Data collection instruments

Two instruments were used: a semi-structured interview and short questions on background data.

7. Procedure

All participants agreed to take part in the study on a voluntary basis. Then I fixed an appointment with each one of them to conduct the interview. Unlike the students, both teachers lived in different parts of Hungary; therefore, I was forced to use Skype to initiate contact with them. Despite the lack of personal contact, the interviews were technically flawless. Once the interviews were recorded, they were transcribed and word-processed on the computer. Due to the limited length of this study I do not include full interview transcripts in the appendix, only quotations to support my findings. However, upon request the full-length interviews may be available.

8.!Results and discussion

8. 1 Reflections on multilingualism

Becoming a MLS does not happen overnight, it is a prolonged process in which several significant stages may be detected. These stages may be subjective (based on the individual’s own assessment) and objective (based on academic or professional achievements). I asked my four interviewees to name and comment on these stages in the process of becoming MLSs.

A most striking finding was that Anne, a highly proficient English speaker, was shocked by the realization of being a multilingual speaker:

I have never said to myself that, oh, I am a multilingual person…

I haven’t realized yet that I am.

The explanation for her reaction is likely to be that she compared her English knowledge to that of native speakers, and naturally, in this respect, she fell short of them, as the knowledge of a multilingual person like her does not compare to that of a monolingual native English speaker. Yet, in English language teaching worldwide this distinction is underpinned by gate-keeping practices when native English teachers are preferred to non-native English teachers to

take certain teaching positions. Besides, people, even proficient English speakers tend to associate multilingualism with natural bi- or multilinguals whose parents were of different nationality or with those who moved to a native English country early in life where they picked up native English proficiency.

The two English majors were well aware of their multilingualism despite being less proficient in the language than the English teachers; consequently, they felt proud and confident to have learnt a new language.

When being asked what it meant to be a MLS, the interviewees came up with ideas such as having more travel and work opportunities, obtaining information on the Internet and from books, seeing the world differently, making friends, feeling “special” and getting “extra pleasure” by knowing another language.

However, English takes a special place amongst languages in the world as it has become to be used as a lingua franca, enabling English speakers to access information that would otherwise be unavailable to them. As a result, ELF permits access to more ways of learning and education as well as entertainment opportunities in the form of movies, books and websites; furthermore, it promotes international relations and making friends.

Feeling unique through English means that it causes MLSs to be different from monolingual Hungarians because of the achievement of having mastered another tongue and because they are empowered by English to be involved in activities from which non-English speakers are excluded:

If I read something in English, I feel special from other Hungarian people who cannot read English; it gives me some kind of extra pleasure because not everyone can do it. … But I try to be careful with this because if I speak with Hungarian people who can’t speak in English at all, I try to avoid all English expressions because I don’t want to humiliate them, that’s not the best word, I don’t want to make them feel different, something like this. (Anne)

The power to utilize English for their own purposes gives MLSs ownership of English. However, linguistic abuse takes place when for example an English speaker attempts to dominate the conversation by sporting her English skills to make non-English speakers or less proficient English speakers feel less confident and inferior and to make herself seem superior, smarter and dominant.

Linguistic abuse can go as far as humiliating interactants in a conversation by unnecessary code-switching or using seemingly superior language or accent.

The comment on seeing the world differently carries two messages. On the one hand, different languages focus on different aspects of the world while overlooking others, and the knowledge of several languages interact with one another, making MLSs see the world differently from monolingual speakers, as they have to bear different things in mind when speaking their various languages. On the other hand, knowing the cultural connotations and pragmatic meanings of utterances permit MLSs to understand cultural differences, which shape the way they see the world. Also, real-life interactions with native

speakers and direct exposure to native environments and cultures shape MLSs mindset and attitudes towards the language, its peoples and cultures.

Concerning the stages of becoming MLSs, Anne and John listed several stages in their learning process. Anne contrasted stages involving FHCE and SHCE. The former one included institutionalized forms of learning (high school and university), which she associated with dislike, boredom, forgetting, needlessness and dead language whereas FHCE, that is ‘meeting flesh and blood people’ or ‘taking a sip of British air’ meant real learning, linguistic improvement, culture and life for her. John, who was a self-taught learner in the first three years of his English learning, experienced SHCE solely. The ability to read and understand books in the original language was the embodiment of English for him; and in addition to this, he favored learning from language books as they opened up new opportunities for him in English and they represented the only available access to English. He never received any institutionalized form of English education so when he began to take lessons with a private English teacher, for the first time in his life he was provided with feedback on his learning, so he became even keener on improving his English.

Katie and Daniel considered understanding texts without help to be a crucial stage. Three of them regarded successful language exams as an important marker of a new stage. All of them agreed on an advanced stage (either achieved or desired) at which English is not the ultimate goal of learning but a tool to acquire something else.

All in all, meeting gate-keeping requirements such as language exams or admission to university along with using English as a tool to acquire some other knowledge and to have fun gave them ownership of English and power.

8.2 Reflections on multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is a current and popular topic in every walk of life as floods of information, fast travel and work abroad are easily accessible to people. MLSs may be expected to be even more multicultural since they have greater insights into various cultures. Still, the participants’ reflections on their multiculturalism were diverse and often contradictory.

According to Daniel, people become inevitably multicultural regardless of whether they speak foreign languages or not. All four of them claimed to be open to and interested in English-language cultures; however, Daniel said he was open to these cultures in Hungarian, not in English because of the language barrier he was struggling with. Anne and John were highly interested in English language cultures. Anne deemed England her “second home” and English her

“best friend” but she did not view her way of life as British- or American-like.

John planned to move to an English-language country at some point in his life and explained he would be willing to adopt new ways of life and customs there.

Not having spent time in a native-English environment, the only source of English language cultures for Katie was through SHCE. However, she felt guilty for not being multicultural enough compared to when she was a university student, as, in her opinion, teaching English did not involve dealing with culture

and she said she “started to forget about it” because she was “not forced to do it” unlike when she was an undergraduate; furthermore, she added “I only teach the language not the culture”.

Considering the various responses, the participants experienced different levels of multiculturalism. In contrast with my preconception that the more proficient a MLS is, the more multicultural the person is, John, a student with lower proficiency levels felt more open to other cultures and was more aware of his multiculturalism than Katie, a more proficient EFL teacher who felt guilty for her lack of cultural involvement. Even though they neither experienced FHCE, John sought and treasured every opportunity of SHCE, as these experiences were the incentive which drove him on on the path of English learning. By contrast, Katie refused FHCE and felt guilty for not exposing herself to more SHCE. Despite the fact that they all surfed English websites, watched films and read books in English (expect for Daniel who preferred reading texts in Hungarian), Katie, for instance, did not deem such pastime activities multicultural involvement; however, SHCE is also a form of cultural involvement and contribute to making people multicultural with the help of imagination, even without experiencing FHCE.

8.3 Reflections on identity construction

I also sought to find out whether MLSs switch between their various identities when they switch codes. When code switching occurs MLSs are forced to apply a different logic and different lexical and grammatical categories as well as to adopt another way of thinking. Moreover, this switch must go beyond the linguistics of the language and the culture of the people speaking that language as the speech people produce is always internalized and subjective meanings are added to the referential meanings of utterances.

Katie and Anne appeared to be absolutely conscious of acting and feeling different when using English and Hungarian:

I feel it all the time. If I use a different language, I am a different person, even my voice is different. I think all students at the university who study any kind of second language think this. If I speak Hungarian, I feel more comfortable because, of course, it is my mother tongue and if I speak in English, I feel different, it will always be this way, I don’t know how, it is not that comfortable.

(Katie)

When I Speak English, I’m more open-minded, I’m more free. It feels to me as if I was hugging the whole world because I can get to know people from all over the world, which I have already done… The person who speaks English is a globe-trotter, who seeks opportunities and who grabs opportunities… The difference is just to be more, so it’s not different, just a bit more. … When I speak Hungarian, I always have in mind that, all right, Hungarian

people and this little country…But when I speak English, the whole world opens up and I feel the whole world… I feel that the whole world is just here. (Anne)

Both teachers switched between their English and Hungarian identity when switching between their two languages. Katie talked of a change in her voice when speaking English, and she felt more confident using her mother tongue than English. English seemed like a limitation, depriving her of her comfort zone where Hungarian is used. By contrast, Anne felt as if she was two different persons when switching between her languages and she kept referring to her English self as “to be more” than her Hungarian self. Her English self was an agent, a doer, an active person who sought and grabbed opportunities rendered by English. However, she felt rather constrained when using Hungarian since she knew Hungarian, as a small language spoken only in a small country, limited her opportunities. Considering their reflections, despite being highly proficient in English, MLSs may experience freedom, opportunity and constraint in various ways while using either their mother tongue or a second language.

As the two teachers, Daniel and John also claimed to feel different when switching to English from Hungarian.

For example, it is like in translations, when you read in another language, there are expressions and grammatical structures that, you realize, you can’t really express in another language. … I guess, it is different subconsciously, because the grammatical rules are different, you think in a different way, you structure your sentences differently in English than in Hungarian. (Daniel, translated from Hungarian into English by me)

I feel freer when I’m speaking English. It causes freshness in my mind. … Well, I like speaking English and I feel pride because I could acquire another language pretty well in some years and I had enormous endurance, additionally, as an adult. … Of course, your native language is the most beautiful language for you, but one is glad to possess another language because, as a matter of fact, a second language can be comprehended as a code in your brain and as you can speak it, you are smart enough to be a decoder. (John) It was Daniel who doubted acting differently in English. He attributed thinking differently to the linguistic differences between the two languages. This idea is in concert with the weak version of linguistic relativity, saying that the way people perceive the world is influenced by the language they speak to some extent, highlighting or overlooking certain aspects of reality as well as raising the question of untranslatability of language- and culture specific phenomena and terms. Furthermore, a new language then evokes and entails a new culture with a different mindset, logic and world views.

Similarly to Anne, John also experienced freedom evoked by the use of English. Also, he took pride in having been able to acquire English as an adult and a self-taught learner. Comparing the two English majors to the two English teachers it can be concluded that irrespective of proficiency levels a second language identity evolves in MLSs, which is a finding corresponding to the findings of other studies that scrutinize identity construction in SLA. However, high proficiency in a second language may not guarantee a full-fledged or confident L2 identity as it is in the case of Katie. On the other hand, lower proficiency levels do not hinder the evolution of a L2 identity.

John seemed to be more aware of identity-switching during code-switching, and he associated the use of English with pride, higher self-esteem and freedom.

Learning English proved to be a life-shaping event for him, thus knowing English is a huge attainment for John. Daniel deemed code-switching associated identity-switching an unconscious process, probably because speaking English at an advanced level was a stressful activity for him, causing all his attention to focus on producing grammatically correct utterances. Therefore, his English identity was characterized by a constant struggle for improvement extruding other life-experiences. Despite the language barrier John faced, he was more confident and optimistic about his future, and his imagination had already taken him to an imagined life in an imagined country where he would do a desired but then only imagined job, which finally freed and refreshed his mind, causing him to feel happy and proud when speaking English.

8.4!Reflections on culture and identification

The issue of identification must be addressed here as it influences the kind of identity MLSs adopt when speaking a second language. MLSs’ desire to only learn about a new language, its culture and people without direct contact with them or their desire to be indistinguishable from them or a stage in between determine the degree of their identification with the culture and the people of the new language. In the same vein, preferences for FHCE or SHCE are also indicators of MLSs’ degree of identification.

Consequently, I also investigated to what extent the participants identify with the cultures and peoples of the English language. Talking of the two teachers’ identification, Anne was characterized by a higher degree of identification with English, as she favored FHCE over SHCE. She disliked the institutionalized form of English education she received because in high school, as she described, English was “letters in a book, it meant nothing to me”. She even went on to call her university studies, which she found unnecessary, a

“torture” because she could not identify with a dead form of English taught in schools. The real identification for her, when the language became alive for her, was through going to Britain, taking “a sip of British air” and meeting “flesh and blood” people. She deemed English her best friend and considered England her second home. She was capable of and willing to identify with British English culture. She cherished her English identity as it opened up the world for her and freed her from the constraints of a small language, her mother tongue.

Since she could identify with English culture, she adopted an L2 identity of opportunity, freedom and confidence. Thus her identification with the cultures and peoples of English can be considered to be full or complete even though she did not wish to become indistinguishable from native English people and did not wish to live among them.

Anne, who never visited an English language country, preferred second-hand cultural exposure to first-second-hand cultural exposure, because she preferred her university courses on culture and literature or watching movies in English to going abroad or living there. Katie adopted an identity of resistance concerning English as she did not desire to live abroad even for a short period of time: “Because I am Hungarian. That’s all. I like living here and this is my whole life. I don’t need anything to do that. I don’t want to be a stranger.” She cherished and treasured her Hungarian self so much that English was a threat to it, hence the only safe ground for her to identify with English was through her studies, namely through SHCE. She could not imagine belonging to a community other than Hungarian. For this reason, she could only partially identify with all the culture that speaking English entailed. At the same time, her Hungarianness, her Hungarian identity dominated her English self, making her refuse first-hand cultural exposure and also resulting in frustration and guilt.

Consequently, her identification with English can be perceived as partial or incomplete. For she stopped dealing with English language cultures after graduating from university, she felt unexposed to even SHCE, which caused her guilt and unease. To make matters worse for her, she had higher expectations of her English self as an EFL teacher as well as a proficient English speaker in terms of her language skills: “I should be better than this” as well as of her cultural involvement: “I feel I should deal with them [cultural studies]”. Finally, all these factors contributed to her feeling of slight unease when speaking English and feeling at ease when using her mother tongue.

Consequently, her identification with English can be perceived as partial or incomplete. For she stopped dealing with English language cultures after graduating from university, she felt unexposed to even SHCE, which caused her guilt and unease. To make matters worse for her, she had higher expectations of her English self as an EFL teacher as well as a proficient English speaker in terms of her language skills: “I should be better than this” as well as of her cultural involvement: “I feel I should deal with them [cultural studies]”. Finally, all these factors contributed to her feeling of slight unease when speaking English and feeling at ease when using her mother tongue.