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

This critical ethnographic school-based case study offers insights onthe interaction between ideology and the identity development of individualEnglish language learners in Singapore. Illustrated by case studies of thelanguage learning experiences of five Asian immigrant students in anEnglish-medium school in Singapore, the author examines how the immigrantstudents negotiated a standard English ideology and their discursivepositioning over the course of the school year. Specifically, the study traceshow the prevailing standard English ideology interacted in highly complex wayswith their being positioned as high academic achievers to ultimately influencetheir learning of English. This potent combination of language ideologies andcirculating ideologies created a designer student immigration complex. Byframing this situation as a complex, the study problematizes the power of ideologiesin shaping the trajectories and identities of language learners.