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This paper investigates language learners' negotiation of their social selves in the target language community of practice from a narrative perspective. In order to do this, I draw from post-structuralist and sociocultural approaches to language learning and L2 identity (e.g. Belz, 2002; Kinginger, 2004; Norton, 1997, 2000; Pavlenko, 2002, 2003) which assume that learners do not communicate in a social vacuum but acquire new roles, positions and vantage points from which they negotiate their L2 selves. More specifically, I argue the need for investigating language learners' negotiations of legitimacy and agency in the L2 (Kramsch, 2003; Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2000) within a narrative perspective. As language learning and use occur socially, language learners need to be studied as negotiators in the relations of power that are established when entering into contact with the L2. Acquiring "audibility" (Miller, 2004), the "right to speech" (Bourdieu, 1977) and acquiring new positions in the L2 (Davies & Harre, 1990; Kramsch, 2003) are some of the issues that the L2 user faces when interacting in the target community of practice. The methodological framework put forward is exemplified through the study of several language learners' anecdotes extracted from a corpus of 20 learner interviews. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper analyses how cultural understanding of the target culture can be addressed at beginners' level. To do this, I will discuss how some theoretical and pedagogical principles from Intercultural Learning, Cultural Studies and Second Language Acquisition throw light on the teaching of culture at the outset of foreign language learning. While it is widely recognised that culture and language occur in tandem, there is a dearth of examples of how reflection about the target culture can be introduced in the adult beginners' language learning context. In this paper I will argue that the notion of culture as a negotiable entity can be introduced at the outset of language learning. The role of cultural identity and subjectivity in texts are the two key concepts on which this argument will be built. I will then describe how these ideas can be transferred to three different aspects of language teaching methodology: the need to portray heterogeneous national cultures and other markers of cultural identity, objectivity vs. subjectivity in texts, and the creation of fictional personal testimonies to experience the target culture. In order to illustrate these points, examples from two beginners' Spanish course books will be provided. (Contains 4 figures.)