| Chapter 2: | Situating the Research |
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Chapter 2
Situating the Research
One of the main characteristics of an autoethnographic perspective is that the autoethnographer is a boundary-crosser and the role can be characterized as that of a dual identity.
—Reed-Danahay (1997, p. 3)
Polaris, my guide
Shining on the thorny path
Painfully traversed
This selected review of the literature focuses on research in two areas relevant to my study. The first reviews learner identities in second language learning in order to situate myself in the context of second language learning research. The second area examines autoethnography in order to illustrate the complex relationship between language learning and identity. In this way, my personal and reflexive voice can be represented in an act of self-revelation, connected with the cultural, social, and political text of my everyday life in which second language learning occurs.