Second Language Creative Writers: Identities and Writing Processes (Second Language Acquisition, 85, Band 85) - Softcover

Zhao, Yan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783092998 ISBN 13: 9781783092994

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

This monograph investigates 15 L2 creative writers' social constructive power in identity constructions. Through interviews and think-aloud story writing sessions, the central study considers how L2 writer voices are mediated by the writers' autobiographical identities, namely, their sense of selves formulated by their previous language learning and literacy experiences. The inquiry takes the epistemological stance that L2 creative writing is simultaneously a cognitive construct and a social phenomenon and that these two are mutually inclusive. The study contributes to L2 creative writing research and L2 learner identity research and will be of benefit to researchers, language teachers and writing instructors who wish to understand creative writing processes in order to help develop their students' positive self-esteem, confidence, motivation and engagement with the L2.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Yan Zhao is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the Department of English, Culture and Communication, Xijiao-Liverpool University, PR China. Her research interests include discourse analysis, L2 creative writing, L2 identity and L2 academic writing.

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Second Language Creative Writers

Identities and Writing Processes

By Yan Zhao

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2015 Yan Zhao
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78309-299-4

Contents

Tables and Figures, 
Acknowledgements, 
1 Introduction, 
2 Towards a Cross-Sociocultural Analysis of Creative Writer Identities, 
3 Methodology, 
4 Quantitative Analyses of the Connection between L2 Creative Writers' Autobiographical Identities and Their Creative Writing Processes, 
5 Quantitative Analyses of Task Influences on L2 Creative Writing Processes and Their Relationship to the Writers' Autobiographical Identities, 
6 L2 Creative Writers' Sense of Social Localities, 
7 Five Focal Cases, 
8 Conclusion, 
Appendix A: Question List for the In-Depth Interview, 
Appendix B: An Illustration of the 19 Communities Established through, 
Coding the Participants' We- and You-Statements, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Many canonical writers such as Conrad, Beckett and Rushdie have constructed creative identities and discovered stylistic liberation through writing outside their mother tongue (Pousada, 1994). Conrad rejected his first language (L1) as a medium of artistic expression in favour of English during the heyday of the British Empire (Sherry, 1972). Among a number of contemporary Chinese writers, Ha Jin made the same decision post-Tiananmen Square (Moore, 2002). Such choices raise a variety of socio-political and socio-stylistic issues concerning the relationships between language, creativity, power, repression and identity.

At less rarefied levels, second language creative writing offers a potentially fruitful area of research in the fields of identity studies, second language acquisition (SLA) and pedagogy. The increasing number of non-native English speaking writers who choose to practice or even publish forms of creative writing in English constitute a salient and legitimate social group which is ripe for investigation. Second language (L2) creative writers who 'invest' (Norton, 1995, 2000) in creative writing in English for particular purposes (e.g. linguistic, literary, professional or self-empowerment) are making their voices heard in widespread social settings, such as language classrooms, creative writing courses and interest groups, publishing and, notably, in virtual contemporary media such as social networks. Recently, along with the development of digital technology, we have witnessed the emergence and advancement of creative 'new literacies' (such as multimodal or multimedia story writing, e.g. Skinner & Hagood, 2008) and out-of-school literary practices (e.g. Yi, 2007, 2010).

Creative writing has long been an element in L2 pedagogy. Bate (2008) records that one of the activities in a standard Latin textbook used during Shakespeare's time (Erasmus's De conscribendis epistolis) invited learners to write imaginatively in the roles of characters from classical literature in particular situations. The rubric, quoted by Baldwin (1944: 240), goes: Write a letter as if you were Antenor persuading Priam that he should return the stolen Helen to her Menelaus because it would be a very foolish ruler who caused many brave men to enter battle on account of the most shameful love of such an effeminate youth as Paris.

Perhaps with tongue in cheek, Bate (2008) exclaims: 'Write that Master William and you're on the road to inventing dramatic character, to composing "Troilus and Cressida"' (93). At less exalted levels, current ESL/EFL creative writing activities are not radically different. They focus on the opportunities offered for writing improvement, language play and an escape from the pseudo-narratives of the textbook. While fully agreeing that L2 creative writing allows learners to engage with what McRae (1994) has termed imaginative 'representational' expression (i.e. multifaceted, involving both cognitive and emotional faculties) in addition to the more instrumental 'referential' functions (i.e. communicative, informational) of typical ELT classroom activities, I would like to go further. I shall suggest that L2 creative writers can undertake creative writing not only for the purposes of language or literacy acquisition, but also simultaneously for the achievements of certain self-identification and hence self-esteem, which in turn feeds into positive motivation for language learning.

This book is centrally concerned with the relationship between L2 creative writers' socioculturally sedimented perceptions of their previous life histories and their present, emergent psychological activities while writing in the target language. The discussion inevitably involves consideration of the nature of creative writing, why writers are drawn to express themselves imaginatively, where their 'inspiration' comes from and the processes involved in transmuting ideas into creative expression. Whilst acknowledging that the ultimate wellsprings of creativity might not be available for analysis, this book rejects the typically romantic notion that L2 creative writers and L2 creative writing practices are primarily controlled by inspiration and emotion. Through interviews and think-aloud story writing sessions, the central inquiry investigates how writer voices reflected in the L2 creative writers' instantaneous movements of thoughts while creating short stories are mediated by the writers' autobiographical identities (Clark & Ivanic, 1997), namely, their sense of selves formulated in their previous language learning and literacy experiences. In what immediately follows, I shall review the current research on L2 creative writing.

Research on L2 Creative Writing

L2 creative writers have attracted attention among a variety of academic fields, including sociolinguistic identity studies, SLA discussions and, recently, literature on academic discourses.

In the field of identity studies, Omoniyi (2010) has studied postcolonial writers' 'code choices' (including his own) and their relation to writers' negotiations of cultural and linguistic identities. Similarly, through looking at the interactions between writer identity and certain aspects of the creative literacy products (discoursal, semantic, syntactic or thematic), poststructuralist L2 scholars such as Pavlenko (2006) have examined the discursive construction of emotions among bilingual writers and questioned whether the L1 always remains 'the voice of the heart' (also see Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000; Pavlenko, 2004; Ros i Solé, 2004). Adopting a sociocultural perspective, the principal focus of such writer identity studies examines how creative writing practices serve as an empowering tool through which L2 speakers may actively construct and perform their social or ethnic identities, negotiate authorial stance, improve cultural understandings and develop their social participation and presence (e.g. Vasudevan et al., 2010; Skinner & Hagood, 2008; Burkhalter & Pisciotta, 1999; Yi, 2007, 2010; Maguire & Graves, 2001). In addition, given creative writing's capacity to capture affective dimensions and draw on the L2 learners' sociocultural heritage and personal knowledge, poetry and autobiographical writing have been utilised to gain an insight into L2 individuals' personal and emotional responses to dramatic incidents or to their lived experiences (e.g. Hanauer, 2010; Chamcharatsri, 2009). In the above studies, 'writers' voices' are principally traced through examining the L2 writers' creative literacy products. In addition,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1783092998
• ISBN 13: 9781783092994
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 216
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland