Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

392 Part 5: Language and Identity
for some of the students’ homophobia. She explains that a major challenge
‘was to ask the students to consider the social origins of their fears as well
as alternatives to killing or beating up someone as a way of dealing with
those fears’ (1999: 578).
Just as the teacher in Nelson’s study found a way to encourage her students
to critically assess their own inferences about gay and lesbian individuals,
Benesch and Byram also advocate for deeper refl ection on how
we as individuals respond to social behaviors differently, and how our
responses are very much shaped by the societies in which we are socialized.
To put some distance between students’ responses to gender identities,
teachers can plan activities which encourage ‘dialogic thinking’
(Benesch, 1999), a practice which has a lot in common with Byram’s intercultural
pedagogy approach. Both approaches ask students to consider
what presuppositions underlie dominant perspectives, and both ask them
to challenge hegemonic views by listening to an array of voices in the
analysis of their presuppositions. These practices of decentering and relativizing
individuals’ interpretations of gendered and sexual identities are
productive ways forward in educational contexts.
Suggestions for further reading
Cameron, D. (2005) Language, gender and sexuality: Current issues and new
directions. Applied Linguistics 26 (4), 482–502.
This state-of-the-art article reviews changes in paradigms, methodologies, and
target populations in gender and sexuality studies since 1990. Cameron outlines a
shift from a difference to a diversity approach to gender and sexuality, and she situates
this shift within the postmodern turn in discourse and identity studies.
Davis, K.A. and Skilton-Sylvester, E. (guest editors) (2004) TESOL Quarterly 38 (3),
377–538.
This special topic issue provides a comprehensive overview of research on gender
in contexts of English language learning, followed by research reports in a range
of language teaching and learning contexts. The studies include an exploration of
gender among university English teachers in Japan, among Laotian adult immigrants
in the United States and Laos, and in a kindergarten classroom in the United
States that includes Spanish-speaking bilingual children.
Menard-Warwick, J. (2009) Gendered Identities and Immigrant Language Learning.
Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
This ethnographic study explores the experiences of immigrant adults from Latin
America in the context of an adult ESL program in California, in the United States.
The author uses case studies and classroom observations to demonstrate how gendered
identities constrain opportunities for investing in English for themselves
and their children.
Norton, B. and Pavlenko, A. (eds) (2004) Gender and English Language Learners.
Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
This edited volume explores the fl uid nature of gender in multilingual classrooms
around the world. Taking a sociocultural perspective, the contributors describe
gender inequities in classrooms and ways to address them through innovative
pedagogical practices. The majority of chapters focus on North America and