Language, Identity, and Stereotype among Southeast Asian American Youth : The Other Asian

by Reyes; Angela

• ISBN13: 9780805855395
• ISBN10: 0805855394
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-08
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This bookan ethnographic and discourse analytic study of an after-school video-making project for 1.5- and second-generation Southeast Asian American teenagersexplores the relationships among stereotype, identity, and ethnicity that emerge in this informal educational setting. Working from a unique theoretical foundation that combines linguistic anthropology, Asian American studies, and education, and using rigorous linguistic anthropological tools to closely examine video- and audio- recorded interactions gathered during the video-making project (in which teen participants learned the skills for creating their own video and adult staff learned to respect and value the local knowledge of youth), the author builds a compelling link between micro-level uses of language and macro-level discourses of identity, race, ethnicity, and culture. In this study of the ways in which teens draw on and play with circulating stereotypes of the selfand the other, Reyes uniquely illustrates how individuals can reappropriate stereotypes of their ethnic group as a resource to position themselves and others in interactionally meaningful ways, to accomplish new social actions, and to assign new meanings to stereotypes. This is an important book for academics and students in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, and applied linguistics with an interest in issues of youth, race, and ethnicity, and/or educational settings, and will also be of interest to readers in the fields of education, Asian American studies, social psychology, and sociology.

Author Biography

Angela Reyes is an assistant professor of linguistics in the Department of English at Hunter College, City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. Her primary research areas are in linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, and Asian American studies. Examining the language practices of Asian Americans and other racial minorities, her current research is interested in the ways in which links between dialects and ethnic groups become established, appropriated, and disrupted in discursive interaction. Her work has won numerous awards and has appeared in several academic journals, including Journal of Sociolinguistics, Discourse Studies, and a Special Issue of Pragmatics on the discourse practices of Asian Pacific Americans, which she also co-edited.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
1 The Other Asian: Emergence of an Identity	1	(30)
2 "No Kiss, No Money": Constructing Identities With Asian Newcomer Stereotypes	31	(31)
3 "Aite" and "Na Mean": Constructing Identities With African American Stereotypes	62	(27)
4 From Storeowners to Minivan Drivers: Building Panethnicity With Asian American Stereotypes	89	(26)
5 "Yo, Yo, He Cambo": Dismantling Panethnicity With Asian American Stereotypes	115	(30)
6 Implications for Minority Youth in Alternative Education and Grassroots Video	145	(13)
References	158	(13)
Appendix: Transcription Conventions	171	(4)
Author Index	175	(4)
Subject Index	179