Face and Enactment of Identities in the L2 Classroom (New Perspectives on Language and Education; 46) by Joshua Alexander Kidd - 2016

Multilingual Matters, 2016. Hardbound. New Book. Hardbound. This study explores the construction of student identities as revealed through the pragmatics of public self-image in the context of second-language classroom interaction between Japanese students and their non-Japanese English teacher, and how misconceptions associated with preconceived cultural stereotypes might result in inadvertent differences in communication intentions and meanings. It describes the field of pragmatics, English education in Japan, the constructs of face, politeness, and identity, and the research methodology, then four key themes related to issues of cross-cultural pragmatic divergence from the perspective of students: face and spontaneous peer collaboration, teacher/student discord associated with the characteristics of Japanese identities, divergent student/teacher interpretations of the use of Japanese, and students' non-verbal interaction strategies associated with silence during communication. The final chapter details a teacher development model. (2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)