Dr Susan Mandala will be giving a talk in the Language Research Seminars
series on Tuesday 14th November at 5pm in Reg Vardy 113. She will
explore how forms of mass media and popular culture have long been of
interest to analysts for what they potentially tell us about ourselves
and frequent attention has been paid to representations of gender, race,
class, ethnicity and power. An equally potent but lesser explored
representation is that of language learners. How are English language
learners portrayed in our popular dramas, sitcoms and soap operas and
what makes these portraits significant? Ranging widely over programmes
such as The Archers and The Big Bang Theory, this paper
explores the representation of English language learners in these texts
and investigates how they are ‘storied’ in some of our most popular dramas. Dr Mandala argues that these representations frequently construct language learners
as ‘other’ and asks what challenges this may pose for practice, teaching
training, and wider issues of cultural understanding.
