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Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 40:3 (2017) ► pp.218–246

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Displacement identity in transit

A Nauru case study

 | University of New South Wales
Published online: 7 May 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.17019.don
Abstract
Based on (2015). Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 351, 36–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar reconceptualization of identity theory highlighting the recursive relationship between identity, capital, and ideology, this study posits that refugee and asylum seeker adolescents and adults in transit on Nauru are ascribed a ‘displacement identity’ through externally imposed normative ideologies. In addressing the issue of normative ideologies, this article draws on my experience as an English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher at the Nauru Regional [refugee] Processing Centre and employs (2010a). Actor descriptions, action attributions, and argumentation: Towards systematization of CDA analytical categories in the representation of social groups. Critical Discourse Studies, 7(1), 55–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar systematic model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to explore the representations of ‘displacement’ inherent in a corpus of texts accessed by those displaced on Nauru. This analysis suggests that an externally ascribed displacement identity is evident in normative ideologies. As Darvin and Norton’s identity theory situates language learning investment at the dynamic intersection of identity, capital, and ideology, further qualitative research on internally inhabited displacement identity formation and symbolic capital affordances is now required. Such research would aid in the development of pedagogical approaches to enable education in sites of transitory settlement to be a re-humanising and transformative experience that engages marginalized language learners, promotes positive identities and thus optimizes language learning investment.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Conceptual Framework
  • Methods and Design
    • Autoethnography
    • Critical Discourse Analysis
    • Methodological synergy
    • Corpus design
  • CDA: Results and Discussion
    • Topicalization
    • Social Actors
    • Social Action Attributions
      • Text 1: A Current Affair goes to Nauru: Facile questions and lingering shots of flat screen TVs
      • Texts 2, 3 & 4: Facebook screenshots
      • Text 5: A Current Affair’s rare look inside the Nauru detention centre
      • Text 6: Inside Nauru: ‘You make a nice prison, it’s still a prison’
      • Texts 7 & 8: Articles about boat turnbacks
      • Text 9: Australian news report on Nauru ‘sanitised’
      • Text 10: Only ‘respectful and objective’ media outlets are welcome, says Nauru
    • Argumentation
    • CDA implications and limitations
  • Conclusion and implications for further research
  • Note
  • References
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