ABSTRACT

Despite a growing body of knowledge regarding the relevance of queer people and their lives to language education, we still know little about the power of classrooms, institutions, and larger macro structural forces to shape—and be shaped by—the identity experiences of queer L2 learners. This article presents a comparative analysis of the identity dilemmas and decisions of two queer learners as they studied Japanese in their home countries (the United States and Romania) and Japan. The findings show that the participants had learned to view their queer identities as incompatible with the compulsory cisgenders and heterosexuality reproduced in the social setting of the L2 classroom. My analysis underscores the crucial role that institutional policies and practices have on the well-being of queer students. The comparative analysis also highlights the objective/subjective duality of macro social structures and how they come to mean in the lives of learners.

摘要

尽管关于酷儿人群及其生活与语言教育的相关性的知识越来越多，但我们仍然对课堂、机构和更大的宏观结构力量塑造酷儿 L2 身份体验以及被其塑造的力量知之甚少学习者。本文对两名酷儿学习者在本国（美国和罗马尼亚）和日本学习日语时的身份困境和决定进行了比较分析。调查结果表明，参与者已经学会将他们的酷儿身份视为与二语课堂社交环境中再现的强制性顺性和异性恋不相容。我的分析强调了机构政策和实践对酷儿学生福祉的关键作用。