The Multilingual Subject What foreign language learners say about their experience and why it matters Claire Kramsch

Contents, bibliography, index.

Introduction : The subjective dimension of language
1- The signifying self
2- The embodied self
3- The subject in process
4- The multilingual social actor
5- The multilingual narrator
6- The virtual self
7- Teaching the multilingual subject

By drawing on multiple examples of real-world language learning situations, this book explores the subjective aspects of the language learning experience. The author encourages readers to consider language learning from new, diverse, and unique perspectives. The book analyses data from a variety of sources, including language memoirs, online data from language learners in chat rooms, and text messaging exchanges. In the analysis of this data, the book looks at the relationship between symbolic form and the development of a multilingual subjectivity; links with memory, emotion, and the imagination; and the implications for language teaching pedagogy.