Opportunities and Challenges for Globalised L2 Identity

This chapter identifies the opportunities and challenges for second language (L2) identity brought by globalisation. The opportunities identified are English classroom as an ideal niche for global identity construction, fluid and flexible post-structural identity, and material benefits. The challenges include globalisation’s neglect of individual subjectivity, the rise of nationalism, homogenisation of culture, and naïve cosmopolitanism. To maximise the opportunities and minimise the negative effects of globalisation, the following measures are proposed: Inclusion of human rights and duties to others into L2 teaching; provision of expression of voice for learners for cultural alternatives; inclusion of writer identity in the L2 writing curriculum; grammar teaching for the construction of globalised L2 identity; and finally, the provision of a more balanced description of English native-speaking cultures and those of other cultures in L2 textbooks.