Investing in English: Imagined Identities among Indonesian Pesantren Students

Abstract

This article draws on the author’s doctoral research exploring EFL learners’ identity and investment through arts-based intervention in Indonesian Islamic boarding schools (pesantren). Grounded in Bonny Norton Peirce’s (1995, 2013) concept of investment, it examines how pesantren students imagine their identities as English learners and what motivates their investment in the language. The study involved 29 students
(aged 16 to 18) from three senior high school pesantren in Depok, West Java. Data were collected mainly from focus groups and analysed using thematic and critical discourse analysis. Findings show that most students strived to become successful language learners, and some projected identities as proficient English users. Other participants lacked clear imagined identities despite expressing ongoing interest in learning the language for its symbolic values. Notably, a new form of ‘virtuous
investment’ emerged, wherein students framed English learning as an act of religious duty aligned with Islamic teachings. This finding invites an extension of the investment framework to consider learners’ religious beliefs or spiritual identities as another factor that shapes their aspirations and commitment to language acquisition. It also suggests that the concept of ‘spiritual capital’ should be included to extend Darvin and Norton’s
(2015) definition of ‘capital,’ which may be particularly relevant in educational contexts like pesantren where learners’ faith plays a pivotal role in their learning trajectories. This article concludes by emphasising the need of recognising these diverse elements to assist educators develop more inclusive teaching strategies that appreciate learners as complex social beings and cater to the needs of various English language learning
environments.