“I Feel Like I’m a Different Person”: Exploring Undergraduate Students’ Imagined L2 Selves
Identity has a prominent place in language education. It can be manifested by the imagined L2 self, understood as a realization of how L2 learners imagine, perceive and talk about their experience of being an L2 user. It might be argued that undergraduate students of foreign languages should exhibi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Silesia Press
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/TAPSLA/article/view/15909 |
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| Summary: | Identity has a prominent place in language education. It can be manifested by the imagined L2 self, understood as a realization of how L2 learners imagine, perceive and talk about their experience of being an L2 user. It might be argued that undergraduate students of foreign languages should exhibit more complex language identities, as their imagined L2 selves are shaped by their rich language repertoires. The major aim of the study was to examine undergraduate students’ imagined L1 and L2 selves, by investigating two dimensions of their complex language identity, namely: how they view these languages and how they feel using these languages. A total of 200 students (88 English major, 67 German major and 45 Swedish major students) completed a questionnaire designed to explore their specific perception of the languages they speak and the way they feel using them. The results offer an interesting insight into the complex language identity profiles of the participants and their imagined selves. Overall, the students seem to show high language awareness; they are sensitive to the differences in language systems, including the sounds and the pragmatics of a given language. The students also exhibit very positive attitudes towards their imagined L2 selves. It is, thus, suggested that language teachers provide a platform for the students to express their complex identities by incorporating language journals, or language biographies, in order to allow the students to explore their identities in more depth. It can also be argued that the teachers could capitalize on the affective dimension of the students’ L2 identity, by fostering the students’ intrinsic motivation and supporting their investment in learning.
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| ISSN: | 2450-5455 2451-2125 |