The Emergence of Third Space and Gendered Subjectivities in the EFL Class

Abstract

This study explores Third Space and its relation to gender by discussing the findings of a Feminist Post Structuralist discourse analysis (Baxter, 2003) that aims at shedding light about how the Third Space generates discourses of dominance and resistance (Van Dijk, 1989) when EFL students construct their gendered subjectivities (Butler, 1990) during interaction in the EFL class. This study was carried out in a private language center with five female and four male adult learners, whose ages vary from 17 to 42 years old. These students attended an upper-intermediate level (B1 class (according to the common European framework of reference) and the data was collected through audio recording students' discussions related to controversial issues in society. Afterwards, students were interviewed to follow the analysis and interpretation principles of FPDA in which the participants' voices about their own interpretation of data are heard in the data analysis process (Sunderland, 2005). Consequently, this study discusses the concepts of Gender (Butler, 1990), Subject (Foucault, 1982) and the Third Space (Bhabha, 1994). Findings show that students consolidate their gendered subjectivities by means of hegemonic masculinities, hegemonic femininities, the gendered discourse of the ideal student and transitioning femininities.