subject's social identity in his second language. The two methods of data collection used are observation and interviews. The observations covered a period of six months from August 2000 through the end of January 2001. The subject was shadowed during working hours over this period, observing how he communicates within the speech communities of the cultures and contexts on the site. This provides a more complete picture of the influences exerted by the site on the subject or by the subject on the site.

This was followed by four interviews conducted during the observations in order to get data on a more personal level. The type of interview is one in which the subject can generate talk and select the conversational path he chooses, using what is fundamentally a narrative approach.

Analysis of this data was achieved using coding, first by constructing a descriptive reality of general codes existing at the site, and second by using the interview data to look more closely at the themes that emerge from the observations. The theme of language and identity was prominent through the coding process for both sets of data, and two general themes of identity surfaced, namely social awareness and the construction of relationships. Miles divides these themes into subcategories, noting first four distinct ways in which Mamadou built relationships though the building of trust, developing roles, the issue of respect, and through community involvement.