Abstract

The purpose of this reflective study is to understand how English learners’ cultural identities facilitate their confidence to use English within a native English-speaking context. This article covers a qualitative case study using an autobiographical reflection of a Chinese-speaking international student’s studying experiences in a Northern American English-speaking context. The data were collected through weekly interviews and the participant’s diary report. The findings first display the contradictions of self and the other in her mind during the process of using English. Second, the study explores how cultural identity and the negotiations of linguistic codes of the target and mother language interact with each other. Third, the extracts of the study reveal that the participant is aware of her miscommunication in English resulting from her lack of pragmatic knowledge of English. Some instructional suggestions focusing on fostering learners’ target language pragmatic knowledge and their mother cultural identity are presented.

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