Learning for investment, investing for empowerment

: The personal narratives of Algerian EFL learners' informal language learning experiences

Abstract

This research explores the personal narratives of seven Algerian female EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in a postcolonial context where English, unlike Arabic and French, holds neither official status nor a colonial history. Initially, the study aimed to explore the informal English learning strategies of these learners, as well as the activities and resources they employed. However, as the study progressed, the focus shifted towards understanding the meanings these learners attach to English and the role of their social environment in shaping their investment in learning the language.

Drawing mainly upon Darvin and Norton's (2015) model of investment, Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, and symbolic violence, as well as a postcolonial and postcolonial feminist lens, and adopting a qualitative interpretivist approach using narrative inquiry, this study seeks to analyse these female learners' experiences in depth. This allowed for a closer examination of
the personal narratives of informal English language learning across different sociocultural and historical contexts and time frames, from the learners' first exposure to the language to the time of data collection. Data collection involved using language learning histories (written narratives) that allowed the participants to reflect on their learning journeys at their own pace. These written accounts provided a foundation for designing semi-structured oral narrative
interviews, which served as the primary data source, to further explore and understand these experiences. These oral narratives offered a deeper insight into the learners' worlds and informal English language learning experiences, which were shaped by different aspirations, capitals, power dynamics, and their evolving identities.

The findings reveal that the informal English language learning experiences of these young women are beyond mere motivation to reflect a persistent investment in English, an investment not merely as a means to linguistic acquisition but as an act of empowerment. It is empowering in the sense that it would grant them access to linguistic, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital, aiming for upward and outward mobility, which helps them imagine new identities and futures. For them, English is empowering, as it serves as a gateway to an idealised Western world they aspire to join, offering to bridge the gap between their current realities and imagined identities shaped by media influences. It is further empowering as it provides access to improved educational and career opportunities, enabling them to navigate competitive
academic and professional environments both locally and internationally. English also means to them a source of symbolic capital, which will improve their social status and respectability in their society, particularly among youth, where English is increasingly viewed as more prestigious than French.

The study findings also uncovered both constraining and enabling factors that shaped these female learners' investment in English. Constraining factors include the larger Algerian society, where colonial legacies continue to privilege French and marginalise English. This results in symbolic violence, which is expressed through ridicule, social shaming, and judgment that discourages learners from using English publicly and undermines their confidence. Another limitation was posed by their formal education; the lack of authentic cultural content and its
rigid, exam-oriented instruction, which failed to meet learners’ aspirations for communicative engagement, leading many to turn to informal learning alternatives.

Conversely, the enabling forces were found within their immediate micro communities; family members and friends, which offered a space where different social agents, including family and friends networks, performed a shared functions which influenced this young women investment in English language, their current and imagined identities and spirations. These functions include early exposure, English learning legitimisation, social validation, modelling, and
scaffolding of language practises, and regulating their investment in English. Within these communities, Fathers in particular, played a transformative role by challenging traditional gendered expectations and actively encouraging, legitimising, validating and co-learning English with their daughters. These micro-communities illustrate the emergence of a new linguistic habitus, one that values English as a form of cultural capital and empowerment. These immediate social environments, together with informal learning spaces, became active space of collective investment, where shared imagined future and support systems encourage learners' aspirations. The study's further conclusion highlights whether Algerian investments in English, despite potentially promoting empowerment, represent neo-linguistic imperialism or address
issues of language dominance, cultural alignment, and identity negotiation.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Canterbury Christ Church University