Module 2: Autoethnographic study of self and language experiences
Reflecting on language and literacy—relationship to home and language Looking back on your linguistic identities Asking, how do linguistic and cultural experiences affect your ideas about what it means to write in college?
This module is all about your lived experiences, observations, understanding, recalling, reflection, and critical engagement with your language learning and literacy journey. Since it is all about YOU and YOUR, it is an ‘autoethnographic’ study of self and language experiences. Before getting into ‘auto-ethnography’, let’s slightly discuss ethnography. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines ‘ethnography’ as “the study and systematic recording of human cultures” (Click ETHNOGRAPHY). It means ethnography is a method of studying human cultures, traditions, rituals, etc. at a particular locality, place, and time. It is a method of doing research. Now, the term ‘autotoethnography’ contains a prefix, that is ‘auto’, which means the ‘self’ (not other). Hence, ‘autoethnography’ is the study of one’s culture, identity, habits, perceptions, learning journeys, etc. Nevertheless, it requires a critical reflection and systematic unraveling of the multiple factors behind all of them. To borrow a term from, Module 1, it is an exploration of one’s own ‘positionalities’, and one of the positionalities that this module wants us to discover is the ‘language’ and/or ‘literacy’ experiences. In RWS, language is of the subjects of study because our world is largely characterized with “language in action, that is, how we use language to construct (and sometimes contest) meanings, and how we turn to speaking, writing, and reading when we interact in the world. (p. 82). Moreover, RWS scholars believe that language is not neutral, it is enmeshed with ideologies. Thus, in this module, we can focus on “ways that we experience language as classed and raced, and how those experiences shape us as students, teachers, and writers’ (p. 82). In RWS, bilingualism and multilingualism are understood as an asset. Language learning experiences differ from person to person, place to place, and community to community. Therefore, “when we define rhetoric as language in action, and we start to think about how we use language in the world” (p. 83). Have you ever reflected on the use of language in the real social world? Is there any hierarchy between two or more languages, or is any one language preferred more compared to other languages? How? This module is all about reflecting on those aspects of language and the evidence, data, and supporting details are your experiences. Therefore, start reflecting on your language learning experiences critically.