Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles

This paper will discuss some of the findings of a doctoral research study on how the acquisition of the English language impacted the cultural identities of a group of Malaysian ESL speakers. The participants shared that learning English was an empowering and positive experience. English possesse...

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Main Author: Lee, Su Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2003
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3102/1/1.pdf
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author Lee, Su Kim
author_facet Lee, Su Kim
author_sort Lee, Su Kim
collection UKM
description This paper will discuss some of the findings of a doctoral research study on how the acquisition of the English language impacted the cultural identities of a group of Malaysian ESL speakers. The participants shared that learning English was an empowering and positive experience. English possessed a quality of directness and neutrality which allowed expression of their innermost feelings. In multicultural societies, where certain values are attached to the use of the vernacular languages, resorting to English provided a freedom of expression because of it is "free of any ethnicity" within localized contexts. The findings also revealed that participants experienced identity conflicts and that the sociocultural context in which English is acquired, particularly in postcolonial societies, is loaded with complex cultural and political issues.
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spelling ukm.eprints-31022016-12-14T06:33:36Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3102/ Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles Lee, Su Kim This paper will discuss some of the findings of a doctoral research study on how the acquisition of the English language impacted the cultural identities of a group of Malaysian ESL speakers. The participants shared that learning English was an empowering and positive experience. English possessed a quality of directness and neutrality which allowed expression of their innermost feelings. In multicultural societies, where certain values are attached to the use of the vernacular languages, resorting to English provided a freedom of expression because of it is "free of any ethnicity" within localized contexts. The findings also revealed that participants experienced identity conflicts and that the sociocultural context in which English is acquired, particularly in postcolonial societies, is loaded with complex cultural and political issues. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2003 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3102/1/1.pdf Lee, Su Kim (2003) Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 8 . pp. 28-39. ISSN 0128-5157 http://www.ukm.my/~ppbl/3L/3LArchives.html
spellingShingle Lee, Su Kim
Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles
title Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles
title_full Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles
title_fullStr Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles
title_full_unstemmed Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles
title_short Entrapment or empowerment: ESL profiles
title_sort entrapment or empowerment esl profiles
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3102/1/1.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT leesukim entrapmentorempowermenteslprofiles