The Power of Identity and Ideology in Language Learning : Designer Immigrants Learning English in Singapore

This critical ethnographic school-based case study offers insights on
the interaction between ideology and the identity development of individual
English language learners in Singapore. Illustrated by case studies of the
language learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students in an
English-medium school in Singapore, the author examines how the immigrant
students negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursive
positioning over the course of the school year. Specifically, the study traces
how the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex ways
with their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influence
their learning of English. This potent combination of language ideologies and
circulating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex. By
framing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of ideologies
in shaping the trajectories and identities of language learners.