A path-breaking study of the role played by language in constructing sexual identities in schools. It will be of keen interest to a wide audience of educational practitioners and academics in the fields of applied linguistics, gender studies and English language and linguistics.
Presenting a range of data obtained from secondary schools in the UK and US, this path-breaking book explores the role played by language in constructing sexual identities. Analysing the often complex ways in which homophobia, heterosexism and heteronormativity are enacted within school contexts, it shows that by analysing language, we can discover much about how educators and students experience sexual diversity in their schools, how sexual identities are constructed through language, and how different statuses are ascribed to different sexual identities.
This book brings together leading academics and practitioners working in the area of language, gender, sexuality and education, consolidating recent developments and moving the field forward in a contemporary context. This unique and timely volume captures current themes, debates, theories and methods in the field, and will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working around the world in the areas of Applied Linguistics, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Education, Sociology and Discourse Studies.
Researching Language, Gender and Sexuality leads students through the process of undertaking research in order to explore how gender and sexuality are represented and constructed through language. Drawing on international research, Sauntson incorporates a fluid understanding of genders and sexualities and includes research on a diverse range of identities. This accessible guidebook offers an outline of the practical steps and ethical guidelines involved when gathering linguistic data for the purpose of investigating gender and sexuality. Each chapter contains up-to-date information and empirical case studies that relate to a range of topics within the field of language, gender and sexuality, as well as suggestions for how students could practically research the areas covered. Student-friendly, this is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of English language, linguistics and gender studies.
This book combines teaching-informed research studies and research-informed teaching accounts which explore English language education that engages with (a)gender and (a)sexual diversity. Informed by critical theories, critical literacy, post-structuralism, queer theory, and indigeneity/(de)coloniality, the critical perspectives in this volume consider gender and sexuality as dimensions of human life and aim to promote sexual, gender, emotional and relational wellbeing together with the construction of cultural horizons and citizenship. The chapters are organised around three interdependent areas of inquiry: 1) how educators design pedagogies and curriculums around gender diversity and sexuality, 2) how students and teachers navigate issues of gender diversity and sexuality in practice, as well as 3) how issues of gender diversity and sexuality are (not) addressed in the materials for teaching and learning English. The contributors are all teacher educators-researchers and therefore have vast experience in enacting, implementing, designing, and examining the field of English language teacher education from/for the classroom with a gender perspective in diverse settings, with chapters come from Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and Uruguay.
What pedagogic challenges and opportunities arise as gay, lesbian, and queer themes and perspectives become an increasingly visible part of English language classes within a variety of language learning contexts and levels? What sorts of teaching practices are needed in order to productively explore the sociosexual aspects of language, identity, culture, and communication? How can English language teachers promote language learning through the development of teaching approaches that do not presume an exclusively heterosexual world? Drawing on the experiences of over 100 language teachers and learners, and using a wide range of research and theory, especially queer education research, this innovative, cutting-edge book skillfully interweaves classroom voices and theoretical analysis to provide informed guidance and a practical framework of macrostrategies English language teachers (of any sexual identification) can use to engage with lesbian/gay themes in the classroom. In so doing, it illuminates broader questions about how to address social diversity, social inequity, and social inquiry in a classroom context.
Sexed Texts explores the complex role that language plays in the construction of sexuality and gender, two concepts often discussed separately but, in practice, closely intertwined. It locates sexuality and gender as socially constructed, and examines language use in terms of socio-historical factors, linking changing conceptualisations of identity, discourse and desire to theories surrounding regulation, globalisation, new technologies, marketisation and consumerism. This book draws on a range of theoretical perspectives and published research, and takes examples from written, spoken, internet, non-verbal, visual, mediascripted and naturally occurring texts. Some of the questions addressed in the book include: how do people construct their own and other's gendered or sexual identities through the use of language? What is the relationship between language and desire? In what ways do language practices help to reflect and shape different gendered/sexed discourses as 'normal', problematic or contested? Taking a broadly deconstructionist perspective, the book progresses from examining what are seen as preferable or acceptable ways to express gender and sexuality, moving towards more 'tolerated' identities, practices and desires, and finally arriving at marginalized and tabooed forms. The book locates sexuality and gender as socially constructed, and therefore examines language use in terms of socio-historical factors, linking changing conceptualisations of identity, discourse and desire to theories surrounding regulation, globalisation, new technologies, marketisation and consumerism.
Presenting new and exciting data from lesbian and gay conversations, narratives, representations of lesbians in film and erotic fiction, and representations of prominent gay men in newspapers, this book looks at some of the ways lesbians and gay men construct identity from among the symbolic resources available within lesbian and gay communities.
This book explores Japanese women's desire for English as a means of identity transformation and as access to the West and its masculinity. Drawing on ethnographic data and critical discourse analysis, the book illuminates how such desire impacts upon the linguistic, social, and romantic choices made by young women in Japan and overseas.