Through case studies of five immigrant women in Canada, Bonny explicates how issues of inequity and social power determine when, where, and how often a learner will get an opportunity to speak. Her observations of the case studies show that motivation is not always the deterministic agent for language learning. Decisions to speak and not to speak are also dependent on the individual’s perception of personal investment. In other words, one gets motivated to learn language only according to the situation. It is situation or social context that determines the making of decision to learn language.
The story about Bonny’s participant, Martina, can be a source of inspiration for L2 students. In the story, I believe that it is the situation that compels her to stand up to her landlord when he tries to cheat her. The father and children are watching Marina when she argues on the phone, their mouth open in wonder. Interestingly, Martina uses her anger to push herself speak English to the landlord, even if she is afraid and is making a lot of mistakes. There are no options for her besides speaking English for the sake of her family as a lot of money is at stake. This incident is a turning point in her life as she now learns that it is much easier to assert her right to speak. This is the clear instance how social context or situation inspires the L2 to learn language in different culture and circumstances.
When I first read Bonny’s article “Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning,” it inspired me to reexamine my past experiences and practices as a teacher in a college. No students dare to speak English in and outside the classroom. No motivation or inspiration can truly work to make student speak English. Though they love writing, they hesitate even to read out what they have written. I had much trouble to make my student speak English when I used to teach them. After reading Bonny’s articles, I knew that social position and seniority affected the ways my students in Nepal showed unwillingness to communicate with me. Now, what I understood through her writing is that in order to meet one’s goal and objective in language teaching, an ESL teacher should work first on creating such a situation or context that the ESL students will show their eager to respond right away.
In Nepal, I know that almost all students show just fragments of themselves in the English language classroom, but having read Bonny’s article, now I have decided that I will start different kinds of conversations with students; I will ask them if they feel they are different people when speaking English. In the halls, cafeteria, playing fields, and bookstore of college campus, the ESL teacher, I will reread the obstacle and discuss solutions if the students feel shy or humiliated to speak English. Bonny’s article, I believe, is a great source of inspiration for ESL learners and teachers to capture the complex relationship of language learners to the target language. Her argument that one can learn language with investment rather than with motivation is what really interests me.
Discussion Questions: 1) Do you agree that it is really challenging to teach English language to L2 in a multiethnic community in which the identity of a person is ruptured or changes according to the circumstances? 2) How do you solve the situation when L2 students feel shy or humiliated to speak English? Can you suggest any third option besides motivation and investment?
