Negotiating voices in English as a lingua franca: Indonesian multilingual identity in English digital interactions

Abstract

Despite the existence of many studies on the identity of language learners in the offline settings, few focus on how English language learners in the expanding circle construct their identity through their use of English and their choices over their first language capital as they enjoy variations of multilinguacultural exposes in the digital space. To fill this gap, this study explores the voices of 267 Indonesian undergraduate students in negotiating their identity as English learners and users. Drawing on the poststructuralist approach and positioning theory of identity, this study shows how socio-cultural values and a hegemony that posits L1 users as the most rightful language model become sensitive factors affecting participants’ choices of languages, accent-preferences and desire to affiliate with diverse multilinguacultural persons in digital interactions. This article calls for the encouragement of translanguaging as discursive practice in the classrooms and beyond. Additionally, societal stigma on the existence and use of English which limits the identity options of Indonesian learners as users of English in the expanding circle should be responded strongly in digital interaction as well as offline encounters.

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