A Qualitative Research Study on the Interplays between Plurilingualism and Identity

The aim of this research study is to provide further insight into the interplays between plurilingualism and identity among first year academic literacy students in university. The participants were from a university located in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. A qualitative methodology with an interpretivist ethnographic approach was used. I analyzed the data based on the theoretical concepts linking plurilingualism and agency (Coste & Simon, 2009; Marshall & Moore, 2013), multiliteracies and the ways in which identity can be negotiated (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009), discursive practices and their influence on identity (Gee, 2005) and lastly the concepts of identity negotiation and contestation (Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001; Hall, 1996; Leung, Harris & Rampton, 1997). Participants revealed their perspectives on how they perceived their multi/plurilingualism and how they were able to use their languages across space and time. The participants expressed multiple layers of identity that intersected with ideas of legitimacy, competency, performance and agency in accordance with the physical spaces they occupied.