Identity is a concept that has been defined in many ways and scholars have built theories of identity to explain persons’ and people's sense of the term. In this article, I compare and contrast theories developed in applied linguistics, social psychology, anthropology and communication sciences and conclude that each is grounded on the particularity of a social context. To expand the particular contexts studied by identity theorists, I consider the varied responses of individuals and groups to the influence of a hegemonic language. Although co...
