Identity and Strategic Competence in Second Language Use
This paper reviews Miles (2007), a qualitative case study examining how a French immigrant of Senegalese descent navigates social identity and second language use in a multilingual, multicultural manufacturing workplace in the American Midwest. Drawing on Canale and Swain's communicative competence model, Miles investigates the relationship between strategic competence and social identity over a six-month ethnographic observation period. The review summarizes the study's methodology, key themes, and conclusions, highlighting how the subject, Mamadou, consciously negotiates his identity through trust-building, role adoption, and community involvement, ultimately extending the concept of strategic competence to encompass social identity as central to second language acquisition.
- Introduction and Research Focus: Overview of Miles (2007) and its central aims
- Theoretical Background and Context: Strategic competence, social identity, and language strategies
- Workplace Setting and Subject Profile: Midwest plant demographic shift and Mamadou's background
- Research Methodology: Ethnographic observation and interview approach
- Data Analysis and Emerging Themes: Coding themes: social awareness and relationship-building
- Conclusions and Implications: Identity as core to strategic communicative competence
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What makes this paper effective
- The review accurately traces the logical progression of Miles (2007) from theory to methodology to findings, keeping the source's argument intact.
- Key theoretical constructs — strategic competence, communicative competence, and social identity — are introduced clearly before being applied to the case study data.
- Direct quotations from Miles are used selectively and purposefully, anchoring the summary in the source text without over-relying on block quotes.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates source-faithful academic summarization: the writer synthesizes a complex qualitative study by identifying its theoretical framework, methodological choices, and conclusions, then presenting them in a coherent sequence. The inclusion of in-text citations with page numbers shows attention to proper attribution and provides a model of APA-style referencing within a research review context.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with a brief orientation to the study's purpose, moves through the theoretical framework and site context, details the ethnographic methodology, and closes with the study's findings and broader implications. This mirrors the structure of the original article, making it easy for readers to follow how evidence connects to conclusions.
Introduction and Research Focus
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 in a multicultural and multilingual workplace in the United States. The study covered a period of six months, during which 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, 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).
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