LINGUISTS’ IDENTITY: BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF SELF-PERCEPTION

By

Leidy Marcela Chacón Vargas 

Being a linguist? Sometimes this person is viewed as a polyglot who masters different languages; however its scopes are broader. As it is stated by Krystal (2009: 7) “Being a linguist in my sense of the world, evidently doesn’t mean that you’ve managed to learn lots of foreign languages. But it does mean that you’re interested in them”. When developing such activity the linguist starts to perform a set of roles that shape his identity as a professional. In that respect my first attempt is to discuss how the linguist’s identity is built from a personal, and a social perspective. Second, I want to see the relationship between that identity and FL Teaching.

On one hand, it is worthy to look at some definitions which will give the lights to start the discussion. Suarez, (2004:17) argues that identity “is not simply a process by which one passes through a variety of stages on the way to achieving a stable identity. Rather, it is a process that is fluid and contextually driven”. There are two key aspects to infer from this assertion, the influence of context and the sense of continuity in identity construction. In regards to the setting, it has been amply discussed that linguists move within different language environments where they play several roles.

They become researchers as they do not stop till finding out new knowledge; academics when becoming part of academia; leaders as they make data visible and useful for everybody; mediators when they get immersed in special language communities; risk-takers as they are permanently testing theories; historians because they are passionate for languages as anybody else; etc., in their attempt to decipher the mysteries and discover the variations around language. Speas, (2009:23), for example states that “linguists are interest in what all languages have in common and what the properties of the language can tell us about how the human brain works. Linguists are often very good at taking language apart and putting it back together…” All these steps imply a process of construction and reconstruction of identity through interaction between the “linguistician” and the environment where he is immersed.

At the same time by means of that interaction the sense of continuity takes place. It refers to the variation in the ways the linguist sees himself as a reflection of his own experiences both, as a person or as a professional. It becomes then a process of constructing and re-constructing identity though a hand-in-hand relation between self-perception and the context influence. This is reinforced by Stebbins, (2012:314) as he claims, “my role as a linguist is contingent, and my identity as a person and as a professional is based as much on attributions from others as it is on anything I may assert through my behavior…”

On the other hand, there is a factual relationship between linguists’ identity and the FL teaching area. Both of them are framed within the language system as the heart of life. At this point the connection takes place because of the challenges that both linguistics and education share. Some of them include for example, the need for   teachers to understand the theories brought by linguists to be able to perform better practices.  At the same time, there is a connection regarding the teachers’ professional development. If there is not set a relation like this, the story of many FL educators who master their language of instruction but do not know its structure will be repeated over and over again. That is why some authors like Fillmore, L. & Snow, K. (2000:10) emphasize in this relation by setting the following questions: “how much they know about it? Do they know its history? Do they know what languages are related to it? Do they know how it has changed over time? Do they know how regional dialects develop?”

Concluding,   questions like those stated before must let us as FL teachers in a FL context to reflect upon our professional development whose outcomes contribute to the qualification of better practices, as well as, to think about the roles that as language users we have in and outside the classroom.  Furthermore it is clear that linguists’ identity is cooperatively building between the professional in linguistics, the setting and his daily experiences by means of interaction.  

REFERENCES

ü  Fillmore, L. & Snow, K. (2000). Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.University of California at Berkeley.

ü  Krystal, D. (2009). Just a phrase I’m going through: my life in language. Routledge, London.

ü  Stebbins, T. (2012). What Teachers Need to Know About Language. On Being a Linguist and Doing Linguistics: Negotiating Ideology through Performativity. La Trobe University.

ü  Speas, M. (2009). Someone Else’s Language. On the Role of Linguists in Language Revitalization. University of Massachusetts, Amherst

ü  Suarez-Orozco, C. (2004). Globalization. Culture and Education in the New Millennium. University of California Press. Berkely, Los Angeles.