A community of practice is a term that refers to a group of people with common interests who share a certain activity. An L2 classroom can be organized by a specific community of people who migrated into a new country for their fellow newcomers who might struggle with learning a new language. Fuentes (2016) states that narrating their experiences is one of the best opportunities for immigrant English learners to share these experiences. Another example of such an L2 classroom for the community of practice is the language groups for children. Kilginger (2006) adds that “learners have differential access to the social networks providing opportunities for engagement in the interactions so crucial to language development” (p. 221). Thus, children can not only learn a new language but also study the culture of the country whose language they are learning.
The concept of constructing a negotiated social identity differs greatly from simply learning a new culture. In the case of the latter, a person does not need to adjust their personality to the principles and rules of the culture they are learning. The process of developing or modifying an identity does not depend on this culture, and there is no acute need for the person to fit into a society based on this culture. Meanwhile, constructing a negotiated social identity requires the person to restructure and rebuild some aspects of their personality in order to meet the requirements of the culture they are living in. According to Brown (2014), “culture establishes a broad context of cognitive and affective behavior and a template for personal and social existence” (p. 175). The need to negotiate their social identity often occurs after migration to another country, especially one where the social culture differs significantly.
For example, when I studied abroad, I was forced into close contact with different cultures, some of which were quite foreign to me. Our community of practice consisted of students from many countries, and in order to coexist productively and peacefully, we had to adjust our social identities to each other’s differences. In my culture, it is common to greet people with a firm handshake and hugs and be generally tactile. However, it is frowned upon or even prohibited in the cultures of some of my fellow students. Thus, I had to reconstruct the concept of friendliness ingrained in my social identity so that I would not offend other people.
References
Brown, H. D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching. White Plains, USA: Pearson Education.
Fuentes, R. (2016). Language, identity, and citizenship in a U.S. university: Immigrant English learners’ identity (re)positioning. Current Issues in Language Planning, 17(3-4), 405-421. doi:10.1080/14664208.2016.1203051
Kinginger, C. (2006). Chapter 7: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Foreign Language Learning and Identity Reconstruction. In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (Eds.), Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts (pp. 219-242). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.