Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fuller, Janet M.

Titel

'Sam need gun go war': Performances of non-Standard English in the construction of identity

Ist Teil von

• Journal of sociolinguistics, 2009-11, Vol.13 (5), p.659-669

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Linguistic research on the classroom behavior of schoolchildren has often shown that there is a tension between the development of an anti-authoritarian peer culture and the pressure to do well academically and behave in ways that meet adult approval (e.g. Davies 2003; Heller 2001). This tension is particularly strong for boys when the wider societal norms condone acts of disobedience with a 'boys will be boys' attitude (see Sadker and Sadker 1997; Wortham 2002). In this context, violating the linguistic norms of the classroom is one way of rebelling and constructing a masculine identity which can gain peer approval. However, such behavior can be risky in that it may limit academic success. A further complication is found in the tendency for displays of knowledge to be another part of the construction of masculine identity (Kiesling 2004), which creates a conflict for boys in their performances of hegemonic masculinity. In this study of an English Mother Tongue classroom in a German-American bilingual school in Berlin, Germany, five boys are faced with this dilemma. Evidence is presented that these boys' performance of non-Standard English are a strategy used to create a balance between rebellion and obedience. Adapted from the source document.