TELLING TALES: DISCURSIVE NARRATIVES OF ESOL MIGRANT IDENTITIES

This paper concerns migrant identity construction in an ESOL course. Taking a poststructuralist perspective, identity is viewed a fluid process of ongoing struggle between different subject positions that individuals take in a variety of social sites. In this study, five migrant ESOL learners were interviewed to talk about the concept of self to investigate the process of identity construction. The purpose of this study was also toidentify the role of learning English for migrant workers in relation to imagined community and self. The study showed how these migrant ESOL learners conceptualize self in relation to two aspects: learning English and investment, gaining social and cultural capitals and access to imagine community, and being transmigrants. This paper highlights the implications in language education.