Symbolic Value and Foreign Language Learner Investment in Greece

Symbolic value has been recognized as a crucial factor in terms of its relationship to language and the consumption of commodities. This empirical study argues that the intense commodification of modern Foreign Language... [ view full abstract ]

Symbolic value has been recognized as a crucial factor in terms of its relationship to language and the consumption of commodities. This empirical study argues that the intense commodification of modern Foreign Language Education (FLE), with its focus on certificates and specialized learning for specific purposes, has rendered symbolic value an important factor that influences learners. Hence, within the highly commodified context of the Greek FLE industry, this research uses the construct of investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015) to explore how symbolic value is perceived and experienced by foreign language learners who invest time and money in languages, and how it affects language choice and learner identity. To this end, 25 semi-structured, in-depth, interviews with Greek Foreign Language Learners were conducted. Grounded on this model of investment, located at the intersection of identity, ideology, and capital, these interviews are examined through thematic analysis. The data analysis shows that: 1) national language ideologies and attitudes shape the symbolic value of foreign languages which is socially, culturally, and historically constructed within a monolingual nation, 2) symbolic value defines notions of usefulness and value assigned to different foreign language choices available in a given foreign language learning market, which then guide learners' choices of where to invest their resources, and finally, that 3) symbolic value directly influences learner investment and affects learner identity through the “branding” of languages and their association with specific attributes of imagined communities. The study of symbolic value in foreign language learning choice and learner identity can inform the sociological motivational construct of investment as experienced by learners within the context of modern commodified FLE. Therefore, this paper contributes to the scholarships of motivation and the commodification of language through the analysis of the construct of investment within the framework of modern commodified FLE.