“Dude, it's not a appropriate word”: Negotiating word meanings, language ideologies, and identities in a literature discussion group

This study explored how ideologies of language and literacy and social and academic identities were constructed and contested during a literature discussion. In the event, a group of five (and later six) boys in a fourth grade bilingual classroom attempt to identify an unknown word in their novel: booger. Microethnographic discourse analysis and analyses of participants’ movements across the classroom were conducted, and interpretations were informed by spatializing theories of social practice and identities. Findings illustrate how the students’ and teacher's physical and discursive moves involved the negotiation of multiple ideologies of language learning. Findings suggest the need for a deeper understanding of the micro-level processes in which academic and social identities and learning opportunities for students are forged.

► Learners’ discursive moves (utterances and body movements) re-inscribe and challenge social and academic identities in classroom settings.
► Discursive moves simultaneously index multiple ideologies of language and literacy.
► Analyses of identity construction at the micro-level reveal tactics and strategies that have significance for language and literacy learning.