Face and Enactment of Identities in the L2 Classroom

This book examines student identities as revealed through the pragmatics of face during an English L2 classroom interaction between Japanese students and a native speaker teacher. This study reminds us that what may be considered acceptable language use in the classroom can shift dramatically according to social, cultural and individual contexts.

Joshua Alexander Kidd has been involved extensively in teaching, curriculum development and education research in Japan for over 20 years. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from Macquarie University, Australia. His research interests include social pragmatics, discourse analysis, face, identity and politeness theory. As a teacher he focuses on promoting language acquisition while fostering cultural awareness, interest, respect and tolerance.

Joshua Alexander Kidd has been involved extensively in teaching, curriculum development and education research in Japan for over 20 years. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from Macquarie University, Australia. His research interests include social pragmatics, discourse analysis, face, identity and politeness theory. As a teacher he focuses on promoting language acquisition while fostering cultural awareness, interest, respect and tolerance.

Kidd sensitively and insightfully highlights peak areas of mis-communication in classrooms stemming from emerging identities. He then constructively and proactively proposes detailed professional development to help teachers become more aware of cross-cultural pragmatics. Kidd’s book will help teachers critically evaluate existing practices, provoking both reflection in action and on action.

This timely book offers a theoretically engaging, deeply insightful and richly illustrated argument for the need in second language teaching and learning, teacher education and research, to (re)consider the construction of student identities as revealed through the pragmatics of face. It highlights the ways in which the students and their teacher interpret in diverse ways what it is that is going on and who it is that learners can be in classroom interaction, with consequences for the negotiation of face and the construction of identities.