Investments, identities, and Chinese learning experience of an Irish adult: the role of context, capital, and agency

Abstract

This case study aims to explore the foreign language (FL) investments of a highly motivated young Irish adult in learning Chinese across different contexts, encompassing classroom settings and daily life, both in Ireland and abroad. By analysing the interview data through the lens of Darvin and Norton’s model of investment, this study shows that the participant’s investments at different stages of her learning journey appear to be intricately intertwined with her identities and are mediated by the perceived likelihood of achieving her imagined identity. This study highlights the importance of present identity and linguistic capital in shaping and consolidating native English speakers’ FL-related identities.It provides insights into how FL learning investment and FL-related identitiesare influenced by learners’ first language (L1) in the era of globalisation. As powerrelations among individuals with different L1s are often unequal in the globallinguistic marketplace, learners’ L1 can be valuable capital that influences the return of foreign language learners’ investment.