Earticle

Although the Japanese discourse of nihonjinron argues that the increasing hegemony of the English language will have negative effects on the Japanese identity, some scholars have suggested the opposite, that English in Japan plays a significant role in strengthening and maintaining the ideologies of the Japanese national identity. This paper investigates the potential for both positive and/or negative impacts of English education in Japan by analysing the attitudes and perspectives of 97 Japanese tertiary-level EFL students towards the study of English on Japan’s national and cultural identity. The findings suggest that support for the theories of the nihonjinron discourse are not as strong amongst the younger generation in Japan as what they once were. Participants identified the Japanese language as a constituent element of national identity, and it is therefore suggested that removing Japanese from the EFL classroom entirely, as has been advocated for in foreign language policies, may actually cultivate negative ideologies towards the study of English in general. The findings suggest the need to build a positive relationship between the English language as a support for Japanese identity if we are to see an improvement in Japanese students’ attitudes toward, and development of, EFL on the whole.

The construction of writer identity in English L2 academic writing is not usually explicitly addressed in such writing classrooms, yet it plays a significant role for English L2 students learning to write in academic genres. This study investigates the influences on the construction of writer identity by Japanese university students in Japan learning English academic writing, with consideration given to what selves they exhibit in their writing, and how much those selves were shaped by their learning experiences in a required writing course. A total of sixteen students and their four teachers participated in the yearlong study, involving an analysis of students’ written texts, supported by monthly student and teacher interviews and classroom observations. The text analysis was done using Clark and Ivanič’s (1997) possibilities of selfhood as the main framework, operationalizing Martin’s (2000) Appraisal framework for identifying the different selves. Findings showed that the strongest influences on identity construction were from instructors’ expectations, while personal beliefs also contributed. The findings also showed that students were more likely to meet writing task expectations where instructors had more reasonable requirements in terms of voice.

This paper explores the interplay of Taiwanese adolescent English learners’ motivational selves and their parents’ expectations, with a special focus the identified perceptions of both teenage leaners and their parents towards English learning as a duty and obligation. Using the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS, Dörnyei, 2009), the qualitative study foregrounds the cultural and relational aspects of the self system in understanding language learning motivation. Results from semi-structured interviews suggest that parental expectations of children’s English learning exhibit a duality characterized by the hope that their children will become successful members of the globalized world and a belief that English learning is a basic responsibility for their children. Adolescent language learners’ and their parents’ actual selves, including their identification with societal roles and social obligations, mediate between parents’ investments in their children’s English education and teenage learners’ perceived obligations to meet parental expectations. The paper concludes by suggesting further research on parental expectations and the development of global selves, and on the synergized effect of language learners’ actual selves and future self-guides in motivating language learning.

Asian migrants1 that settle in countries like NZ learn English in the hope of accessing mainstream society. However, this process presents many challenges to their identities and their sense of self worth. This paper explores one migrant’s journey. The case study of "Jessica" used a narrative approach to investigate her identity construction in trying to get entry to a degree programme. The study focuses on significant events collected from eight in-depth interviews over a period of eleven months. In the process of being originally denied entry to university, then later accepted, Jessica negotiated the negative and limited identity imposed on her, re-constructing her identity as a university student and successful language learner with increased self-value. The findings indicate the significance of imposed identities on self-value, the importance of identity negotiation and the close link to a sense of belonging in mainstream society. Journeys such as Jessica’s hopefully make policy makers and language education providers aware of the importance of the sense of self when supporting migrants who are language learners.

This study explored the negotiation of a Chinese EFL teacher’s teaching identity in light of recent critique of neoliberalism. Ms. Q, our focal participant, worked in a private English school that commodified English, and her main teaching responsibility was to prepare students for the IELTS test. We adopted an agency-centered approach to explore how Ms. Q’s professional identity was negotiated in relation to the exercise and investment of her professional agency. In particular, Haneda and Sherman’s (2016) job-crafting perspective on teacher agency was adopted to illustrate how Ms. Q was able to go beyond the prescribed teaching role assigned by the school. This move, in turn, contributed to her teacher identity development because she was able to exercise agency within the affordances and constraints of the given work context. Our data include classroom observation, interviews with Ms. Q and her students, Ms. Q’s teaching materials and her posts in a Chinese social network (Wechat). Our findings revealed that Ms. Q’s investment in constructing the desired teacher identity, that is, to be a good educator, supported her to transcend the prescribed space for teaching practice and make agentic decisions in the classroom that were in accordance with her teaching beliefs.

This study examines teacher identity through conflicts and agency emergent from the narratives of five non-local English teachers working in Bangkok, Thailand. The examination of conflict and agency to gauge one’s identity is suitable as these constructs are interdependent. Using a sociocultural approach, the study examined meaning and word choices found in the participants’ narratives. The findings indicated that participants encountered conflicts with different social entities such as their employers’ expectations, circumstances of their students, and interference from other stakeholders. The ways in which these conflicts were addressed depended on the workplaces of the participants, wherein those whose workplace had stronger social suggestion resorted to a resolved acceptance of difference, while participants whose workplace had weaker social suggestion enacted agency by modifying pedagogy or teaching content, or opposing the school administration. It was found that these agentic actions were carried out based on the notion of inclusivity and social justice. From these findings, the multifaceted identity of non-local English teachers was not only determined by their culture or country of origin but also by their work context. This study calls for further examination of international school settings, as well as the professional growth of non-local English teachers in such contexts.

The changing landscape of higher education (HE) and the expansion of academic work have impacted on academic identity development. However, there is very little known about the academic identity development of English language teachers who transition from teaching in the school sector to working in higher learning institutions in Malaysia. This paper thus seeks to explore how university English teachers’ (UET) academic identities are developed and to identify factors that are pertinent to this development through the lens of self-concept. Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews and the analysis was done using the framework of self-concept. The findings reveal that UETs’ self-concepts are dynamic constructs influenced by multiple internal and external factors from their past and present contexts. When UETs were placed into a new setting, they had to reflect on and re-evaluate their abilities in order to adapt to internal and situational changes. Self-concept thus played a role in restructuring the self and is strongly associated with motivation and is driven by goals for self-improvement. The findings of this study suggest that strategies which can support and sustain a positive transition for UETs into academia be implemented to ensure improved recruitment and retention.