ABSTRACT
To understand how bilingual interactants take a position in everyday interactions to express their individuality and everyday understandings, Chapter 5 discusses and describes how foreign language users position themselves regarding other interactants, situations and/or the subject of a conversation. Bilingual interactants may want to project themselves in their own way rather than being limited by what the target language allows them to do. I examine how bilingual interactants take a line especially in terms of the expressions they give and give off (Goffman, 1959). I then examine the concepts of stance and positionality with respect to the choices and resources available to bilingual interactants when they want to take up a position. These are examined in terms of Englebretson's (2007) identification of subjectivity, evaluation and interaction. To further understand how bilingual interactants adopt a communicative stance, I interviewed 35 bilingual users regarding how they present/express themselves in the TL. Answers reflect how conscious bilingual interactants are regarding how they come across and how they achieve assertiveness and individuality in TL interaction. I further explore how bilingual interactants deal with the challenges and opportunities involved in taking a stance when experiencing international travel.
