In “sociocultural in-betweenness”: Exploring teachers’ translingual identity development through narratives

• Published in: Multilingua 2018-05, Vol.37 (3), p.255-274
• Main Authors: Ishihara, Noriko, Menard-Warwick, Julia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classroom practice; Classrooms; Code Switching (Language); Cultural identity; Foreign languages; identity; Identity formation; Intercultural Communication; Interculturality; Interviews; Language Attitudes; Language culture relationship; Language Teachers; Language teaching methods; Language Usage; Language varieties; Life history; Meaning; Multicultural Education; Multilingualism; Narratives; pedagogy; positioning; Professional Identity; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Second language teachers; Second languages; Self Concept; Sociocultural factors; Sociocultural Patterns; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Characteristics; Teacher Education; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; translingual practice
• ISSN: 0167-8507; 1613-3684
• DOI: 10.1515/multi-2016-0086

In this article, we investigate second/foreign language teachers’ translingual identity development through a narrative approach to their life histories. While several studies have investigated how teachers’ intercultural experiences shape their identity formation and pedagogies, we explore not only the impact of teachers’ identity on their practice but also highlight the influences of language teaching itself on teacher identity development. In this process, an emergent theoretical framework of translingual practice becomes particularly useful in interpreting our participants’ “sociocultural in-betweenness,” that is, the capacity and disposition to co-construct meaning across languages and language varieties (Canagarajah 2013b: 3). We aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of this framework by capturing how our two focal participants’ translingual practice emerged, developed, and changed in relation to their identities through a range of intercultural experiences in their life time. As they eventually became language teachers, we also explore their perspectives on language and culture, especially in terms of how they see their interculturality manifesting in their classroom practices, as well as how their pedagogies simultaneously shaped their teacher identities. Our findings have pedagogical implications in regards to narrative knowledge construction in language teacher education.