Identity and Second Language Acquisition BONNY NORTON To understand the vibrant and increasing interest in identity and second language acqui- sition (SLA), it is important to understand changing conceptions of the individual, language, and learning in the field. Each of these areas is associated with broader trends in the social sciences, which represent a shift in the field from a predominantly psycholinguistic approach to SLA to include a greater focus on sociological and anthropological dimensions of language learning, particularly with reference to sociocultural, poststructural, and critical theory (Norton & Toohey, 2001; Block, 2007b; Morgan, 2007). SLA researchers who are interested in identity are interested not only in linguistic input and output in SLA, but in the relationship between the language learner and the larger social world. They question the view that learners can be defined in binary terms as motivated or unmotivated, intro- verted or extroverted, without considering that such affective factors are frequently socially constructed, changing across time and space, and possibly coexisting in contradictory ways within a single individual. These researchers have examined the diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts in which language learning takes place, and how learners negotiate and sometimes resist the diverse positions those contexts offer them. Many researchers interested in identity and SLA are also interested in the extent to which relations of power within classrooms and communities promote or constrain the process of language learning. It is argued that the extent to which a learner speaks or is silent, or writes, reads, or resists, has much to do with the extent to which the learner is valued in any given institution or community. In this regard, social processes marked by inequities of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation may serve to position learners in ways that silence and exclude. At the same time, however, learners may resist marginalization through both covert and overt acts of resistance. What is of central interest to researchers of second language identity is that the very articulation of power, identity, and resistance is expressed in and through language. Language is thus more than a system of signs; it is a social practice in which experiences are organized and identities negotiated. Theoretical Framework Changing conceptions of the individual, language, and learning in the social sciences have had a significant impact on theories of identity in the field of SLA. Changing Conceptions of the Individual In the 1970s and 1980s, much research on language learning investigated the personalities, learning styles, motivations, and other unique characteristics of individual learners, and conceived of language learners with reference to relatively fixed and long-term traits. Such research was consistent with humanist conceptions of the individual dominant in Western philosophy, which presupposed that every person—the “real me”—had an essential, The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Edited by Carol A. Chapelle. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0521