This qualitative study uses a methodology of performance to investigate how nine nonnative teachers of Spanish in grades 6-16 in Georgia public schools construct and perform their second language identities. Specifically, the study employs the concept of cultural drag to consider how these non-native teachers of Spanish often perform as, or are expected by others to perform as, members of the cultures they teach (i.e, native speakers of Spanish). Similar to gender drag, cultural drag involves members of one group assuming characteristics of another, and here refers to non-native teachers’ assumption of characteristics of native speakers of Spanish.

Organized in a manuscript format, the first article of this dissertation draws on Butler’s theory of performativity to establish the theoretical underpinnings of cultural drag. I then illustrate the characteristics of cultural drag – desire, action, revelation, and proliferation – by analyzing three language memoirs. The second manuscript further elaborates on cultural drag, now applied to study data. I examine the contradictory and ambivalent statements and actions that participants enacted related to their second language identities during individual interviews and performance-based focus groups informed by Boal’s theatrical techniques. The third manuscript focuses on one element of cultural drag, revelation. I further describe my use of Boal’s Forum Theatre, choosing to look concretely at how study participants acted out against being positioned as non-native speakers in the presence of school administrators when being a non-native speaker was interpreted as a professional liability.

Analyses in these articles indicated that language learners / teachers deeply invested in their second language identities struggled with feelings of illegitimacy when caught in the native speaker / non-native speaker binary that privileges the native speaker and undergirds foreign language education. They felt empowered, though, when they questioned the validity of the ideal native speaker and focused on their abilities as both Spanish language users and English language users, amongst other identities. This project, then, moved from the personal experiences of the teacher-participants as related to their language learning and pedagogical practices to the interrogation of imitating, or performing as, the “native speaker” as the foundation of foreign language education.

This dissertation investigates how social networks influence understandings, judgments, and uses of L2 pragmatics. The pragmatic target is the particle hasta ‘until’ as it is used orally and in writing to mark inception with and without negation in Spanish. This study examines how L2 students of Spanish understand, judge, and use hasta when they are members of social networks in university Spanish classes based on (a) pedagogy practice, (b) class level, and (c) mode of expression, and when, outside of university Spanish classes, they are integrated into social networks that involve exposure to different dialectal varieties of Spanish.

Data were collected from 72 students of Spanish. Statistical analysis revealed that (a) students’ attitudes towards L2 pragmatics are influenced by the linguistic norms propagated by their L2 instructors; (b) correlations are not always positive between class level and understandings, judgments, and uses of L2 pragmatics; (c) mode of expression affects only oral production of L2 pragmatics; and (d) outside the classroom, membership in social networks that expose individuals to particular Spanish dialects affects L2 pragmatics in speech and writing in opposite ways.

This study contributes to (1) Spanish pragmatics, by showing that (a) pragmatic change can be built on semantic and syntactic interaction, (b) NPI formation in Spanish can be affected by the scope of negation, and (c) aspectual markers in Spanish can derive from contextually-influenced verbal situations and may be dialect-specific; (2) Spanish sociolinguistics, by demonstrating that (a) there is value in using network analysis to study language variation and change in Spanish, (b) approaching Spanish L2 classrooms as social networks is worthwhile, and (c) social network analysis may provide a viable alternative or complement to SLA approaches in the study of L2 pragmatics in Spanish; and (3) Spanish L2 pedagogy, by highlighting (a) the didactic importance of influencing student ideologies toward L2 pragmatics, (b) that students might benefit from being introduced to L2 pragmatics at the beginning stages of their Spanish language study, and (c) the need for teachers of L2 Spanish to revise currently held expectations for appropriate student understandings, judgments, and uses of L2 pragmatic forms.

An interest in foreign language reading has propelled the need for understanding how students make meaning of text in a second language (Patrikis, 2003). Metacognitive reading use strategy is a venue through which second language comprehension can be planned, monitored, and evaluated. In the review of literature, it is suggested that methods for collecting data on metacognitive reading strategies encompass participants’ own words or structured response. The literature also suggests that findings of strategy use are related to categories of strategy use, L1 reading comprehension strategies can transfer to L2 reading comprehension, and L1 and L2 strategy training use is linked to achievement. This study used a variety of data sources: an open-ended self-report, the MARSI questionnaire, a self-report of comprehension monitoring, and interviews. Data from these measures were examined for commonalities and recurring themes to create a picture of the metacognitive reading strategies used by foreign language students in L1 and L2.