Inscribing Identity: Insights for Teaching From ESL Students' Journals

Abstract

Linguistic minority students in schools must acquire and operate in a second language while negotiating mainstream texts and content areas, along with negotiating an emerging new sense of social identity. This article presents journal data from an Australian ethnographic study that explored the relationship between second-language use, textual practices in school, and the representation of identity. Such texts normally lie outside dominant school discourses, but for students they are a powerful means of negotiating identity and gaining vital language practice. For teachers journals provide critical insights into the experiences of their students and into their developing language competence.