TheSocial Construction of Age : : Adult Foreign Language Learners / / Patricia Andrew.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter MultiLingual Matters Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Andrew, Patricia,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol ;, Blue Ridge Summit : : Multilingual Matters, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Second Language Acquisition
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (200 p.)

This book explores the social construction of age in the context of EFL in Mexico. It is the first book to address the age factor in SLA from a social perspective. Based on research carried out at a public university in Mexico, it investigates how adults of different ages experience learning a new language and how they enact their age identities as language learners. By approaching the topic from a social constructionist perspective and in light of recent work in sociolinguistics and cultural studies, it broadens the current second language acquisition focus on age as a fixed biological or chronological variable to encompass its social dimensions. What emerges is a more complex and nuanced understanding of age as it intersects with language learning in a way that links it fundamentally to other social phenomena, such as gender, ethnicity and social class.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: A First Glimpse of Age -- Part 1: Framing Age as Socially Constructed -- 1. The Age Factor and Second Language Acquisition -- 2. Present-Day Approaches to the Study of Age -- 3. Viewing Age through a Social Constructionist Lens -- Part 2: The Social Construction of Age in Mexico -- 4. Constructing Age in Later Adulthood -- 5. Constructing Age in ‘Middle’ Adulthood -- 6. Constructing Age in Young Adulthood -- Final Reflections -- References -- Index