Acknowledgement of capital: Priority of English learning and direction in the future

Apart from the parental support, Cherry’s social and cultural capital played an important role in her English learning, as seen above. Moreover, during the interview, Cherry continuously highlights her father’s role and how he paid considerable attention to his daughter’s development. Cherry mentioned her father gave her books in English to improve her English learning and her development. Her father also wanted her to appreciate English movies and so watched them in original version with her. Although the dialogues in the movies were difficult to understand for her, Cherry recognizes that the experience improved her command of English (lines 06-08, below) even if the genre of movies selected by her father were not her favorites (lines 02-03).

Extract 30 ((LF2F_C_HOB_20131205) 滕：你喜欢什么样的电影或者电视剧？

希：我喜欢偶像剧。但是我爸爸喜欢英语电影，尤其是英文原版电影。每次我要 求看翻译版的，他总是拒绝。他老说原版的才是真正的电影，所以我也不得不跟 着看了。但是对我而言很多对白我都看不懂，所以不得不借助中文字幕。……事 实上，有时候我能听懂一些单词和少量句子，这真是太棒了。有时候，我还能学 到点单词，每次看完电影之后，我发现我的发音就有点进步并且听力也有所提高。

01. T- What kind of TV content do you like?

02. C- Celebrity drama is my favorite.

03. But my father prefers English movies, especially in original version.

04. Every time I asked him to watch the dubbed version, he would refuse.

05. He always said only the original version can show the authenticity of the movies.

06. So, I had to follow him. But for me it was hard to catch all the dialogue and I had to turn to the Chinese subtitle. ……

07. In fact, sometimes I could catch several words or sentences and it was great.

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08. Sometimes I could even learn some new words.

09. After watching English movies in original version,

10. I found my pronunciation became better. And it improved my listening.

Additionally, whenever she met foreigners, her parents would encourage her to communicate with them. At very beginning, she felt shy and just said “hello” to them.

But after a few times, she became outgoing and could talk with them more. Also, as has been previously discussed, Cherry has an uncle who has been settled in America for many years and this had an important impact on her. Her uncle returns to China once a year and sometimes he likes to communicate with her in English to promote her learning. He has introduced her to the customs in America, which provoked a great interest in her as regards going abroad, including a desire to go to an America university in the future. This appears to corroborate Norton’s (2013) argument that

if learners “invest” in the target language, they do so with the understanding that they will acquire a wider range of symbolic resources (language, education, friendship) and material resources (capital goods, real estate, money), which will in turn increase the value of their cultural capital and social power. As the value of language learners’ cultural capital increases, so learners’ sense of themselves, their hopes for the future, and their imagined identities are reassessed. (Norton, blogpost, 4 February 2013).

Cherry has several friends in her class, most of whom have high academic grades and who are consider ‘popular girls’. This group of girls help each other in English learning. They often share the girls’ secrets in English in front of their parents to protect their privacy. We discussed in chapter 2 that cultural capital is highly symbolic and has tangible effects. Cherry and her friends shared cultural capital (similar tastes in fashion, attending the same activities) and it helped create collective identities for them. In her interview, looking back on this phase of her life, Cherry also underscores

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how she dreamt of traveling and she that it was her belief that English would be practical for her journeys (Extract 31, below). In this discussion, Cherry highlights here intersubjective positioning of ‘belonging’ to a community of language speakers with whom she shares similar ‘habitus’ (the popular girls), including the use of English as a means of including some and excluding others.

Extract 31 (LF2F_C_CEL_20131205 )

滕：有没有一些特别的人影响你的英语学习呢？

希：有啊，我有一个叔叔，他在美国定居多年了，他差不多一年回来一次。他有 的时候和我用英语聊天以检查我的英语学习状况,他的口语好棒。他还向我介绍 美国的一些风俗习惯，我觉得好有趣。我都打算以后去美国读大学了。还有我的 朋友也会对我的英语有影响，我们几个女生的英语都还算可以吧，我们经常会互 相帮助，一起讨论。有时候，我们会用英语说我们的“小秘密”，尤其是在父母面 前，这样，我们就可以保护我们的隐私啦！

01. T- Did any particular people influence your learning of English?

02. C- Yes. I have an uncle who has been settled in the USA for many years now.

03. Whenever he returned to China to visit, sometimes he would like to communicate with me in English to check my level of English.

04. His oral English is very good.

05. He is the one who introduced me to the interesting customs in America.

06. I have a plan to go to an American university.

07. Besides my uncle, I think my friends have an effect on my English learning.

08. We helped each other in English learning.

09. We did our homework together and discussed it.

10. When we talked about our little girls’ secrets, we always spoke in English, 11. especially in front of our parents so that nobody would discover our secrets and

we could protect our privacy.

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Extract 32 (LOC_C_20130916 ) 滕：你认为学习英语有哪些益处？

希：至少，我去到其他国家的时候不会迷路! 我一直想去巴黎，我知道在巴黎人 们说法语，但是据说英语在巴黎用英语也能交流。至少会有一些人能听懂， 总 比说中文要好吧！有人还告诉我英语在好多国家都可以用呢。

01. T- What benefits do you expect from learning English?

02. C- At least, when I travel in foreign countries, I will not get lost!

03. I have always wanted to go to Paris.

04. I know in Paris people speak French but I have heard that I can communicate with people in English in Paris.

05． At least, some people can understand me.

06. Anyway, it is much better than if (I communicate with people) in Chinese.

Right?

07. I was even told that I could be understood in many countries if I speak English.