How Do Language Learning, Teaching, and Transnational Experiences (Re)shape an EFLer’s Identities? A Critical Ethnographic Narrative

• Published in: SAGE open Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 215824402110312 - 215824402110320
• Main Author: Gao, Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2021; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Advocacy; Asians; Chinese; Code Switching (Language); College Faculty; Critical Thinking; Doctoral Programs; Educational Experience; Elementary Secondary Education; English (Second Language); Ethnography; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Innovation; Language Teachers; Language Variation; Learning Processes; Literary criticism; Narratives; Personal Autonomy; Professional Identity; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Second language teachers; Self Concept; Socialization; Study Abroad; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher education; Teacher Educators; Teaching Methods; Transnationalism; California (San Jose); China; transnational experience; identity development; language teacher identities; critical ethnographic narrative
• ISSN: 2158-2440; 2158-2440
• DOI: 10.1177/21582440211031211

Using critical ethnographic narrative as a tool and language socialization as the theoretical stance, the article analyzes excerpts of a language teacher’s life experience and presents findings to join the existing literature. The article indicates that (a) transnational teacher identities develop in a multiple-identity system including identities as an L2 learner, teacher, user, critical thinker, and global citizen; (b) the identity development is not completely staged, but instead recurring; (c) the emergence, formation, and development of the identity system requires translanguaging, transcultural, and transnational capitals, which are accrued through socializing experiences; and (d) critical thinking and intellectual agency work as stimuli to sustain the identity development. The article contributes to the existing literature by presenting a conceptual framework in studying language teacher identities. This article ends up with some advocacy that identity as a pedagogy and tool may provide teacher educators with something innovative and helpful to conduct research in the field.