This book explores the social construction of age in the context of EFL in Mexico. It is the first book to address the age factor in SLA from a social perspective. Based on research carried out at a public university in Mexico, it investigates how adults of different ages experience learning a new language and how they enact their age identities as language learners. By approaching the topic from a social constructionist perspective and in light of recent work in sociolinguistics and cultural studies, it broadens the current second language acquisition focus on age as a fixed biological or chronological variable to encompass its social dimensions. What emerges is a more complex and nuanced understanding of age as it intersects with language learning in a way that links it fundamentally to other social phenomena, such as gender, ethnicity and social class.
Table of Content
Introduction: A First Glimpse of Age
Part I Framing Age as Socially Constructed
Chapter 1 The Age Factor and Second Language Acquisition
Chapter 2 Present-Day Approaches to the Study of Age
Chapter 3 Viewing Age through a Social Constructionist Lens
Part II The Social Construction of Age in Mexico
Chapter 4 Constructing Age in Later Adulthood
Chapter 5 Constructing Age in ‘Middle’ Adulthood
Chapter 6 Constructing Age in Young Adulthood
Final Reflections
About the author
Patricia Andrew is Professor of Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and English as a Foreign Language at the National University of Mexico. Her research interests include identity construction, sociocultural perspectives on second language acquisition, and age studies.
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