Identity, Investment, and Digital Storytelling for a Multilingual Future

About the session

As language learners navigate changing linguistic landscapes, they need to negotiate new identities, investments, and imagined futures (Norton, 2013). Working with Ron Darvin, I have responded to changing times by developing an expanded model of investment that integrates identity, ideology, and linguistic capital in a comprehensive framework (Darvin & Norton, 2015). In this presentation, I will demonstrate that while there are structures that may limit a language learner's investment, the model illustrates how learners can draw on language and literacy practices that enhance possibility. Drawing on my recent research on digital storytelling in both wealthy and poorly resourced global communities, I will discuss the ways in which digital storytelling can harness the linguistic capital of young learners and their parents in homes, schools, and communities in the interests of a more equitable multilingual future across global sites. Key open access resources are Storybooks Canada and Global Storybooks.

About Dr. Bonny Norton

Dr. Bonny Norton, FRSC, is a University Killam Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia. Her primary research interests are identity and language learning, critical literacy, and international development. She is committed to the use of open technology for educational change, and her current projects are Storybooks Canada and Global Storybooks. Recent publications include a 2017 special issue on language teacher identity (MLJ). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Educational Research Association, she was selected BC 2020 Academic of the Year.