Overview

“Incompetence” is not an objective state lacking competence nor a kind of deficiency that needs to be filled. Rather, it is a constructed state that is productive, working in tandem with its opposite, “competence.” Perception of incompetence/competence works as what Michel Foucault (1977) calls a technology of “normalization” that pushes individuals to aspire to follow a shared norm, while hierarchically differentiating individuals according to their proximity to the aspired norm. The notion of incompetence is thus “productive” in that it turns individuals into specific kinds of “subjects” (Foucault 1977). The Politics of “Incompetence”: Learning Language, Relations of Power, and Daily Resistance further investigates other productive processes around the perception of “incompetence” specifically through its intersections with various ideologies—“academic achievement,” teacher-student hierarchy, “native speaker” ideology, normative unit thinking, and privilege of vulnerability—as such intersections generate new knowledge, new reflection on one’s assumptions and privilege, new space for marginalized language, and more. This volume opens up a new area of study—productive cultural politics of “incompetence”—by focusing on language learning in diverse contexts: Japanese as a Foreign Language classrooms in US colleges, Italian language tourism in Italy, and indigenous Maori language revitalization at an Aotearoa/New Zealand school.

Full Product Details

9781666936230

Table of Contents

Reviews

Recognizing that ideologies of language are embedded in second language instruction, the contributors to this deeply thoughtful collection ask us to consider 'incompetence' in a new way. The authors challenge readers to move beyond the usual instrumental goal of teaching language as a static, abstract object to be mastered by urging us to value idiosyncratic and messy language learning experiences. Detailed case studies from different ethnographic contexts forward the argument that language learning is a journey that should engage with forms of incompetence as a productive resource. --Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Recognizing that ideologies of language are embedded in second language instruction, the contributors to this deeply thoughtful collection ask us to consider ‘incompetence’ in a new way. The authors challenge readers to move beyond the usual instrumental goal of teaching language as a static, abstract object to be mastered by urging us to value idiosyncratic and messy language learning experiences. Detailed case studies from different ethnographic contexts forward the argument that language learning is a journey that should engage with forms of incompetence as a productive resource. -- Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis

""Recognizing that ideologies of language are embedded in second language instruction, the contributors to this deeply thoughtful collection ask us to consider 'incompetence' in a new way. The authors challenge readers to move beyond the usual instrumental goal of teaching language as a static, abstract object to be mastered by urging us to value idiosyncratic and messy language learning experiences. Detailed case studies from different ethnographic contexts forward the argument that language learning is a journey that should engage with forms of incompetence as a productive resource."" --Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Author Information

Neriko Musha Doerr teaches at Ramapo College.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available