Narrating America: Socializing Adult ESL Learners Into Idealized Views of the United States During Citizenship Preparation Classes

Narrating America: Socializing Adult ESL Learners Into Idealized Views of the United States During Citizenship Preparation Classes OLGA V GRISWOLD California State Polytechnic University at Pomona Pomona, California, United States Applicants for U.S citizenship must pass the naturalization test on U.S history, government structure, constitutional principles, and basic English skills Although no formal preparation for the exam is required, many immigrants, especially those with limited English proficiency, avail themselves of citizenship classes offered by community adult schools Citizenship curricula at such schools, however, rarely have room for extensive English as a second language instruction, and teachers frequently resort to linguistic and discursive adjustments to make the course content on civics accessible to their students This paper investigates one such adjustment—namely, narratives used to make abstract constitutional principles more concrete and relevant to the students’ lives Based on the analysis of narratives selected from 28 hours of videotaped classroom interaction, I argue that, in addition to serving as explanatory devices, narratives also reproduce a dominant U.S ideology of individualism They contribute to the construction of the U.S as a nation where the rights of individuals are supreme and where individuals are seen as primary agents of historic change Because these views are not culturally universal, teachers need to be aware of their own ideological positions and their possible effect on the students’ understanding and acceptance of the course material doi: 10.5054/tq.2010.226855 pplicants for U.S citizenship are required by law to demonstrate ‘‘ a knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the history, and of the principles and form of government, of the United States’’ (U.S Immigration and Nationality Act, 1952) Failure to so in a satisfactory manner during the naturalization interview can lead to the denial of the citizenship application Thus teachers in citizenship classes offered by many adult schools tend to devote a considerable amount of time to lessons on the Constitution, the structure of the federal and state A 488 TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 44, No 3, September 2010 governments, and major events in U.S history These subjects require the use of complex language, which normally would call for high levels of cognitive academic language proficiency (Cummins, 1979, 1980), on the part of the students Adult school citizenship curricula, however, rarely have room or time for the development of such proficiency among adult learners of varying linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds The issue is further complicated by the fact that a large number of adult school programs operate on an open-enrollment basis, allowing students to join classes at any time during the academic term, which makes consistent language instruction problematic Faced with these difficulties, teachers tend to bridge the discrepancy between the highly complex language of civics instruction and the relatively low English proficiency of many class participants by employing significant linguistic and discursive adjustments in their explanations of the course content In this article, I investigate one such adjustment—a citizenship instructor’s use of narratives to make abstract constitutional principles more concrete, tangible, and relevant to the students’ daily lives I argue that, in addition to serving their purpose as explanatory devices, such narratives are also designed to present the students with the view of the United States as an ideal democracy with a perfect mechanism for resolving potential problems with citizens’ rights Moreover, the narratives offer a somewhat fictional image of the United States as an imagined nation (Anderson, 1991) with a glorious past achieved mainly through the heroism of specific individuals I theorize, therefore, that instructional narratives in citizenship classrooms may serve as a vehicle for the expression of what Scollon and Scollon (2001) called ‘‘the fundamental American ideology of individualism’’ (p 221), where the individual is seen as ‘‘the basis of all reality and all society’’ (p 221) The quality and quantity of student participation of such narratives, however, suggest that they may not necessarily accept this ideological view as their own It is essential, therefore, that teachers be aware of their ideological stances and attempt to bring in the students’ points of view on some of the core constitutional principles and historical events through engaged classroom discussion IDEOLOGIES OF CITIZENSHIP The notion that immigrants seeking citizenship in a new country must absorb the political and cultural ideologies of this country is not a new one In the United States, for example, the early 20th century Americanization movement propounded the idea that immigrants must be compelled not only to pursue documentary naturalization but, first NARRATING AMERICA 489 and foremost, to assimilate linguistically and culturally (Dixon, 1916; Hartman, 1948; Roberts, 1920) and to accept the American democratic values unquestioningly (Gavit, 1922) Despite the present promotion of multiculturalism and multilingualism along with the growing perception that today’s society is amicably accepting of immigrants’ maintenance of their native cultures and languages within the United States, the push for the cultural and linguistic assimilation has not died out, as evidenced, for instance, by the English-only movement and the passage of laws declaring English an official language in over one-half of the states in the Union Similarly, the idea that citizenship goes hand in hand with embracing the cultural and political ideals of the accepting country is reflected in recent sociological, anthropological, and sociolinguistic research Golden (2001), for instance, examined how immigrants in Israel are inculcated with a specific view of what it means to be ‘‘real Israelis’’(p 52) during state-sponsored Hebrew classes, including, among many factors, the importance of being Jewish, speaking Hebrew, and refraining from questioning Israel’s domestic and foreign policies Salins (1997) made a case in defense of the cultural assimilation in the United States Pickus (2005) argued that an effective immigration policy should encourage naturalization by not only making immigrants welcome but also providing them with resources that would allow them to understand American civic principles and participate in the American public life (p 147) Recent research on national identity and citizenship has focused to a great degree on the language ideologies underlying transnational migration (e.g., Blackledge, 2002, 2009; Blommaert, 2001; Blommaert, Creve, & Willaert, 2006; Blommaert & Maryns, 2001; Reynolds & Orellana, 2009; Shohamy & Kanza, 2009; Struck-Soboleva, 2006) and language testing for citizenship purposes (Cooke, 2009; Kunnan, 2009a, 2009b; Milani, 2008; Piller, 2001; Schuăpbach, 2009) The main findings of this research are that such ideologies are generally grounded in the myth that nation states are monocultural and monolingual societies (Blackledge, 2002, 2009; Blommaert, 2008), that immigrants’ proficiency in the dominant or official language(s) of the accepting nation is a reflection of their cultural and political loyalty, and that, therefore, immigrants are only welcome if they are willing to assimilate and are actively trying to so Both linguists and sociologists have questioned the validity of language requirements for permanent residency or naturalization, pointing out that such requirements are discriminatory, because they not apply to citizens-by-birthright (Kunnan, 2009a, 2009b), and that no inherent relationship exists between language proficiency and potential civic engagement (Etzioni, 2007) or between language proficiency and the employability of immigrants (Tollefson, 1986, 1989) 490 TESOL QUARTERLY Although a significant number of studies have focused on the ideologies of language as an index of both documentary citizenship and national identity, few have addressed how political and cultural ideologies of the accepting nations are conveyed through the language addressed to potential citizens themselves In this article, I attempt to expand the current knowledge in this area by examining the narratives used to explain complex concepts to learners with limited English proficiency during U.S citizenship classes ORAL NARRATIVE AND IDEOLOGY Narrative is a powerful tool in constructing and interpreting cultural reality (Bruner, 1990, 1991), as well as in organizing the way humans think and interact with one another (Ochs, 1997, p 185) As such, it can serve as an important means of both constructing the narrator’s personal and social identity (e.g., Bamberg & Georgakopoulu, 2008; BaquedanoLo´pez, 2001; Berman, 2000; Cortazzi, 2001; Georgakopoulou, 2007; Johnstone, 2007; Taylor, 2007; Wagner & Wodak, 2006) and of socializing novices into culturally acceptable views and behaviors (e.g., Ochs, 2004; Ochs & Taylor, 1992; Ochs, Taylor, Rudolph, & Smith, 1992; Paugh, 2005; Sterponi, 2003) Particularly relevant to the present argument is that narrative is also a potent medium through which ideological views can be defined and expressed in various social settings In their analysis of dinnertime conversations, for instance, Ochs et al (1992) pointed out that, in the course of presenting different perspectives on mundane occurrences, narrators articulate their ideologies of, inter alia, work ethics, morality, and accountability for personal actions Similarly, Peterson and Langellier (2007) demonstrated how stories of courtship told during a 50th wedding anniversary celebration reproduce cultural views on family and, in doing so, contribute to the construction of family itself as a coherent unit Discussing the role of narratives in institutional settings, Linde (2003) proposed that narratives play two important roles First, they are used to accomplish the daily business of the institutions For example, patients’ descriptions of health issues and witness testimony, both of which frequently take the narrative form, are essential components of the practices of medicine and law, respectively Second, narratives serve to reproduce the institution itself, including its history, its power structures, and its membership Based on the analysis of oral and written narratives produced within a large insurance company, Linde showed that these narratives create and recreate the ideological view of the company as an organization of highly determined, extremely principled entrepreneurs whose mission it is to serve the hard-working ordinary American NARRATING AMERICA 491 Moreover, paradigmatic narratives, that is, stories framing typical career progress, lay out the expectations for each employee if she or he is to be successful within the company, thus presenting an ideal picture of the organization’s membership Likewise, Baquedano-Lo´pez (2000) found that narratives play a dual role in classroom discourse For example, teachers telling the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego during catechism classes at a large Catholic church in Los Angeles not only familiarized the students with the course material but also encouraged them to identify with the characters of the stories and to see the stories as relevant to the cultural and political history of the Mexican community In a related study, Baquedano-Lo´pez and Ochs (2002) examined how ideologies of language were constructed in stories told by both English- and Spanish-speaking parishioners in the course of both ordinary conversations and debates about the fate of the Spanish-medium catechism classes They found that the narratives by the opponents of the classes frequently constructed the Spanish language as irrelevant to the religious tradition and thus not belonging in the church, whereas the proponents framed the Spanish linguistic heritage as intertwined with and inseparable from the students’ religious experience In the present article, I extend the arguments of Linde (2003), Baquedano-Lo´pez (2000), and Baquedano-Lo´pez and Ochs (2002), which demonstrate that stories told in citizenship classes serve both as instructional tools and as tools of conveying specific ideological views METHODOLOGY Schools and Participants The data for this study were collected as part of a larger ethnographic project conducted over a period of 11 months in 2004–2005 at two Adult Community Schools in the greater Los Angeles area The schools operated on an open-enrollment basis Regular attendance was strongly encouraged and rigorously recorded, because the schools’ funding depended on it,1 but could not be administratively enforced Many students faced the challenges of inconsistent low-income employment, often involving unconventional schedules,2 and were thus unable to attend classes every week Nevertheless, most students were dedicated to Average daily attendance is determined by averaging the number of hours enrolled students spend in class It frequently serves as one of the main factors in funding public school districts in the United States For example, many students worked two jobs, took on additional shifts to make extra money, worked nights and weekends, and so on 492 TESOL QUARTERLY their preparation for citizenship and attended the classes as regularly as they could, many for several consecutive terms To meet the demands of the complex enrollment and attendance circumstances, the two programs offered flexible citizenship preparation curricula with variable sequencing of topics; however, each term in both programs the students practiced filling out the naturalization application form N-400, studied for the civics test, and worked on their basic literacy skills tested during the naturalization interview One school listed intermediate English proficiency as a prerequisite for enrollment, but no placement test was administered to the students, and no student was turned away from the course because of his or her lack of English proficiency, although the teacher frequently recommended additional English as a second language (ESL) classes to such students The classes at both schools were taught by the same instructor but were offered on different schedules The schools, therefore, had predominantly different student bodies, which ensured the diversity of participants in the study In addition to the instructor and the volunteer instructional assistant, who were both native speakers of English, the participants included 57 students of varying linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds All student participants immigrated to the United States as adolescents or adults Thirteen native languages were spoken across the two classrooms, with 33 participants (approximately 58%) being native speakers of Spanish, eight Mandarin speakers (approximately 14%), and five speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (approximately 9%) The remaining 10 languages3 were represented by one or two speakers each Although the particularities of enrollment and attendance made the use of a standardized English test impracticable as a measure of language proficiency, long-term observation revealed a wide range of linguistic abilities among the learners, from the need to rely on more proficient classmates in conducting even basic personal interactions in English to nativelike oral fluency Data Collection The data consist of 28 hours of video-recorded classroom interaction and ethnographic notes documenting over 100 hours of participant observation and interviews with the instructor, the program coordinator, and the students The weekly class meetings were videotaped from approximately the middle of each 10-week term Although collecting videodata from the beginning of each term would have been beneficial for this study, the delay was necessary to obtain the informed consent of Farsi, English, Czech, Latvian, Mongolian, Tagalog, Indonesian, Hindi, Ukrainian, and French NARRATING AMERICA 493 the students and to arrange for the accommodation of nonconsenting students, so that they could fully participate in the lessons without being captured on the video The latter task was accomplished by identifying the areas of the classroom where students could sit without appearing in the camera viewfinder and by informing students of these areas All students, including those joining the classes after the beginning of the term, received a thorough explanation of the goals and structure of the study and were invited to participate in the study if they wished to so In addition to videotaping classroom interactions, I became a participant observer, assisting the teacher in minor classroom tasks This allowed me to establish a strong rapport with many students I conducted formal and informal ethnographic interviews with class participants, asking them about their backgrounds, their decision to apply for citizenship and to attend citizenship classes, their perceptions of the advantages that U.S citizenship may afford them, their views on the naturalization process, and so on Similar interviews with the teacher allowed me to gain insights into the specifics of teaching civics to ESL learners with overall low English proficiency, the challenges of rigorous instruction in multilevel open-enrollment classes, and the teacher’s pedagogical goals Data Analysis The video data were digitized and then transcribed using the conventions of conversation analysis (CA; Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974) The transcripts and the video were examined together to identify sequences containing narratives, or stories, as they are more commonly referred to in CA literature A story is a multi-TCU4 turn consisting of clauses ordered in such a way as to present a coherent sequence of events (Sacks, 1972, 1995) A story can be introduced into ongoing talk using one of the two formats: either through a story preface followed by a go-ahead from the story recipient and then by the story itself (Sacks, 1974), or through certain discourse markers (e.g., oh or as a matter of fact) followed by embedded repetitions of the word or phrase triggering the story (Jefferson, 1978) In the present study, the latter format was prevalent, probably because the narratives were told as examples of constitutional concepts or historical events and because it was not necessary for the instructor to secure her recipients’ permission to produce multi-TCU turns, because of the nature of classroom 494 Turn-constructional unit, or a stretch of talk minimally required to constitute a single complete turn at talk In ordinary conversation, each turn is typically limited to one TCU, which can be a single word, a phrase, or a clause, unless interlocutors employ special interactional actions to assure space for longer turns (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974) TESOL QUARTERLY discourse, which privileges teacher talk (e.g., Mehan, 1974, 1979a, 1979b) Following the CA perspective, sequences of two or more clauses presenting a coherent succession of events were analyzed as narratives Another common approach to narrative analysis is the Labovian paradigm, which takes a retelling of past events as fundamental for the definition of a story (Labov, 1981, 1997; Labov & Waletzky, 1967) Extensive ethnographic research, however, has demonstrated that narrative structures also frequently appear in presentations of future and hypothetical scenarios (e.g., Georgakopoulou, 2002; Goodwin, 1990, 1991, 1993; Ochs, 1994, 2004; Ochs & Capps, 2001), jokes (e.g., Sacks, 1972, 1974), scientific explanations (Ochs, Jacoby, & Gonzales, 1994; Ochs, Taylor, Rudolph, & Smith, 1992), fictionalized settings (Fasulo & Zucchermaglio, 2005), and religious mythology (e.g., Baquedano-Lo´pez, 2000, 2001) Following these findings, I define narrative rather broadly to include the tellings of actual historic events, reports of personal experiences, hypothetical future scenarios, and paradigmatic narratives presenting events as they may have typically happened in the past This approach to data analysis yielded approximately 140 narrative segments, 69 of which occurred during the portions of the lessons devoted to the discussion of U.S history, government structure, and the Constitution.5 These narratives were analyzed for structure, content, and student participation in narration RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The narratives that the teacher used during civics lessons fell into four broad categories: Hypothetical scenarios created to exemplify particularly complex issues concerning the rights of individuals; stories of past events, both real and fictionalized, presented as reasons for democratic changes aimed at protecting individuals; invocations of specific past events designed to demonstrate constitutional principles at work; and descriptions of major milestones in U.S history presented as feats of individual valor and sacrifice Although the teacher elicited some student input in the construction of most narratives, such input was limited primarily to supplying the dates and the names of the characters and answering the teacher’s yes/ no questions In all stories, the United States was presented as a nation It is important to note that not all explanations of civics concepts included narratives Over 300 instructional episodes involving such explanations were analyzed, about one-quarter of which included narrative structures NARRATING AMERICA 495 where the rights of individuals were paramount and could only be infringed on in a relatively minor manner if the good of other individuals was at stake Furthermore, events in U.S history were frequently presented as individual heroic accomplishments All narratives stressed the individualist, rather than collectivist, ideology of being an American citizen The Government and the Rights of Individuals A major theme in the instructional narratives was the relationship between the government and the people The students occasionally voiced their apprehension of the imbalance of power between the two entities Specifically, many viewed themselves as powerless and unprotected when the need arose to deal with governmental institutions This sentiment was not surprising, considering the students’ personal histories: Many of them had either emigrated from countries with oppressive regimes, fled civil unrest in their homelands, or initially arrived in the United States as undocumented workers and had been trying to stay off the government’s radar until obtaining permanent residency Several students had quite tangible reasons to be apprehensive of any contact with the government agencies, such as, in the case of one student, a prior deportation and later reentry in the country or, in the case of another student, marriage to an undocumented immigrant The students’ general view of the government as all-powerful and of themselves as lacking power contrasted with the view of the government– individual relationship as presented in instructional stories In Example 1, the teacher attempts to explain the concept of an illegal search, addressed in the Fourth Amendment (for transcription conventions, see appendix) Example 01 02 03 04 05 Teacher: Now let’s sa:y, that that one night, when, ((knocks times)) the police came knocking on your door, h you opened up the do:or, UnS: ((coughs)) a:nd, they said we wanna come in and look, (0.2) and you said no:,5 5but they came in anyway (1.5) And there, ((points to one of the students)) 06 on Richard’s dining room table, is a bi::g pi::le (0.3) of drugs.((miming a pile or heap by circumscribing a large arc in the air with one arm)) 07 UnS: (˚huh-hm?˚) 08 Teacher: Uh-oh (1.0) He’s dead Right? (0.8) It’s jail time for Richard Right? 496 TESOL QUARTERLY 09 10 11 12 13 14 (1.2) Right? SS: Yes:: Teacher: Wr[ong MS: [(˚ wrong˚) (1.8) Teacher: Wrong (1.5) Because, the police, conducted an ille:gal search, (1.0) Because they were not allowed to search Richard’s apartment, He didn’t give them (.) permission, they didn’t have a search warrant, (0.7) then anything they fi:nd, (0.5) cannot be u:sed (.) against you (2.5) Teacher: Think about that (1.0) So here they a:re (0.9) They’ve got him (.) red-handed QAs we say.5 In other words, (1.5) The drugs are right here.5 He is o:bviously selling them But tho:se drugs cannot be taken in, and used as evidence against Mr Marvin (2.5) So therefore, qthat is intended, to stop, the police, from doing, illegal, searches (0.8) If the police kno:w, that they can’t u:se, anything that they fi:nd, if they it illegally, then they won’t it illegally.5That’s the idea (1.9) You understa:nd? Mariana: ˚Um-hum˚ ((nods)) Teacher: Okay 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 The teacher begins her explanation by proposing a hypothetical scenario, as indicated by the introductory phrase let’s say (Line 01) The scenario is very concrete and highly personalized It includes the students themselves as actors in the story—note the use of the pronoun you and the possessive determiner your (Lines 02 and 04) referring to the residents at the address supposedly visited by the police This allows the teacher to frame the discussion of the rights specified in the Fourth Amendment as relevant to the students’ lives The scene also positions the students as individuals who possibly could be subjected to an illegal search by the police—a controversial issue in and of itself I return to this controversy later in the discussion As the teacher proceeds with the story, she personalizes it even further Beginning in Line 06, she no longer refers to the resident by the pronoun you, which has so far allowed for the possibility of any student acting as the main character Instead, a specific student, Richard Marvin,6 comes into focus The All names have been replaced with pseudonyms NARRATING AMERICA 497 rejection is repeated twice and followed by an explanation that individuals may lose their property rights only if the benefit of other individuals is concerned (Lines 17–25), which is evident in the use of the words for public purpose (Line 17) and for the good of everyone (Line 25) While explaining that the rights of individuals are not supreme to absolutely everything, the teacher, nevertheless, reiterates that they are infringed on only in a relatively minor way In particular she stresses that the government is obligated to provide adequate compensation for the loss of property: The term fair price is invoked four times throughout the episode (Lines 02, 19, 26, and 34), and the obligations of the government are emphasized through the use of rather strong deontic modals and modal equivalents such as must and have to (Lines 19, 26, and 33) The emphasis on the protection of individual property rights appears to escape at least one of the students—Ceyda Ceyda’s interpretation of fair price as very cheap (Lines 28 and 30) reflects her view of an individual as powerless before the government forces This view is immediately and actively opposed both by the teacher and other students, several of whom turn to Ceyda to argue against her understanding (Lines 29, 31, and 32) To sum up, the story clarifying the notion of eminent domain plays a dual role On the one hand, telling a hypothetical personalized narrative allows the teacher to put a rather abstract legal concept into concrete and understandable terms for the students On the other hand, through this narrative, she continues to construct the United States as a nation where the individual is protected from abuse by the government The students’ displays of varying views on the balance of power between the individuals and the government (i.e., the overestimation of individuals’ rights by Beatriz versus their underestimation by Ceyda) demonstrates that the students gradually fine-tune their understandings of their own rights Nevertheless, the feeling of powerlessness before the government forces remains with some class participants Historical Events as Reasons for Democratic Change I now discuss the second type of narratives frequently used in civics lessons—namely, accounts of past events presented as reasons for democratic change These stories differed in their organization from the stories used to explain individual rights to the students They were significantly shorter and tended not to feature students as characters Moreover, some narratives in this category included explicit references to the irrelevance of the concepts exemplified in them to the students’ personal lives The first narrative pertains to the 22nd Amendment, which established presidential term limits 502 TESOL QUARTERLY Example 01 Teacher: When the- when the Constitution was written, (0.5) there was no limit to the 02 number of times a person could be re:-elected president There was no limit 03 (0.4) But there was one president, that was elected for a lo:ng lo:ng ti:me 04 Who was that? 05 Amaro: Roose [velt., 06 Su: [Faranklin, [(- -) Roosevelt 07 Teacher: [Franklin Dee Roosevelt.5That’s right And Franklin Dee 08 Roosevelt, got elected four times (1.0) People got scared (1.5) They thought 09 Oh my God!5We are going to have a king! (0.8) We’ll never get rid of ’im 10 So they cha:nged, th’ Constitution And they made an amendment And the 11 amendment to the Constitution said5No:w, a president can only be re-elected 12 one time (1.1) Elected, (0.4) and then re-elected N’ that’s it This episode begins with the teacher’s emphasis on the original absence of the presidential term limits (Lines 01–02) After a brief pause, she introduces the complicating event that ultimately led to the imposition of such limits The teacher elicits from the students the name of the president, who, in her words, was elected for a ‘‘long, long time’’ (Lines 03–04) This allows students some participation in the construction of the narrative The four-time election of Roosevelt is then problematized in the next installment to provide a justification for the introduction of the 22nd Amendment The teacher somewhat dramatizes the fear of the people by attributing specific expressions of anxiety to them (Lines 08–09) She also links these anxieties to the potential threat to the republican system and to the orderly transition of power— note the use of the word king and the phrase we’ll never get rid of ’im (Line 09) Compared with the fine granularity and vivid details observable in Examples and 2, however, the detail in Example is rather coarse The complicating event is conceptually reduced, described very briefly, and followed immediately by a resolution presented as an ostensibly simple process (Line 10) The students are not featured in the narrative as possible characters Nevertheless, the narrative ascribes great power to individuals in preserving democracy and preventing future threats to it, further contributing to the image of the United States constructed in Examples and NARRATING AMERICA 503 Contrasted with this ascription of great political power to individuals through narratives is the lack of power the students might have in contributing their points of view to the ongoing discussion For instance, in the following segment, a student attempts to introduce his perspective on presidential term limits by sharing what he knows about the political system in his native country: Example 01 02 03 04 05 06 Antonio: Mexico has only one time Teacher: Tsk You can only serve once Antonio: Once Teacher: But it’s fo:r what Five years?5 Antonio: Six years Teacher: Six years Yes That’s very common now No:w more and more countries are making it just one ti:me Antonio: That’s not for to be rich Teacher: ((Sighs)) (4.0) You see, there is a problem Think about it folks What if I told you, ‘‘You can your job for two years And then if you a good job you can your job for two more years But then you have to leave (1.1) Your job.’’ (1.0) Does that make sense? (0.5) Teacher: N[o MS: [No Teacher: It doesn’t make any sense at all We:::, But that is exactly what we tell our politicians in California ((Explanation of term limits in California follows)) 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Although the segment above is taken from a lesson different from Example 3, the topic is similar—presidential and legislative term limits on the federal and state level At the beginning of the segment, Antonio states that Mexico restricts presidential service to one time.9 After a brief sequence clarifying the length of the service term (Lines 04–07), Antonio provides his understanding of the reason for the term limits— the prevention of the increase in the incumbent’s personal wealth (Line 08) The teacher, however, does not pick up this line of discussion and instead segues into the possible negative effects of term limits, presenting them again in the narrative format in which students are 504 The fact that Antonio is referring specifically to the presidential term limits is evident from the talk immediately preceding Example TESOL QUARTERLY featured as the main characters, who would be disadvantaged if denied a possibility to continue their jobs just as they were gaining experience in them (Lines 09–18) Thus the student’s contribution of a viable topic appropriate for further discussion in a civics classroom receives rather narrow acknowledgment and is not fully incorporated into the subsequent lesson Example presents a narrative that, despite the use of the pronoun you in possible reference to the students, contains an explicit mention of the fact that the amendment being discussed bears no relevance to their lives Example 01 Teacher: Number three, (1.1) We talked about already, I beli:eve, in that, (.) you not 02 have to accept soldiers into your home, hhh unless it is wa:rtime (1.8) Now 03 5This does not seem like a very important (0.5) ru:le.5Today (0.7) But two 04 hundred years ago, it was.(0.9) Beca:use, the British soldiers, would that 05 fairly frequently.5They would just come knocking on your b- do:or, and tell you 06 to get out of your own house, and (they) would move in.(1.0) a:nd, the colonists 07 didn’t like it (1.4) so they put this in there B’t (.) it’s not a problem today The structure of this narrative is quite similar to the narrative about the institution of presidential term limits, with few variations The teacher begins by specifying the content of the Third Amendment (the prohibition on quartering troops in private homes during peacetime), doing it in an already familiar personalized mode, using the pronoun you (Lines 01–02) However, in Line 03, she immediately proceeds to mark this freedom as not relevant to the present times Nevertheless, the segment in Lines 03–06 provides the reason for the existence of the amendment: The abuse of individuals’ rights by the military The amendment, then, is presented as a move designed to protect such rights and, therefore, a democratic change for the benefit of individuals rather than the state The coda of the story (Line 07) contains another evaluation of the plot as not relevant in the modern world The narratives relating past events presented as reasons for democratic change share a few similarities with the hypothetical narratives in Examples and Both types of stories have controversies or conflicts at the core of their plots Both involve increases in granularity in the NARRATING AMERICA 505 climactic episodes Both include a certain amount of dramatization, including speech attributed to characters and the use of first- and second-person pronouns The past event narratives, nevertheless, differ from the hypothetical narratives considerably They present what is treated as problems that existed in reality rather than problems that could potentially arise in the future They also address the constitutional amendments that solved the problems to preserve a more democratic and, at the same time, more individual-centered nation Finally, the past event narratives are constructed as lacking immediate relevance to the students’ lives Nevertheless, through these narratives, the teacher continues to present the United States as a nation where the rights and freedoms of individuals are supreme, as well as a nation in which citizens wield considerable power in preventing threats to the democratic system Students, however, not display visible alignment with this perspective Real Events as Examples of Constitutional Principles at Work The third type of explanations using narrative elements frequently did not involve full-fledged stories These explanations, nevertheless, did share several features with more canonically structured narratives examined so far, including specific characters, with speech attributed to them, and specific, albeit sometimes hypothetical, scenarios In many such episodes, the teacher invoked a concrete, well-known event and then, together with the students, reconstructed its details, using the event as an example of a particular constitutional principle at work Example 6—a brief discussion of the principle of double jeopardy—is one of the most typical instances found in the data Example 6: 01 Teacher: The police and the prosecutor, have only one chance, to convict you (0.5) And 02 if, they, present a trial, (0.4) and the jury, finds, that you a:re not guilty, (1.5) 03 then the p- police and the prosecutor cannot try you again for the same crime 04 (1.5) You understand? 05 Lani: Yeah Because not g-guilty 06 Teacher: That’s right One chance they get one chance to prove it (0.3) This is why, 07 somebody like Oh-Jay, remember Oh-Jay? 08 Lani: Yeah- Oh-Jay Simpson 506 TESOL QUARTERLY 09 Teacher: O:kay, you remember OJ.5Everybody remembers OJ., OJ could stand 10 (0.8) on the courthouse steps (0.8) And say, yes I: killed those two people 11 (0.5) And there is nothing:: that we could about it (1.5) Beca:use he has 12 already been found, (0.2) not guilty (1.5) So he cannot be, tried again (1.2) 13 Now, that seems very unfair for somebody like OJ (0.2) Because we know he 14 did it (0.5) He got, away, with murder ˚As we say in English.˚ 15 Lani: (Because he-) 16 Teacher: ˚He got away with murder .hh But, it is also the way you would want it too 17 In that, (1.0) (negative head shake) The government doesn’t have more than one 18 cha:nce to- to their job.5If they can’t it the first time, then you are free The episode begins with the teacher explaining the idea of double jeopardy (Lines 01–03), using the pronoun you to establish the relevance of the law to the students The teacher also actively solicits the students’ acknowledgement that they understand the concept (Line 04) Once Lani displays her understanding (Line 05), the teacher proceeds to invoke a well-known criminal case in which the principle of double jeopardy applied She introduces the narrative with the phrase ‘‘this is why,’’ which marks the hypothetical events recounted in Lines 09–12 as the result of the constitutional principle at work The teacher interrupts her own account of the character’s possible actions to ensure that her students know to whom she is referring Her question in Line 07 constructs her students as knowledgeable about culturally prominent events: The verb remember presupposes the students’ familiarity with the referent Indeed, at least one of the students displays such familiarity by adding the last name of the public figure under discussion that the teacher initially omits (Line 08) The teacher then proceeds to provide an account of hypothetical events that would demonstrate the essence of the double jeopardy principle—even a confession from an acquitted criminal could not result in a new trial, let alone a conviction At this point in the interaction, there is no visible or audible uptake of the narrative on the part of the students, as evidenced by two pauses of 1.5 seconds and one pause of 1.2 seconds in Lines 11 and 12 This is probably not surprising, because up to this moment the concept of double jeopardy has been presented as a tool for shielding a possible NARRATING AMERICA 507 criminal rather than a mechanism for the protection of U.S denizens The teacher then elaborates her explanation While acknowledging that some instances of the constitutional protection may not seem fair to all (Line 13), individuals to whom they apply appreciate them (Line 16) Here, the teacher again personalizes the explanation using the pronoun you, thus making the right to be protected from continuous prosecution relevant to her students To sum up, to demonstrate a constitutional principle at work, the teacher appeals to the students’ preexisting cultural knowledge as longterm U.S residents She then relates this knowledge to the topic under discussion, attempting to shape the cultural perception of the event the students remember as an example of limited government power and the protection of individual rights Although the students, as agents involved in day-to-day life in the United States and, therefore, exposed to the media coverage of events such as the murder trial of O J Simpson, may have their own views on the issue of double jeopardy as it applies both in the case narrated and may possibly apply in their own lives, they not voice them in class U.S History as an Accomplishment of Individual Heroes The last type of narratives was used to inform students about major events in U.S history Although such stories ostensibly recounted historical facts, it is important to remember that even the study of the past is far from perfectly objective Human interpretation of history is not necessarily impartial or unbiased but influenced by the interpreter’s social and cultural context (Munslow, 1997, p 123) Indeed, U.S history in these citizenship classes was constructed in an idealized light, with the focus on individual accomplishments rather than on the collective action The segment in Example 6, for example, provides evidence of a significantly romanticized view of a single individual’s role in the success of the American Revolution Example 01 Teacher: Our revolutionary war was a terrible wa:r Mmany mmany mmany young 02 people di:ed.5In our war We almost q lost, (1.4) we almost lost the war 03 Luis: Civil war? 04 Teacher: No no [This is the revolutionary w[ar 05 Luis: [(- - -civil war- - -) 06 Rosa: [Revolution 508 TESOL QUARTERLY 07 Teacher: We almost lost that war A:nd, George Washington, q personally, 08 with his own money, bought, uniforms, and food, for the soldiers 09 (0.9) Because there was none (0.5) They were freezing to death,((mimics being cold)) 10 and they were starving ((mimics eating)) (0.5) A:nd George Washington 11 used his o::wn:: money, to buy food, and to bu::y, uniforms Fo:r, the soldiers 12 (0.5) So:::, we came very close((indicates a small amount with index finger and thumb brought together)) 13 to losing the revolutionary wa:r (1.3) Oh my go:d Then what we’d’ve done.5 14 We would not be a country (2.0) O:ka:y The teacher begins the narrative by describing the American Revolutionary War as a traumatic event with many casualties and a looming defeat of the colonists seeking independence (Lines 01–02, 07, and 12–13) After a collaborative clarification for one student as to which war is being discussed (Lines 03–06), the teacher returns to the same description, which acts as the complicating event of the story (Line 07) The resolution comes in the next installment of the narrative, in which the teacher portrays George Washington as making a personal sacrifice to save the budding nation’s military from cold and starvation (Lines 07– 11) Washington’s heroic and selfless, but nevertheless single and individual, act is emphasized through several linguistic resources First, George Washington is the only character referred to by name The remaining characters are referred to through group category terms (i.e., young people or soldiers) and the pronoun they Moreover, Washington is depicted as an agent rather than an experiencer of states and emotions: Compare the verbs bought (Line 08), used (Line 11), and to buy (Line 11) describing his actions with the verbs died (Line 02), were freezing (Line 09), and were starving (Line 10) describing the states, not actions, of the other characters Finally, the teacher uses such phrases as personally (Line 07) and his own money (Lines 08 and 11) to stress the individual nature of Washington’s offering Thus, although the sacrifice is presented as being for the good of others and the nation, the emphasis lies on the individual heroism The climax of the story proposes a hypothetical alternative outcome of the Revolutionary War in the absence of the personal sacrifice—the defeat of the colonists and the nonexistence of the United States as a nation in the present (Lines 13–14) The narrative thus builds a strong link between the actions of a single individual and the course of U.S history NARRATING AMERICA 509 CONCLUSION In this article, I have examined a facet of classroom interaction that has heretofore received little attention in discourse studies: namely, the reproduction of national ideologies through narratives designed to make course material more accessible to adult learners with limited English proficiency The findings indicate that a teacher may construct a variety of hypothetical, fictionalized, or realistic scenarios to explain abstract constitutional concepts and complex historical events to ESL users in citizenship classes The teacher may also call on the students’ vernacular knowledge about widely publicized events to demonstrate constitutional principles at work Although such invocations of real events are not fully fledged stories, they include significant narrative elements In instances where the constitutional concept in question is viewed as potentially relevant to the students’ lives outside the classroom and beyond the naturalization test, the teacher frequently personalizes the stories, casting the students as characters and tying the story outcomes to the students’ legal rights In addition to serving as explanatory devices, instructional narratives convey the ideology of individualism prevalent in the United States Historical narratives frequently emphasize the role of specific individuals in shaping the course of history Narratives exemplifying constitutional principles focus on the protection of individuals’ rights even at a considerable cost to the state These stories present an idealized image of the United States, because the primacy of individual rights is neither as simple nor as all-encompassing as the content of the narratives seems to suggest Numerous cases regularly coming up before various levels of courts serve as a testimony to the complexity of constitutional interpretation The role of single individuals as primary agents of historical change is also debatable The instructional narratives in the citizenship classroom are, thus, reflective not necessarily of objective reality, but of the ideological lens through which the instructor views this reality and interprets it for the students The students, however, may not always share the teacher’s ideological views, as evidenced by their reluctant participation in and responses to some of the narratives On the one hand, students may perceive some of the teacher’s presentations as idealistic and not quite in accordance with their personal experiences in the United States This is particularly true of the students who either began their domicile in the country as undocumented immigrants or have been victims of racial and ethnic discrimination The construction of the students’ roles in some narratives as rather powerless may contribute to their understanding of the constitutional principles as idealized and inapplicable to their own lives 510 TESOL QUARTERLY On the other hand, students with particularly low proficiency may have difficulties in understanding those narratives whose ideological perspectives clash with the students’ own views The lack of comprehension resulting from limited English skills can potentially lead to the students’ misunderstanding of their own rights, even if they learn to mimic the teacher’s performance of the appropriate ideology to pass the naturalization test Example above, containing the narrative about eminent domain, is probably the most illustrative in this respect Ceyda, the student who displayed her understanding of property owners as powerless before the government, had extremely low proficiency in English It is no surprise then that a complex legal point of a narrative laden with multiclause utterances, complicated causative and passive constructions, and infrequent vocabulary items, such as eminent domain, fair price, or public purpose, may have escaped her, although it seemed to be understood by more-English-proficient students Unfortunately, fine-tuning the linguistic features of the input to each student’s individual proficiency level is not possible in multilevel ESL classes, particularly in content-based ones Similarly, it is not possible for teachers to account for every ideological view that may affect the students’ understanding of the content material This practical impossibility makes it especially important that citizenship instructors be aware of their own ideological views, the ways in which these views are disseminated through classroom discourse, and the ways in which they affect teaching and learning Moreover, it is essential that teachers involve their students in active coconstruction of the ideological perspectives on the core topics covered in a citizenship class This may be accomplished by providing more room for the students to act as conarrators of the stories exemplifying constitutional principles and historic events, by soliciting student perspectives on the key issues, and by creating opportunities for the students to engage in discussion with one another Although stories may, indeed, be useful in clarifying challenging concepts to learners with limited English proficiency, the selection of the narrative content may require strategic planning on the instructor’s part so as to maximize its pedagogical effectiveness The quantity and quality of student responses to the narrative may serve as a significant gauge for the teacher in assessing whether or not the stories serve the pedagogical purpose for which they are employed, and whether the students are truly internalizing the essential concepts or merely learning to perform in accordance with the teacher’s expectations This study, of course, is not without limitations It was conducted on a small scale, and its findings, therefore, are not easily generalizable to all adult educational settings Further research on ideologies reproduced in citizenship classrooms is much needed To continue to explore the subject productively, future larger scale investigations will need to NARRATING AMERICA 511 incorporate studies of multiple classrooms in various locations throughout the United States Nevertheless, the study offers initial insights to adult citizenship instructors in critically evaluating the effectiveness of their practices in accommodating adult learners with limited English proficiency in citizenship classes ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am extremely grateful to all the people who made this study possible, especially to the teacher and the administrators, who allowed me to observe their classes, and the students, who generously allowed me into their lives at very important and even lifealtering times for them I also would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers who provided invaluable comments on the earlier version of this article They helped me make the article stronger All remaining inaccuracies and errors are entirely mine THE AUTHOR Olga V Griswold is an assistant professor of linguistics in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at California State Polytechnic 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((coughs)) Meaning The beginning of overlapping talk The end of overlapping talk Falling intonation Rising intonation Continuing intonation Abrupt cutoff Fast speech Talk produced without transition-space silence Prolonged sound Prominent-stressed syllable Quiet speech Unintelligible talk Approximate hearing Heightened pitch Lowered pitch Laughter Audible in-breath Pause in seconds Pause of 0.1 of a second or less Transcriber’s comments Speaker Designations Throughout the transcript, the teacher is referred to as Teacher; all students’ names have been replaced with pseudonyms Where it was not possible to identify a particular student by his or her pseudonym, the following abbreviations were used: UnS Unidentified student; voice not identifiable as either male or female MS Male student FS Female student SS Choral response by two or more students 516 TESOL QUARTERLY ... past events as fundamental for the definition of a story (Labov, 1981, 1997; Labov & Waletzky, 1967) Extensive ethnographic research, however, has demonstrated that narrative structures also... narrative analysis Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7, 395–415 Labov, W., & Waletzky, J (1967) Narrative analysis In J Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp 12–44) Seattle,