Introduction

Whether in communication in one's L1 or a foreign language, language constitutes a fundamental semiotic resource for identity construction (Harre & van Langenhove, 1999; Kramsch, 2009). The foreign language classroom is a place where learners engage with new linguistic forms and practices, reinterpret old ones, and gradually construct a sense for how languages work and how they can work with languages for identity purposes. Different languages not only provide different structural resources and interactional resources, but also come with different cultural constraints on how everyday conversational routines and speech acts are conventionally expected to be performed (Kecskes, 2014). Therefore, right from the beginning of the learning process, learners are faced with the issue of impression management and how the things they say and the way they say them in the foreign language might lead to them being evaluated as a particular kind of person. Moreover, identity is not only individual but social as well. Adding a new language to one's communicative repertoire does not mean leaving old affiliations behind, and many learners will wish to position themselves as members of particular social and cultural groups, old and new. The question of how 'to be' within the foreign language is thus an exceedingly complex issue that presents challenges on both a cognitive and an affective level (Liddicoat, 2005). Theorizing on the theoretical and pedagogical significance of learners' productive language use in classroom performance tasks has been dominated by the cognitive perspective of mainstream SLA theory, particularly Long's (1983) interaction hypothesis. This hypothesis frames the role of performance in terms of the opportunities created for noticing incongruous aspects of one's use of linguistic forms, which can trigger readjustments to facilitate interaction and acquisition. This perspective is useful in understanding how structural aspects of the linguistic system are acquired. Within such a paradigm, however, it is difficult to explain how learners interpret the social significance of the language forms they encounter and how they go about appropriating particular ways of speaking or writing to show something about themselves (Firth & Wagner, 1997).