The evolution of L2 education and research: An overview of paradigm shifts in applied linguistics

The main aim of the article is to present and discuss the evolution of L2 education and research expressed in two major paradigm shifts that could be observed over the last century: from the modernist approach, through postmodernism and postmethod, to transmodernity. The article also offers an overview of new approaches and trends in L2 education and research that emerged as a result of those watershed changes, in particular: complexity theory, the ecological approach, transnational identity and translanguaging. The paper ends with a brief discussion on how these changes affected L2 researchers and educators and what implications can be grasped.

A REPERTOIRE OF EVERYDAY RESISTANCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL (IN)SECURITY: CONSTRUCTING THE ROHINGYA DIASPORA AND TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITY POLITICS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

This paper explores how transnational identities are negotiated through digital and social media use, and how the narratives online contribute to Rohingya transnational identity. Recent studies have made significant strides in understanding refugees’ media practices during migration, transnational family ties, settlement in a host society. However, little attention has been paid to more nuanced understanding every day of risks and opportunities of digital media practice in the context of conflict and forced migration. Drawing on a qualitative approach of semi-structured and social media scroll back interviews methods, I investigate the use of technologies in their everyday experiences of prolonged displacement in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, Bangladesh and among resettled refugees in Brisbane, Australia, both distinct but interconnected within a power structure. The findings expose the ‘double-edged’ nature of communication technologies. While most participants think technologies have been a lifeline for their survival, participants from the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp show that security and surveillance are key concerns for members of the Rohingya diaspora. In this paper, I argue that although digital and social media offer a niche of a repertoire of resistance and the rise of a new form of community in a context of statelessness, the use of such technologies can be juxtaposed with the consequence of digital surveillance and victimisation in everyday life in a refugee camp. By focusing on both urban and refugee camp settings, this paper offers critical insights into power inequalities and transnational diaspora activism, authoritarian politics, specifically its mediation by digital technologies.

Narrating Arab-American Transnational Identity in Leila Buck’s Hkeelee [Talk to Me]

Hkeelee [ Talk to Me] is a one-woman show written and performed by Arab-American playwright Leila Buck, which explores the history of Buck’s family as she reminisces about the life story of her Teta (grandmother) and intertwines it with her own experiences to better understand what it means to be American with an Arab ethnic origin. This article argues that Buck’s stories act as counter-narratives: they resist the marginalization of Arab Americans and place the Arab-American identity within a transnational framework that emphasizes simultaneous attachment to the Arab world and to the United States, thereby unsettling prevailing US political discourses on citizenship and national identity. The article further proposes that Buck constructs an Arab-American transnational identity in the play by deploying the techniques and practices of the ancient Arab hakawati [storyteller] tradition, another example of cross-cultural connection and an instance of how US theatre could be enriched by an ethnic literary and performance legacy.

Transnational identity and the Gulf crisis: changing narratives of belonging in Qatar

What does the recent Gulf diplomatic crisis of June 2017 to January 2021 mean for the future of the region's signature transnationalism: the khalījī [Gulf] identity? This identity narrative encompasses the shared sociocultural backgrounds of the people of the region, but the unprecedented separations, caused by the regional crisis, may have shifted the discourse of belonging in the Gulf. To investigate the impact of the recent crisis on regional identity narratives, this article explores the new National Museum of Qatar's presentation of Qatar's political history from 1848 to 1868, as well as museum-goers' reactions to this presentation, through original fieldwork and ethnographic interviews with Qatari and expatriate residents. The analysis highlights the museum's purposeful portrayal of parallels between intra-Gulf conflicts of the past and the recent crisis, a presentational choice that stands in sharp contrast to previous regional norms of tactful diplomacy. Further, museum-goers recognized the linguistic and symbolic parallels, provoking both engagement with and rejection of the concept of khalījī identity. In summary, this analysis suggests that the crisis has shifted the norms of discourse in the region in ways that may make social reconciliation difficult, even as political bonds resume. As the region moves forward from crisis, policy-makers should reduce the tension between national and transnational identity narratives by creating space for the renewal of khalījī ties.

Exploring The Horizontal Acquisition Of Transnational Identity In Intercultural Relationships In Toronto

While identity shift in the context of migration has been studied in depth, questions of identity in those who have close, love-based relationships with international migrants or descendants of migrants remain underrepresented in the literature. Theoretically framing the research in a cultural studies and constructivist perspective, this study explores the extent to which individuals in intercultural relationships take on components of their partners’ transnational identities and how this process occurs. Interviews were conducted with seven individuals in intercultural relationships with first or second-generation immigrant partners. They explored how an individual’s identity shifts in the context of their relationship to reflect their partner’s transnational identity. The findings demonstrate that individuals embrace components of their partner’s transnational identity through discussion and interaction with both their partner and their partner’s family, suggesting that non-migrant individuals with no familial ties to another region in the world can also engage in transnationalism.

Exploring The Horizontal Acquisition Of Transnational Identity In Intercultural Relationships In Toronto

While identity shift in the context of migration has been studied in depth, questions of identity in those who have close, love-based relationships with international migrants or descendants of migrants remain underrepresented in the literature. Theoretically framing the research in a cultural studies and constructivist perspective, this study explores the extent to which individuals in intercultural relationships take on components of their partners’ transnational identities and how this process occurs. Interviews were conducted with seven individuals in intercultural relationships with first or second-generation immigrant partners. They explored how an individual’s identity shifts in the context of their relationship to reflect their partner’s transnational identity. The findings demonstrate that individuals embrace components of their partner’s transnational identity through discussion and interaction with both their partner and their partner’s family, suggesting that non-migrant individuals with no familial ties to another region in the world can also engage in transnationalism.

Identity and the Language in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names

Humans have been migrating for centuries. This paper tries to delineate the formation of hybrid identities using the transnational theory of migration in a postcolonial context. Throughout the colonial and the postcolonial history, the voices of migrant experiences have been overlooked. They had accepted their position as silent spectators to their own stories without a voice, without opinion and without choice. Their Silence was being read as a form of acceptance and approval without delving much into the social, political and economic milieu of the era. This paper aims at understanding the dynamics of language and the choice of the migrant community to rise above their status as silenced subjects and oppressed people and share their experiences. It intends to explore the language differences and the search for an identity in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names which tells the story of a diasporic African teenager who tries to grapple with the host country culture while still holding to the memories of her homeland and a yearning to go back home. The paper tries to understand the search and development of a hybrid and transnational identity of the migrant.