Special Edition, September 2009,
Language, Culture and Identity in Asia.


| September 2009 home | PDF version |

Title
The Self Concept, Culture and Cultural Identity:  An Examination of the Verbal Expression of the Self Concept in an Intercultural Context

Jules Winchester
Tutorial Fellow in English Language Teaching,
Sussex Language Institute, University of Sussex

Biodata
Jules Winchester is Tutorial Fellow in English Language Teaching at the Sussex Language Institute, University of Sussex.  Her research interests are intercultural communication, sociolinguistics, linguistic politeness, language and identity and English language teaching.

Abstract
This paper is an examination of what verbal expressions of the self concept, assessed through analysis of self descriptions, reveal about an individual’s identity claims in a given interaction.  Based on the findings of a larger study into the communication behaviour of a small number of Japanese women conversing in English with a British interlocutor in England, the paper concludes that cultural identity plays a salient role in an individual’s self concept in intercultural communication.  The paper begins with a definition of the self concept and a critical evaluation of the analytic tools to assess it.  This is followed by background information on the aforementioned study, an overview and discussion of the findings and a conclusion.

Key words
Self concept, culture, cultural identity, intercultural communication