Identity, Agency, and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

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Author: Ping Deters

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Identity, Agency and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

Also available from Continuum: Language, Culture and Identity, Philip Riley Multilingualism, Citizenship, and Identity, Julie Byrd Clark Second Language Identities, David Block The Sociolinguistics of Identity, Edited by Goodith White and Tope Omoniyi

Identity, Agency and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

Ping Deters

Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane 11 York Road Suite 704 London SE1 7NX New York, NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © Ping Deters 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. EISBN: 978-1-4411-6315-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain

For Norbert and my parents and siblings: Kok Ying and Hock Yee Wong, Mary, Gwen, Sang, Terry, Fong, Elreen, Lai and Ling

Contents

List of Tables Acknowledgements

ix x

Chapter 1 Globalization and the Migration of Professionals 1.1 High-skilled Immigrants: A Prominent Trend 1.2 The Declassing of High-skilled Immigrants 1.3 Globalization in a Local Context: The Case of Immigrant Professionals in Ontario, Canada 1.4 Current Issues in the Professional Integration of Internationally Educated Teachers 1.5 Personal Experiences and Connections to Immigration Issues

1 2 5

Chapter 2 Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency in SLA Research 2.1 The Rise of Social Perspectives in SLA Research 2.2 Discourse and Identity: Post-structural and Dialogic Theory 2.3 Learning as Becoming: Identity Formation in Situated Learning 2.4 Mediated Mind and Agency: Sociocultural Theory 2.5 Theorizing Identity and Agency in SLA: Discussion Chapter 3 Qualitative Research in SLA 3.1 Qualitative Research: Characteristics and Methods 3.2 Conducting Qualitative Research in SLA Chapter 4 Affordances and Constraints in the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture 4.1 The Participants 4.2 Constraints to Professional Acculturation 4.3 Affordances to Successful Professional Acculturation 4.4 Discussion: Identity, Agency and Communities of Practice

7 11 14 17 17 19 27 34 42 53 54 67 85 85 94 107 120

viii

Contents

Chapter 5 The Professional Acculturation Journeys of Two Schoolteachers from Different Times and Places 5.1 Evelyn: A Secondary School Teacher from Austria 5.2 Merida: An Elementary School Teacher from Venezuela 5.3 Discussion

125 125 136 146

Chapter 6 Professional Integration in Two Contexts: A Chemical Engineer in Canada and an Architect in Denmark 6.1 Peter, Chemical Engineer 6.2 Kerri, Architect 6.3 Discussion 6.4 Summary and Commentary: Retrospective Narratives

155 155 166 178 183

Chapter 7 The Lived Professional Acculturation Experiences of a Teacher from Hong Kong: A Longitudinal Case Study 7.1 Case Study Information 7.2 Constraints and Conflicts 7.3 Affordances and Agency 7.4 Professional Acculturation and Identity 7.5 Discussion

186 186 190 197 201 205

Chapter 8 From Local to Global: Research Findings and Their Application to Other Contexts 8.1 Affordances and Constraints to Professional Acculturation 8.2 Theoretical Conceptions of Identity and Agency Revisited 8.3 Practical and Policy Implications 8.4 Concluding Thoughts

208 208 214 217 220

Appendices Appendix A: Interview Questions for IET Participants Appendix B: Transcription Key Appendix C: Member Checks Appendix D: Examples of Segmentation and Coding

222 222 224 225 227

Notes References Index

230 232 247

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 3.5 Table 3.6 Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 Table 4.4 Table 4.5 Table 4.6

Conceptions of identity/self and agency Initial research design Participants in phase one Participants in phase two Participants in phase three Summary of interview data Summary of case study data Phase one and phase two (case study) participants – elementary division Phase one and phase two (case study) participants – secondary division Phase one and phase two (case study) participants – college division Phase three participants Constraints to professional acculturation: topics and themes Affordances to professional acculturation: topics and themes

43 69 70 70 71 75 77 86 88 90 93 95 107

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of so many. First, I thank all of the participants, who shared their experiences so willingly and generously. Your stories truly touched me. I hope that I have done justice to your words. I am grateful for the mentorship and guidance from scholars at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and York University, who have been instrumental in the development of my research and scholarship: Merrill Swain, Patsy Duff, Ruth Hayhoe, Sharon Lapkin, Antoinette Gagné and Jill Bell. My sincere thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and CERIS – the Ontario Metropolis Centre for Excellence in Research on Immigration and Settlement for funding my research study. I am also grateful to Gurdeep Mattu and Colleen Coalter at Continuum, for their kind support of this book project. Many heartfelt thanks also to my family, and my friends and colleagues at OISE/UT and the English Language Institute at Seneca College for their encouragement and support. Finally, my deepest gratitude to Norbert, for his unswerving belief in me.

Chapter 1

Globalization and the Migration of Professionals

Globalization has transformed the world by creating increasingly integrated and interdependent states, economies, societies and cultures. One notable trend in recent decades is the increase in the scale and scope of international migration. According to the World Migration Report (2010), there are now almost 214 million international migrants. The number of international migrants has more than doubled since 1980, and has increased by almost 40 million over the past decade. Not only are there more international migrants, contemporary global migration involves a greater diversity of ethnic and cultural groups, more women as primary migrants, more temporary or circular migration and many more countries of origin and destination. International migration has been very high in public, political and media discourse, and this discourse has been highly polarized at national, regional and global levels: International migration is an emotive issue because it raises complex questions about the identity and values of individuals, households and communities, as well as societies as a whole. International migration is a controversial matter because it highlights important questions about national identity, global equity, social justice and the universality of human rights. (Global Commission on International Migration, 2005, p. 10) The countries with the largest numbers of international migrants in 2010 were the United States (42.8 million), the Russian Federation (12.3 million), Germany (10.8 million), Saudi Arabia (7.3 million), Canada (7.2 million), France (6.7 million), UK (6.5 million), Spain (6.4 million), India (5.4 million) and Ukraine (5.3 million). Münz (2010, p. 14) identified the US/Canada, the European Union 27 (including the European Economic Area countries and Switzerland), Russia, the Gulf States and Australia as being magnet societies for current international migration. Europe now matches North

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Identity, Agency and Professional Language and Culture

America in per capita net migration (3.0 per 1000) and Europe’s importance as a destination region is expected to increase in the coming decades (Boswell, 2005). The percentage of foreign-born and non-citizens in the total population is approximately 10 per cent in France, the Netherlands, Greece, Ireland and Belgium; 12 per cent in Sweden, the US, Germany and Austria; almost 20 per cent in Canada and New Zealand; and 22 per cent in Switzerland and Australia (Dumont & Lemaitre, 2005, cited in Hugo, 2005, p. 9). In contemporary global migration, there has been an increase in emigration from countries of origin in Asia, Africa and Latin America to OECD destination countries. This has resulted in greater cultural diversity in OECD countries, and the integration of newcomers into destination societies and economies is a major and highly contested issue, particularly in Europe. Even in Australia and Canada, which are well known as settlement countries and where multiculturalism is official government policy, there are tensions between official and public discourses regarding the social and economic integration of immigrants. The Global Commission on International Migration (2005) stated that integration is a long-term and multidimensional process that requires commitment and adaptation on the part of migrants and citizens of a destination country. The integration of newcomers is essential for social cohesion in a society, which provides a sense of security and common purpose, and contributes to economic success. Key components of integration include proficiency in the official language of the destination country, the ability to find work and participation in the civil society. This book contributes to international migration research by examining one prominent aspect of contemporary international migration: the professional integration of high-skilled immigrants. In this chapter, I provide the background and rationale for the research study that is the focus of this book. I begin with an overview of high-skilled labour migration trends. I then describe my research study context – immigrant professionals in the province of Ontario, Canada – and provide my rationale for focusing on immigrant teachers. I contextualize my study by discussing some key findings from previous research on the professional integration of immigrant teachers. Finally, I describe my personal connections to this topic.

1.1 High-skilled Immigrants: A Prominent Trend The International Labour Organization estimated around 100 million migrant workers worldwide, including 18 million in North America and


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30 million in Europe (Hugo, 2005, p. 2). In the years prior to the recent economic downturn, OECD countries experienced a period of sustained employment growth. Between 2003 and 2007, 30 million jobs were created, 20 million in OECD Europe. Given that the local labour force in many OECD countries has been shrinking as a result of an ageing population, migrant labour has been a significant part of employment growth (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 14). For example, between 1997 and 2007 in the UK, immigrant employment accounted for 75 per cent of employment growth (almost 1.5 out of 2 million positions). In the same time period, immigrant employment accounted for 58 per cent of employment growth in the United States (8.7 out of 15 million positions), and at least 40 per cent of total employment growth in Austria, Denmark, Italy and Spain (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 14). Many OECD countries share a common demographic dilemma: an ageing population and declining replacement rates have resulted in labour market shortages. In addition, a shrinking labour force is not only problematic for maintaining economic productivity and growth, but in ageing nations, this also results in difficulties in maintaining pensions and social security programmes, and finding caregivers for a growing number of elderly persons (GCIM, 2005, p. 6). In 2005, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Japan already had retiring cohorts that were larger than incoming cohorts. By 2020, all OECD countries except Ireland, Mexico and Turkey are projected to experience a decline in the working-age population (Chaloff & Lemaitre, 2009, p. 13). Thus, many of the most affluent countries in the world are dependent on immigration to meet labour market demands, and a number of OECD countries have introduced policies to facilitate the recruitment of highskilled immigrants. The term ‘high-skilled’ can be defined in terms of educational attainment (at least tertiary), occupation type, or wage level (Chaloff & Lemaitre, 2009, p. 12). There are many benefits of labour migration, and in particular, high-skilled labour migration. In contemporary knowledge-based economies, human capital in the form of highly skilled workers is vital for innovation, productivity and economic growth. For example, Wimmer’s study on the Green Card programme for IT workers in Germany estimated that each high-skilled migrant created an average of 2.5 new jobs in Germany (cited in Boswell, 2005, p. 5). Labour migrants from diverse countries of origin bring different knowledge and skills, which can contribute to innovation. In addition, Hugo (2005) noted that migration is a highly selective process and that it is often the risk takers, entrepreneurs, hard working and skilled persons who are inclined to move, so their contribution to destination societies can be even greater.

4


There are two main ways of recruiting high-skilled migrants: demanddriven, through direct recruitment by employers, and supply-driven, where candidates are selected according to characteristics such as age, education, language proficiency and occupation (point system). Supply-driven systems are more problematic because immigrants arrive without jobs and may face barriers to entering their professions and finding work. One major barrier is the lack of official language proficiency. For countries that have a national language that is not widely spoken outside of the country, direct recruitment into a position is problematic unless an international language is spoken in the workplace that can serve as a transitional language while the migrant learns the official language of the destination country. Discretionary high-skilled permanent labour migration has occurred mainly in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Countries in Europe that have had active and large high-skilled worker migration programmes are Ireland, Switzerland and the UK. Switzerland recruits mainly from the European Union, while Ireland and the UK recruit from outside the Union. However, in contrast to traditional settlement countries that recruit permanent labour migration, most European countries offer temporary work permits. Notable is the fact that high-skilled migration from countries outside the OECD to OECD countries has occurred mainly in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK, all countries with English as an official language. Switzerland, which also has high-skilled migration, has national languages spoken by larger neighbouring countries. Other OECD countries that have languages widely spoken beyond their borders – Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain – have had fewer high-skilled migrants. The major increases in migrant labour over the past decade in Portugal and Spain have been mainly for lesser-skilled occupations (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 102–103). In recent years, Denmark and Norway have also been actively recruiting high-skilled immigrants. Both countries have national languages that are scarcely spoken beyond their borders, but have nevertheless managed to recruit high-skilled immigrants. In both countries, India is the principal source country. Since many residents can speak English in these two countries, immigrants who are recruited directly into employment can function in English while learning the national language (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 103). With the recent downturn in the global economy, a number of OECD countries have changed their policies to reduce labour migration, but discretionary migration, especially in European countries, is only a small part


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of total migration. High-skilled migrants are also found in family reunification and humanitarian migration.

1.2 The Declassing of High-skilled Immigrants A major issue concerning immigrants in high-skilled and professional occupations is their unemployment and underemployment. In Europe, for example, the percentage of immigrants in high-skilled and professional occupations is lower than the overall percentage of immigrants in the employed population. This reflects the concentration of immigrants in lower skilled occupations, either because of the migration of lower skilled persons and/or because of difficulties in entering high-skilled occupations. (Chaloff & Lemaitre, 2009, p. 5). In terms of employment or unemployment rates or earnings, labour market outcomes for high-skilled immigrants trail those of the native-born in almost all OECD countries (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 108). According to a 2006 survey of eight European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden) and the United States, an average of 55 per cent of tertiary-educated immigrants were in high-skilled jobs compared to 70 per cent of tertiary-educated native-born persons; 4 per cent of tertiary-educated immigrants were in low-skill jobs compared to 1 per cent of native-born persons. In addition, the unemployment rate of tertiary-educated immigrants was 7 per cent compared to 3 per cent for native-born, and 19 per cent of tertiary-educated immigrants were not in the labour force, compared to 11 per cent of native-born (Chaloff & Lemaitre, 2009, p. 39). These figures speak to the deskilling of highly educated immigrants. The deskilling and declassing of immigrant professionals is an economic and social issue. First, the unemployment and underemployment of highly educated immigrants result in wasted resources and human potential, and reduce their fiscal contribution through taxation. This impacts a destination country’s economic growth and prosperity. Second, the workplace provides an important context for the integration of newcomers. In this community-based context, immigrants and other members of a society can pursue common objectives and establish relationships, which can help to develop a sense of mutual respect. (GCIM, 2005, p. 47). Immigrants in high-skilled or professional occupations face three major barriers: lack of proficiency in the destination country’s official language, transferability of foreign credentials and lack of local work experience.

6


For example, after the EU enlargement, most high-educated migrants from the new accession countries generally sought and found lesser-skilled jobs in Ireland and the UK because their English proficiency was not sufficient for high-skilled jobs (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 165). Rosholm, Scott and Husted (2001, cited in SOPEMI, 2009, p. 110) maintained that the increasing importance of interpersonal communication skills – ‘soft’ skills – in the workplace has made it more difficult for high-skilled immigrants to achieve the same kinds of labour market outcomes as in the past. Thus, acquiring a high proficiency in an official language, which includes competence in cultural nuances in interpersonal communication, is essential for the labour market integration of high-skilled immigrants. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US Department of State has estimated the number of hours of instruction required for a native English speaker to be able to speak and read at ‘General Professional Proficiency’. This corresponds to level three in a six-level scale varying from level zero (no proficiency) to level five (native or bilingual proficiency). At level three, a person is ‘able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social and professional topics’ (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 176). The estimates are based on FSI students, who have previous foreign language learning experience and are considered to have good language aptitude. In addition, these students are taught in small classes (maximum six persons) and receive 25 hours of instruction per week. The students are also expected to complete three to four hours of self-study per day. Under these rather ideal language learning conditions, the estimated hours of instruction are 575–600 (23–24 weeks) for most Western European languages, such as Danish, Dutch, French, Italian or Swedish; 750 for German (30 weeks); 1 100 (44 weeks) for languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences with English, such as Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Tagalog, Turkish or Vietnamese; and 2 200 hours (88 weeks), with the second year of study in-country, for languages that are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers, such as Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 165). These estimates for language instruction do not include the acquisition of writing proficiency, which would require many more hours of instruction. Clearly, learning an additional language in order to function in a professional context requires a significant amount of time and resources. According to a recent OECD report, funded language instruction for immigrants comprises 2000 hours in Denmark, 1300 hours in Australia, 1200 hours in Canada, 600 hours in Germany, 400 hours in France and 200


7

hours in Belgium (SOPEMI, 2009, p. 165). With the exception of Denmark, comparing these figures with the US Foreign Service Institute’s estimated number of hours of instruction required to reach a general professional proficiency in speaking and reading reveals the gap between the number of funded language instructional hours for immigrants and what is needed by immigrants to function in professional contexts, particularly for immigrants who come from a language background that is significantly different from the destination country’s official language. Given the importance of language proficiency to the labour market and social integration of immigrants, many destination countries need to provide greater support for language instruction. In addition, high-skilled immigrants also require support in developing local work experience and networks.

1.3 Globalization in a Local Context: The Case of Immigrant Professionals in Ontario, Canada Canada is well known as an immigration country. The most recent census data (Statistics Canada, 2007) reported that 1 110 000 newcomers came to Canada between 2001 and 2006. Over 58 per cent of recent immigrants were born in Asia (including the Middle East), and over 70 per cent of the foreign-born population in 2006 reported a mother tongue other than English or French. The largest proportion (18.6 per cent) reported Chinese languages. Ontario receives the majority of immigrants to Canada. In 2006, 52 per cent of immigrants to Canada settled in Ontario, and 40 per cent settled in the Greater Toronto Area. The foreign-born population in the Greater Toronto Area is 45.7 per cent of the total population, which makes Toronto one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. In recent decades, active recruitment of high-skilled immigrants through a supply-driven point system has resulted in a high influx of immigrant professionals who are granted residency status because of their education and occupational training in high-demand areas. Thousands of internationally educated professionals arrive in Canada each year with the hope and expectation of finding work in their profession, but instead face entry barriers (e.g., Basran & Zong, 1998; Salaff & Greve, 2005; Zong, 2004, Zhu, 2005). The major barriers to employment identified by both immigrant job seekers and Canadian managers are assessment and transferability of foreign credentials, lack of Canadian work experience and insufficient official language skills (Canadian Labour & Business Centre, 2002). The lack of official language skills, that is, English or French, was identified by

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22 per cent of immigrant job seekers and 66 per cent of private and public sector managers as being problematic for labour market participation. According to a recent report of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (Schellenberg & Maheux, 2007, p. 22), the top two difficulties identified by economic immigrants 4 years after arrival were: finding an adequate job (54.2 per cent), and learning an official language/language barrier (22.9 per cent). A major problem for immigrant professionals in Canada has been the lack of funded language instruction to help learners achieve a proficiency that is required in professional workplaces. Bridging programmes for professionals attempt to fill this gap, but enrolment is often restricted and funding for such programmes is often short-term. As a result, many immigrant professionals have to enrol in fee-paying courses to further upgrade their skills in the official language. In addition, the recertification process for many regulated professions often involves achieving a high score on a standardized test of language proficiency. There have been a number of studies that focus on the underemployment of immigrant professionals in Canada, and although the issue of language skills has emerged from the findings (e.g., Basran & Zong, 1998; Boyd & Thomas, 2001; Kadkhoda, 2002; Kunz, Milan & Schetagne, 2000; Salaff & Greve, 2005; Zong, 2004), many previous studies on labour migration have been conducted by economists and typically draw upon demographic census data and labour market outcomes. To date, few studies have focused specifically on the second language acquisition process of immigrant professionals. Given the importance of the acquisition of official language skills for the social and economic integration of immigrants, research from the field of applied linguistics has the potential to make an important contribution to the literature on global migration and the integration of immigrants. The purpose of my study on immigrant professionals in Canada and their acquisition of professional language and culture is to make such a contribution. My study focuses on internationally educated teachers with various subject specializations in the publicly funded Kindergarten-to-Grade-12 (K-12) school system and Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs) in the province of Ontario. In Canada, immigrants who are educated and certified as teachers in other countries are referred to as ‘internationally educated teachers’. In other contexts such as Australia, the UK and the US, the terms ‘overseas trained teachers’, ‘foreign trained teachers’ and ‘international teachers’ are used. In this book, I will use the term internationally educated teachers and acronym (IET) interchangeably with the


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term immigrant teachers. In the 1990s, 6.2 per cent of immigrant professionals in Canada were in the Educational Services category (Canadian Labour & Business Centre, 2004, p. 11). While immigrant teachers are not the most common profession of recent immigrants, for example, there are higher numbers of engineers (27.6 per cent), there are important reasons for focusing on internationally educated teachers. First, internationally educated teachers have an especially high rate of unemployment and underemployment (Lum, Chassels, & Rasheed, 2008). In a survey conducted in the province of British Columbia, internationally educated teachers were the group of immigrant professionals who were second-most commonly identified with unemployment or underemployment (CBMercer & Associates, 2002). In Ontario, surveys of newly certified teachers identified internationally educated teachers as having the greatest difficulties obtaining full-time permanent employment as teachers, despite having years of teaching experience in other countries (McIntyre, 2004). In addition to this issue of employment equity, there is another important reason to focus on the professional acculturation experiences of immigrant teachers. As discussed above, increased immigration has resulted in greater linguistic and cultural diversity in many contemporary societies, especially in metropolitan centres, which attract the majority of newcomers and their children. As a result, the students in the education system are also becoming increasingly diverse. In Europe, a major issue in recent years has been the poor educational outcomes of first- and second-generation immigrant children as revealed by recent results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which compared the achievement of students in OECD countries. In Canada and the US, many stakeholders in education have expressed the urgent need for a teaching force that reflects the multicultural student body in the publicly funded education system (e.g., Dei, 2002; Fenwick, 2001; J. A. Gordon, 2000; Klassen & Carr, 1997; Quiocho & Rios, 2000; Rong & Preissle, 1997; Solomon, 1997). The argument made is that teachers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds can have a positive impact on the achievement of children from diverse backgrounds. The shortage of visible minority teachers in Canada and in other immigrant receiving countries such as Australia and the United States is well known, and education systems have been searching for ways to attract visible minority students to the teaching profession. What has received little consideration is the unfulfilled potential of internationally educated teachers to address this need in the Canadian education system. This is a classic mismatch: On the one hand, there is a shortage of teachers from

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diverse backgrounds; on the other hand, there is an abundance of internationally educated teachers from diverse backgrounds who are experienced and clearly have much to contribute to a multicultural school system, but face barriers in becoming successful practitioners in the education system. A third reason for focusing on the professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers is because of the increasing prominence of this group of professionals in global migration trends. In a number of OECD nations, the combination of a high percentage of teachers reaching retirement age, a shrinking work force and the low remuneration and status of the teaching profession have resulted in teacher shortages (Boswell, 2005). Over the past decade, Australia, the UK and the US have actively recruited migrant teachers1, and teacher shortages are anticipated in other OECD countries, including Germany and Switzerland (American Federation of Teachers, 2009; Deutsche Welle, 2009; Miller, 2008a; OECD, 2005). Miller (2008a) noted that overseas trained teachers have become an important part of the teaching force in the primary and secondary education system in the UK, but discussions about the integration of these professionals are virtually non-existent. Furthermore, there is inadequate initial induction and an absence of programmes to support the professional acculturation of these teachers. The successful integration of internationally educated teachers has important ramifications not only for education systems, but also for social cohesion in increasingly diverse societies because of the important role of educators and schools in transmitting values, including values concerning diversity. The issue of professional language proficiency and acculturation is especially crucial for teachers because teaching is a linguistically and culturally dependent profession (Remennick, 2002). The goal of my study was to better understand the affordances and constraints to the successful professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers in order to assist these teachers to successfully integrate into the Canadian education system. Although I examine the case of internationally educated teachers in Canada, the findings from my study can provide insights for other highskilled migrants in other contexts. In previous research on internationally educated professionals, there has been a paucity of studies that focus on the acquisition of occupation-specific language and culture. In the field of second language acquisition, few studies have focused on adult immigrants and their acquisition of language and culture for professional contexts. Thus, my study fills a gap in the research literature on a topic that is important worldwide as a result of globalization and the increased migration of professionals.


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1.4 Current Issues in the Professional Integration of Internationally Educated Teachers Over the past decade, research on the professional integration of internationally educated teachers has attracted the attention of scholars in a number of countries that have received a high number of internationally educated teachers, namely, Australia, Canada, Israel, the UK and the US. The UK and the US have recruited migrant teachers mainly from countries where English is the official language, while Australia and Canada have received a higher number of immigrant teachers who speak English as an additional language as a result of these two countries’ supply-driven point system that grants residency to high-skilled immigrants. Israel is a unique case as it received a high number of immigrant teachers who were part of the large influx of high-skilled immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. In my review of previous research on internationally educated teachers in the various national contexts, I have identified three main topics: recertification and entry barriers; discrimination and marginalization; and professional acculturation issues. Previous research on IETs has been conducted mainly by scholars from the field of teacher education and teacher development. Recertification and entry barriers have been the focus of a number of studies, including Guo and Singh’s (2009) study of overseas trained teachers in Australia, Miller’s (2008b) work on the devaluing of migrant teachers’ qualifications in the UK, Remennick’s (2002) study of former Soviet teachers of mathematics and physics in Israel and Beynon, Ilieva and Dichupa’s (2004) study of the re-credentialing experiences of IETs in Canada. These studies highlighted the difficulties of gaining recertification for particular subject specializations and teaching divisions, and the length of time and cost involved in applying for recertification, which included problems with accessing documents from the source country that conform with requirements in the destination country. Other barriers to entry included the lack of recognition of overseas teaching experience by local authorities. Research on IETs in Australia and the UK has found that experienced teachers from other Commonwealth countries also faced recertification and entry barriers, despite coming from similar education systems where English is the medium of instruction. Immigrant teachers in Canada and Israel often had the additional challenge of having to acquire a high proficiency in the destination country’s official language. Another major topic was the marginalization of IETs, often because of linguistic and racial differences. In Australia and Canada, speaking English

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with an accent, especially when combined with being a racial minority, was problematic for many IETs. The work of Kostogriz and Peeler (2007) and Santoro, Kamler and Reid (2001) examined the marginalization of visible and linguistic minority immigrant teachers by administrators, colleagues and students in Australia. Reid’s (2005) analysis focused on the authoritative discourses of ‘qualifications’, ‘otherness’ and ‘whiteness’ (p. 257) that marginalized the IET participants in their professional context. Reid examined how some participants were able to challenge and resist these authoritative discourses that positioned them as less competent through dialoguing with students and creating awareness of different varieties of English. In Canada, studies that have examined the discrimination and marginalization of racial and linguistic minority IETs include work by Amin (1997), Phillion (2003), Thiessen, Bascia and Goodson (1996) and Xu (1999). For example, a number of participants in Xu’s study (1999) felt that Eastern European accents were accepted more readily than Asian and African accents by administrators and colleagues. Amin (1997) found that the teachers in her study were positioned by their adult immigrant students as inferior to White Canadians who spoke ‘real’ Canadian English. This disempowered the teachers and had a negative impact on the teachers’ professional identity formation. Michael (2006, p. 176) noted that even in Israel, where there is a strong national discourse of valuing the integration of immigrants, there were barriers in the form of ‘subtle mechanisms of exclusion’ (p. 176) that prevented IETs from participating in major decisionmaking forums, thereby limiting the IETs’ professional integration and influence in Israeli schools. Previous studies on IETs have also focused on the challenging process of professional acculturation. A number of studies have examined the experiences of IETs in bridging and pre-service teacher education programmes, for example, the work of Cruickshank and colleagues (2003, 2004) in Australia, Mendez-Negrete and Saldana (2004) and Ross (2003) in the US and the work of Gagné and Inbar (2005) and Zhang and Cheng (2005) in Canada. Other studies have focused on IETs who were teaching in their destination country’s school system. In Australia, Seah’s (2002) study examined the impact of value differences among internationally educated secondary school math teachers. In the US, Flores (2003) examined the professional socialization of teachers from the Philippines, which is a major source country for the recruitment of teachers to the US, and Hutchison and colleagues (Hutchison, 2006; Hutchison, Butler, & Fuller, 2005) focused on internationally educated science teachers in American secondary schools. Hutchison (2006) identified issues related to language and communication


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as one of the most prominent themes. Although three of the four teachers in his study spoke English as a first language, there were still language barriers due to ‘differences in the use of expressions, manners of speech, accent, differential use of words in normal conversation and for scientific use, and spelling’ (Hutchison, 2006, p. 79). The reported experiences of IETs highlighted the complex nature of their adjustment, which included developing a high level of proficiency in an additional language. Learning professional language and culture is especially complex for teachers because of the important role of language and culture in teaching. Widdowson (1998, p. 4) stated that ‘what language means semantically is not at all the same as what people mean by language pragmatically’ and that communication depends on context, shared knowledge, community and culture. For IETs, it was not simply a matter of learning some new occupation-specific terminology, but a matter of learning a new way of conceptualizing culturally determined schemata and a new way of being. A related topic that was reflected in the findings from these studies was the relationship between the professional acculturation of IETs and their identities. A number of the studies – including work by He (1998), Mawhinney and Xu (1997) and Wang (2002) in Canada, and Elbaz-Luwisch (2004) in Israel – described the need of IETs to reconstruct their identities and to negotiate differences in beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours in the new educational context. For IETs who were crossing social, cultural and professional borders, the need to negotiate their multifaceted identities added to the complexity of their professional acculturation. Finally, findings from previous studies highlighted the importance of mentorship, social support and other forms of mediation in the IETs’ adaptation to a different education system. This topic was also prominent across all five national contexts. The studies by Myles, Cheng and Wang (2006) as well as Peeler and Jane (2005) highlighted the importance of the guidance of newcomers by established members in a community of practice, and newcomers’ access to community resources. For example, the immigrant teachers who were successful in Wang’s (2002) study sought help from department heads and other teacher colleagues. In contrast, all of the participants in Xu’s (1999) study had major difficulties accessing their professional communities, which was necessary for their professional acculturation. As a result, none of the seven participants were able to gain entry into the school system. Another finding from previous studies was that the IETs were not only guided by mentor teachers. The IETs’ interactions with students, administrators, parents and others in the educational

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community also led to their professional socialization. For example, the teachers in Flores’ (2003) study of Filipino immigrant teachers in Hawai’i perceived their interactions with their students as most important for their professional socialization. Given the importance of issues of identity and mediation in these previous studies of IETs, sociocultural theory (Cole, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978, 1986; Wertsch, 1991, 1998) and the community of practice framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), with their focus on the impact of the complex interaction between individuals, artefacts and social practices on human development and agency, can offer important insights into the professional acculturation processes of internationally educated teachers. While a number of recent studies have demonstrated the theoretical insights afforded by sociocultural theory in research on teacher development (e.g., Edwards & D’Arcy, 2004; Smagorinsky, Cook, Moore, Jackson, & Fry, 2004; Twiselton, 2004), to my knowledge, few studies to date have examined IETs’ acquisition of professional language and culture from these theoretical perspectives. Thus, another goal of my work is to examine the professional integration of immigrant teachers and issues of identity, agency and mediation from a sociocultural theoretical perspective.

1.5 Personal Experiences and Connections to Immigration Issues In addition to the rationale for my study given above, I am also interested in immigration and integration issues because of my own personal and professional experiences. Vitanova (2002) explained this as the concept of heuristic research, in which qualitative researchers select a topic of personal significance: Heuristic inquiry is a process that begins with a question . . . that has been a personal challenge and puzzlement in the search to understand one’s self and the world in which one lives . . . The heuristic process is autobiographic, yet with . . . every question that matters personally there is also a social – and perhaps universal – significance. (Moustakas, as cited in Vitanova, 2002, p. 7) This research study was of personal interest to me because of my experiences as an immigrant and a teacher.


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I have always been drawn to immigrant settlement, acculturation and identity issues because of my own life history. I immigrated to Canada in the mid-1960s with my family when I was a young child. We settled in Toronto, which was not the culturally diverse place that it is today. Throughout my childhood and youth, I struggled with my sense of identity and place in Canadian society. However, my challenges and difficulties were small compared to the barriers that my parents and older siblings faced. One of the main differences was that I was able to learn English at a young age, and I was not held back in my life because of lack of proficiency in English. Witnessing the hardships of my parents and siblings made a lasting impression upon me and influenced my career choice. I became a teacher and specialized in teaching English as a Second Language because of my desire to help immigrants and their children acquire the necessary language skills for their successful social and economic integration into Canadian society. Just when I thought I had it all figured out regarding my identity and a sense of belonging in Canadian society, at the age of 30, I moved to Germany, where I lived for several years. Having no previous knowledge of German, I had to learn it from scratch. Thus, I can empathize very well with immigrant professionals in Canada, who have left a country where they were established professionals, who have to acquire a new language and culture and find their place in a new society. My sojourn in Germany was facilitated by the fact that native English speaking teachers were in high demand, so I was able to practise my profession and maintain a strong sense of professional identity. I believe that my professional life and identity contributed to my sense of well-being as a newcomer in Germany. Since returning to Canada in 2000, I have had contact with IETs through my work in various teacher education programmes. In these contexts, I have met numerous IETs who were retraining in order to find a way back to their profession. I can still clearly hear the voice of one experienced teacher from India recounting her story. Both she and her husband, who was a professional engineer, were assured of their employment opportunities by the Canadian embassy when they applied for immigration because they were highly educated and experienced professionals. However, much to their dismay, they were unable to find work in their professional fields when they arrived. As with most immigrants, the need to pay the bills and support their family required finding any kind of employment. This teacher ended up working in a call centre for several years before she could afford to take time off to enrol in the teacher certification course. I clearly remember

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her description of how trapped and suffocated she felt at the call centre, and how happy she was to be back in a classroom. Her story reflects the difficulties commonly faced by many immigrant professionals in Canada. My contact with these individuals also motivated me to conduct this research study, with the hope that my study can contribute in some way to helping these individuals to reclaim their profession.

Chapter 2

Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency in SLA Research

2.1 The Rise of Social Perspectives in SLA Research Social perspectives have attained prominence in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) since the mid-1990s. The ‘social turn’ in second language acquisition research (Block, 2003) gathered momentum when a number of scholars drew attention to the need for research that is more socially informed (e.g., Block, 1996; Firth & Wagner, 1997; Hall, 1997; Lantolf, 1996; van Lier, 1994). Magnan (2004) identified Firth and Wagner’s (1997) seminal critique of mainstream, cognitive approaches to second language acquisition research as being instrumental in opening up the field to context-based, socially and culturally oriented perspectives. In their critique, Firth and Wagner (1997) called for alternative, more holistic understandings of language and language acquisition that would acknowledge the importance of social context and learners’ complex and multifaceted identities. In addition, Firth and Wagner argued for a broadening of traditional research paradigms and a greater inclusion of learners’ perspectives on the SLA process. One of the main points made by Firth and Wagner was that SLA research was dominated by a tradition of psycholinguistic research that viewed individuals primarily as non-native speakers and learners with the goal of attaining native-like proficiency in an additional language (1997, p. 758). As Hall (2002) noted, in the traditional psycholinguistic approach, language is assumed to be a universal abstract system and individual learners are conceptualized as ‘stable, internally homogeneous, fixed entities in whose heads these systems reside’ (p. 31). In addition, individuals are seen as independent from context and individual actions are believed to be driven by internally motivated states. In a survey of SLA research on individual learners’ cognitive and affective contributions to differential success in second language acquisition, Larsen-Freeman (2001) acknowledged that

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the significance of the learners’ role in SLA research has been underestimated. Larsen-Freeman found that recent research on learner attributes (age, aptitude, personality, learning disabilities, social identity), learner conceptualizations (motivation, attitude, cognitive style, beliefs) and learner actions (learning strategies) reflected the predominance of experimental research regarding learner differences. Since the mid-1990s, there has been an increase in SLA studies that focus on learners’ insider perspectives on the process of learning an additional language. These studies used qualitative research methodologies such as ethnography, narrative inquiry and diary studies to examine second language learners’ experiences in natural environments, for example, school, home, or workplace. In addition, these studies acknowledged the importance of contextual factors and the interactions between individuals and their sociocultural worlds. One area of socially informed research in SLA focuses on issues of identity and agency. As van Lier (2004) stated: Arguably, one of the most significant developments of recent years is a focus on self and identity. The research in this area is still very tentative and exploratory, but I am convinced that this will be an extremely important aspect of language pedagogy in years to come. (preface) A number of SLA studies that have examined the relationships between identity, agency and the SLA process include studies of English-as-asecond-language (ESL) students in the kindergarten to grade 12 education system, for example, elementary school (e.g., Toohey, 1996; Willet, 1995), middle school (e.g., McKay & Wong, 1996; Wiltse, 2001) and secondary school (e.g., Miller, 2004; Slater & van Aalst, 2002). There have also been a number of studies that focus on adult learners, including foreign language learners (e.g., Bell, 1995, 1997; Gilette, 1994; Lantolf & Genung, 2003; Haneda, 1997; Siegal, 1996), university ESL students (e.g., Leki, 2001; Morita, 2004; Parks & Raymond, 2004) and adult immigrant ESL learners (e.g., Menard-Warwick, 2004; Norton, 2000, 2001; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000; Vitanova, 2002). In this chapter, I discuss three major strands of socially informed SLA research over the past decade, that have highlighted issues of identity and agency: (a) post-structural and dialogic theory, (b) situated learning and social practice theory and (c) sociocultural theory of mind. I first discuss some key principles from each theoretical strand, focusing on the theoretical conceptions of the nature and role of identity and agency in second

Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency

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language learning. I highlight selected studies from SLA scholars whose work is informed by the different theoretical perspectives. Where available, I have selected studies that examined the experiences of adult immigrants learning English in naturalistic settings, which is the focus of my research study. I then discuss the various conceptions of identity and agency. Lastly, I present the theoretical concepts that guide my analysis of the relationships between identity and agency in the professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers in Ontario.

2.2 Discourse and Identity: Post-structural and Dialogic Theory In Block’s (2007) review of ‘identity-in-SLA’ research, Block maintained that the ‘broadly post-structural approach to identity . . . has become the approach of choice among those who seek to explore links between identity and L2 learning’ (p. 864). Block identified three areas of identity-in-SLA research: foreign language learning in formal classroom settings, study abroad experiences and ‘naturalistic’ SLA, which Block defined as the learning of an additional language in contexts where that language is the dominant means of communication, that is, second language contexts. While Block included Lave and Wenger’s (1991) community of practice framework under the conceptual umbrella of a ‘broadly poststructural approach to identity’, as did Pavlenko, Blackledge, Piller and TeutschDwyer (2001) in their elaboration of a post-structural approach to gender and second language learning, I categorize the community of practice framework as situated learning and social practice theory. In this section, I discuss two theoretical strands, post-structuralism and dialogism, both of which focus on the relationship between discourse and identity.

2.2.1 Post-structuralism Post-structuralism refers to a range of theoretical approaches that examine the role of discourse in the construction of reality. Post-structural theories, often associated with the work of Barthes (1977), Derrida (1976), Foucault (1978, 1980), Kristeva (1984) and Lacan (1977), have been used to inform a variety of disciplines, such as literary criticism, sociology and psychology. A key concept in post-structuralism is that meaning and identity are not fixed, but created through social discourses and practices. Post-structural theories are aligned with postmodern and postpositivist perspectives that

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challenge modern, humanistic conceptions of individuals as having a stable and unified identity that is separate from the social context, and as having the ability to make choices and enact personal agency based on rational thought and free will. According to Weedon (1997), post-structural theorists share fundamental assumptions about language, meaning and subjectivity. Meanings are socially produced and constituted within language; thus, language constructs ‘our sense of ourselves, our subjectivity’ (p. 19). The term subjectivity is used by post-structural theorists to refer to the concept of identity, and to emphasize the contingent nature of identity. Whereas an individual’s identity according to a modern perspective was essentialized as stable and coherent, a post-structural perspective conceptualizes identity as ‘precarious, contradictory and in process, constantly being reconstituted in discourse each time we think or speak’ (p. 32). Regarding agency, Vitanova (2002, p. 40) noted that the role of human agency is dubious in post-structuralism, which conceptualizes individuals as subject to existing societal discourses that ‘constrain and position users’ and do not give much possibility for human agency to create, change and transform. In reaction to the lack of agency and thus, the lack of possibility for transformation in post-structuralism, feminist scholar Weedon (1997) developed a feminist post-structural theory, which posits that through the use of discourse, a person can challenge positioning by societal discourses. I draw attention to this distinction between post-structural theory and feminist post-structural theory as these two perspectives are commonly conflated in identity-in-SLA studies. The seminal work of Norton (1997, 2000), who used diaries and interviews to examine the language learning experiences of immigrant women in Canada, led the way in SLA research on identity from a feminist poststructural perspective. Other early studies include work by McKay and Wong (1996), who examined the experiences of ethnic Chinese immigrant students in a U.S. middle school, and Siegal (1996), who examined Western women learning Japanese. More recent identity-in-SLA research that is informed by post-structural perspectives includes foreign language learning contexts, for example, Charbonneau-Gowdy’s (2006) study of the experiences of military officers and students from Central and Eastern Europe and Asia using computers for second language learning, and Whitworth’s (2006) research on four American study abroad students in France. Research in second language educational contexts includes Hong’s (2006) study of Korean ESL students in the United States, Miller’s (2004) study of immigrant high school students in Australia, Okawa’s (2007) study of non-western European non-native speakers of English at an American Ivy


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League school and Rambo’s (2004) study of international students at an American liberal arts college. In addition, a number of studies have focused on adult immigrants in naturalistic contexts, for example, Chee’s (2003), Pavlenko’s (2001) and Teutsch-Dwyer’s (2001) studies of adult immigrants in the United States. In the following, I discuss some key aspects of a discursive orientation to identity and agency through the works of Norton (2000), Pavlenko (2001) and Rambo (2004). Norton’s (1997, 2000) study of the experiences of five immigrant women in Canada made a number of important conceptual contributions regarding the relationships between identity, agency and second language learning. Norton defined identity as ‘how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future’ (2000, p. 5). Norton’s work drew attention to the interrelationship between discourse and a language learner’s identity: ‘When language learners speak, they are not only exchanging information with target language speakers, but they are constantly organizing and reorganizing a sense of who they are and how they relate to the social world’ (2000, p. 11). Thus, language and identity are mutually constituting. In addition, this conception of identity emphasizes its dynamic and fluid nature. Norton (1997, 2000) problematized static conceptions of learner identity and motivation in mainstream SLA, for example, Gardner’s (1988) concepts of integrative and instrumental motivation. Norton argued that the social identities of language learners are multiple, a site of struggle and subject to change. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s (1977, 1991) concepts of cultural, social, symbolic and linguistic capital, Norton developed the concept of investment, which conceives of learners as having a complex social history and multiple, sometimes conflicting, desires. In addition, following the work of Weedon’s feminist post-structural theory, Norton maintained that it is through discourse that individuals can exercise their agency, and can challenge their positioning by dominant discourses. Norton’s study showed how her participants were able to exert their agency in gaining the right to speak and be heard. An oft-cited example is Norton’s participant, Martina, whose role as mother and caregiver contributed to her agency in exerting her right to speak, which was revealed by an extended discussion in English that Martina had with her landlord over a dispute about rent. Martina’s agency surprised everyone because she was usually inhibited and self-conscious about speaking English (Norton, 1997). Another important contribution of Norton’s (1997, 2000) work is her examination of the crucial role of power relations in the social interactions between language learners and target language speakers. A common theme

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that emerged among her participants was their marginalization by dominant societal discourses regarding immigrants, and the difficulty in accessing opportunities to interact with Anglophone Canadians. For example, Norton showed how Eva, an immigrant woman from Poland, was able to overcome social and linguistic exclusion at her workplace through her discourse. Through Eva’s accounts of her travels in Europe and demonstration of her ability to speak Italian, Eva displayed her multilingual and European identity, and was able to challenge her Anglophone co-workers’ perception and positioning of her as an immigrant with poor English skills and nothing to contribute. Thus, through her discursive agency, Eva was able to gain respect and access to interactions with her Anglophone co-workers. Pavlenko’s (2001) study of identity issues in the second language learning stories of adult immigrants in the United States also focused on the relationship between discourse and identity. Pavlenko used a corpus of 25 autobiographies as well as 5 life story interviews. Although Pavlenko was particularly interested in the construction of gender through a second language, some of her findings regarding identity are relevant to my study. For example, one of Pavlenko’s interview participants, Dominik, a male expatriate from Slovakia, felt that his identity was constrained by discourse norms in the United States. The issue was not language proficiency, as Dominik was attending graduate school and had a high proficiency in English, but language ideology regarding gender and sexual harassment. Dominik, who was used to making jokes about sex, felt that he had to repress his natural personality, and thus, lost a part of himself (p. 144). Because he could not express himself as he did in his first language (L1), he could not be himself in American English. Another interesting finding is related to why an immigrant chooses to assimilate or resist the destination society’s discourse norms. Pavlenko (2001) found that positive associations with the discourse norms of the second language speech community may contribute to an individual’s desire to assimilate and embrace the new community. For example, a number of the women whose first language was Spanish found English more liberating, and therefore, embraced the learning of English. However, people who had negative associations with the second language resisted learning it. Regarding human agency, Pavlenko emphasized its social nature and maintained that agency is constrained or facilitated by the social context. Pavlenko argued that an individual’s desire to assimilate is limited if the community rejects or marginalizes newcomers. Rambo’s (2004) study of international college students’ SLA experiences in the American Midwest drew upon Lacan’s post-structural psychoanalytic


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theory. I highlight this work because it is one of the few studies in SLA that speaks to Block’s (2007) call for identity-in-SLA research that explores identity from a psychoanalytic perspective. Rambo used first-person introspective narrative data from six students’ journals. All six were enrolled in the teacher-researcher’s course entitled ‘The Immigrant Experience in Literature.’ In contrast to other identity-in-SLA work that examined social identity, Rambo focused on Lacan’s (1977) notion of linguistic identity, which is the development of a sense of self through language; that is, through the use of language, individuals create and confirm their experience of self. Rambo also referred to psychoanalyst Kohut’s concept of selfobject needs, which are ‘essential psychological experiences originating in childhood that continue in varying form throughout life’ (Siegal, cited in Rambo, 2004, p. 51). Examples of selfobject needs include the need to be affirmed, valued and validated. Rambo (2004) also introduced the concept of remothering, which relates to the ‘affective states of being (self) loved and being (self) understood, as well as being able to elicit those responses from others’ (2004, pp. 150–151). Rambo argued that the interaction in her literature course as well as the students’ journal writing facilitated this process. In addition, the journal writing was important in mediating the students’ understanding of their changing sense of self with the learning of a second language. Rambo maintained that language teachers and learners need to have greater awareness of the psychological tension between identity maintenance and identity change in language learning in order to facilitate second language learning.

2.2.2 Dialogism In recent years, the dialogic theory of Bakhtin (1981, 1986) has attracted the attention of a number SLA researchers (e.g., Hall, Vitanova, & Marchenkova, 2005; Kramsch, 2000; Marchenkova, 2005; Menard-Warwick, 2004; Savignon & Sysoyev, 2002; Toohey, Waterstone, & Julé-Lemke, 2000; Vitanova, 2002, 2005). Hall et al. (2005) stated that Bakhtin’s conceptualization of language has important implications for SLA because Bakhtin theorized language as being both structured and emergent; that is, language embodies meanings that have been historically and socially constructed, but individuals are able to add their own voice and intentions to an utterance or speech act. In this section, I discuss two studies of adult immigrant English language learners – Vitanova (2002, 2005) and Menard-Warwick (2004, 2005) – that

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used Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism to analyse issues of identity and agency in the acquisition of an additional language. Vitanova’s (2002, 2005) narrative study of eight Eastern European adult immigrants (four married couples) in the United States used Bakhtin’s dialogic theory to examine how these individuals ‘authored themselves,’ that is, how they (re)created their sense of self in a new language and environment. In her work, Vitanova used the terms self, identity and subjectivity interchangeably. Vitanova explained that Bakhtin’s concept of dialogue is not simply a verbal exchange, but is a basis for human consciousness. A central tenet is the appropriation of the discourses of others; however, a person enacts agency by accenting these discourses with their own emotionalvolitional tone. Vitanova (2002, p. 40) identified the parallels between a Bakhtinian dialogic perspective and post-structuralism. Both emphasize the centrality of discourse in the construction of identity and agency. In dialogic theory, an individual perceives a sense of self and establishes agency through active dialogic processes. However, there are also key differences between these two perspectives. Vitanova argued that according to a post-structural perspective, discourses constrain and position users; individuals cannot express unique voices, but can only give voice to the existing discourses (p. 41). Thus, Vitanova argued that a post-structural perspective does not give much possibility for human agency to create, change and transform. In contrast, Bakhtin’s perspective on agency views the learner neither as an actor independent of social surroundings nor as a fragmented subject positioned by institutional structures: Each individual has her/his own social and historical location and a unique emotional-volitional tone. To Bakhtin, discourses do not automatically position individuals; rather, individuals actively use speech genres to orient themselves in relationships and interactions. This model of agency is both dialogical and creative for it lies in particular people’s creative responses to particular situations at a particular time. (Vitanova, 2002, p. 216) Vitanova’s (2005) analysis of her participants’ narratives examined the interrelationship between second language acquisition, consciousness and self. Vitanova identified how her participants’ initial lack of English language ability resulted in the loss of their ability to reveal their identity to others. From a Bakhtinian dialogic perspective, a sense of self is synonymous with having a voice, being heard and being able to respond to others.


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The lack of language resources also resulted in the declassing of Vitanova’s participants, who lost their status as middle-class professionals that they had prior to immigration. For example, Vera, a journalist from Russia, had to work as a kitchen manager upon her arrival to the United States. Vera said that she felt like a child in kindergarten because of her initial lack of English language skills. The loss of language not only affected the participants’ professional status, but also other aspects of their existence. Without skills in the mainstream language, the immigrants remained outside of the mainstream society. Through their acquisition of English and through their discursive practices with others, these individuals were able to re-establish their voices and their sense of self. Vitanova’s (2002) findings also highlighted gender differences in the SLA process. While Vitanova identified how all of her participants’ lack of English language ability resulted in the loss of a sense of self, this loss of voice was interpreted and experienced differently by the men and women in her study. Vitanova found that the loss of voice for the women had an emotional significance that was not present in the men’s discourse. For example, the women’s discourse displayed their feelings of guilt, shame and anger with regard to their loss of voice and status, whereas the men’s discourse tended to focus on job-related and functional matters. There were also gender differences in the learning strategies used; the women tended to value linguistic accuracy more than the men, and therefore, tended to use more grammar books and requested more corrective feedback. Vitanova posited a relationship between the women’s dialogic responsibility – which refers to an awareness of the needs of their interlocutor, that is, native English speakers – and the women’s greater emotional investment and sensitivity to their social positions as well as their attention to linguistic details. Regarding agency, Vitanova (2002) identified acts of resistance to the imposition of dominant discourses and acts of creativity in drawing upon previous experiences and cultural resources to recreate voice and self in a new sociocultural context. Finally, Vitanova highlighted the transformative power of personal narratives. Through their narratives, the participants were able to better understand and analyse their situations. Their increased consciousness also provided the foundation for agency. Vitanova’s work drew attention to the role of emotions in the SLA process of adult immigrant professionals, who must deal with the loss and reconstruction of their professional identity and sense of self upon immigration. Menard-Warwick (2004, 2005) also used Bakhtin’s dialogic theory to examine issues of identity and second language learning in her study of

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eight Latin American adult immigrants in the United States. MenardWarwick used a combination of life history interviews and classroom observations to explore how identity interacted with the second language and literacy learning of seven women and one man. An important contribution of Menard-Warwick’s (2005) work to identityin-SLA research is her identification of the tension between competing perspectives regarding the nature of identity, that is, the conception of identity as stable versus the conception of identity as fluid. Menard-Warwick also noted the difficulties in defining the term identity, and pointed out that there is ‘a lot of definitional confusion in the literature, with some authors offering multiple definitions for single terms, and other authors conflating two or more terms and using them synonymously’ (2005, p. 254). Menard-Warwick maintained that identity is both stable and fluid, the stability coming from a person’s history and socialization (e.g., Bourdieu’s habitus and the embodiment and internalization of values), and the fluidity coming from identity construction through discourse (e.g., post-structuralism and Foucault’s work). Menard-Warwick (2004) posited that Bakhtin’s concepts of heteroglossia and double voicing have the potential to resolve the debate concerning the fluid versus stable nature of identity. Bakhtin introduced the term heteroglossia to describe the co-existence of multiple meanings, perspectives and values in language. Double voicing refers to the accenting of others’ discourses with one’s own emotional-volitional tone. As in Vitanova’s work, Menard-Warwick discussed the concept of self-authoring, which was used by cultural psychologists Holland, Lachiotte, Skinner and Cain (1998) to describe discursive agency and the process of identity development and the appropriation of multiple discourses. Menard-Warwick’s analysis of her participants’ life history narratives revealed the forces of socialization through authoritative discourses, but also revealed her participants’ discursive agency in the appropriation or rejection of discourses. Based on her findings, Menard-Warwick (2004) contended that identities remain relatively stable across discursive contexts. For example, MenardWarwick found that the gender identity of her participants and the discourse of family were the most prominent and were stable over the period of her study. Many of the participants’ role as mothers motivated them to learn English so that they could help their children with their school work. Menard-Warwick also suggested that the type of ESL classes in which the participants were involved, a family literacy program that provided English instruction for homemakers with children, also reinforced the participants’ role as parents. Menard-Warwick was able to observe how gender identities


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were constructed in classroom discourse and were constructing classroom discourse. In addition to gender, other aspects of identity that emerged from the narratives included ethnicity, immigration status and social class. Menard-Warwick (2004, p. 57) concluded that the important question was not so much the debate concerning the fluid versus stable nature of identity, but how identity interacts with second language learning, for example, how gender, class and race affect access to second learning opportunities; how identity can lead to resistance to learning an additional language; and how the engagement of learners’ identities can enhance learning.

2.2.3 Summary In this section, I have discussed two theoretical perspectives, post-structuralism and dialogism, that focus on the interrelationship between discourse and identity. Vitanova’s (2002) and Menard-Warwick’s (2004) work both drew attention to the differences between post-structural and dialogic perspectives. Vitanova argued that human agency is constrained according to poststructuralism, and that a dialogic perspective gives a person greater agency to create and transform. On this point, I think it is important to clarify that some SLA scholars who identify their work with post-structuralism (e.g., Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004) are in fact referring to feminist poststructuralism, which allows for greater discursive agency. Menard-Warwick discussed the debate regarding the stable versus fluid nature of identity, and contrary to a post-structural perspective, she argued that identity can be both and that Bakhtin’s theory of language can reconcile these two conceptions of identity. The SLA studies discussed in this section are similar methodologically in their use of first-person narrative as data, thus, providing emic perspectives on the SLA process and showing the value of language learner stories in furthering our understanding of identity and agency in second language learning.

2.3 Learning as Becoming: Identity Formation in Situated Learning The second major theoretical strand of SLA research that examines issues of identity and agency has its origin in anthropology. Language socialization theory and the community of practice framework both foreground the social situatedness of learning, and conceive of learning as becoming an

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active, full participant in a particular community, which necessarily includes the construction of identities.

2.3.1 Language socialization Language socialization gained prominence through the work of Heath (1983), Ochs (1988), Schieffelin and Ochs (1986) and Watson-Gegeo and Gegeo (1986). Garrett and Baquedano-Lopez (2002) defined socialization as ‘the process through which a child or other novice acquires the knowledge, orientations, and practices that enable him or her to participate effectively and appropriately in the social life of a particular community’ (p. 339). A language socialization perspective posits that the socialization process is realized primarily through language, that is, novices are socialized to use language as well as through the use of language. Language socialization theory has been used to inform SLA research for well over a decade, examining a variety of contexts and learners. For example, research in second language contexts has examined the language socialization of ESL students (e.g., Harklau, 1994; Kephart, 2005; Lam, 2004; Willet, 1995) as well as adult immigrants (e.g., Duff, Wong, & Early, 2000; Gordon, 2003; Li, 2000). Other scholars have examined language socialization in foreign language contexts (e.g. Duff, 1995; Duff & Uchida, 1997; Ohta, 1999) and heritage language contexts (e.g., Bayley & Schecter, 2003; Brunn, 1994; Duff & Li, 2008; Jia, 2006; Lei, 2007). The issue of identity construction is central in language socialization theory. Ochs (1993, p. 288) defined social identity as ‘a cover term for a range of social personae, including social statuses, roles, positions, relationships, and institutional and other relevant community identities one may attempt to claim or assign in the course of social life.’ According to Ochs, social identities develop in the course of social interactions. Thus, identity is conceived as being contingent and socially constructed between the individual and others in a particular community. Watson-Gegeo (2004) introduced a contemporary language socialization theory, highlighting the importance of human agency in the socialization process and the importance of the social, cultural and political contexts in which learners interact with others and which affects the linguistic forms that are available to learners. Watson-Gegeo incorporated power relations and a more critical perspective of learning through language socialization, in contrast to earlier conceptions of language socialization as being an unproblematic process of enculturation. In addition, Watson-Gegeo’s


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contemporary language socialization theory included the community of practice framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), which I will describe and discuss in greater detail in the following section.

2.3.2 Legitimate peripheral participation and community of practice Lave and Wenger’s (1991) social practice theory of learning emphasizes learning as involving the whole person with a sociocultural history. A key premise is that the individual (agent), the activity in which the individual is engaged and the sociocultural context all mutually constitute each other (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 33). The concept of legitimate peripheral participation is a central defining characteristic in this framework: ‘Legitimate peripheral participation’ provides a way to speak about the relations between newcomers and old-timers, and about activities, identities, artifacts, and communities of knowledge and practice. It concerns the process by which newcomers become part of a community of practice. (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 29) Legitimate peripheral participation involves power relations, as power relations in the community determine whether one moves to full participation or one is marginalized and denied access to participation. Newcomers must be seen as legitimate participants, that is, accepted by others in a community of practice, in order to gain access to resources and opportunities for socialization. Access is key and crucial. Peripherality is a positive term that describes the engagement of newcomers in varying degrees of participation, which allows the newcomers to gradually increase their participation in terms of time, effort and responsibility. Thus, both legitimacy and peripherality are necessary in order for an individual to become a full participant in a particular community. Dahl (1997) drew attention to the interactional dynamics between a newcomer’s trajectory and the receiving community’s stance in Lave and Wenger’s situated learning model. When a newcomer wishes to join a community and/or the community is welcoming, then access to resources is relatively easy; however, if a newcomer withdraws from a community, and/ or the community obstructs the newcomer, then access to resources is problematic. I would add that there is also an interrelationship between being denied access to and not wishing to join a community. If a newcomer is rejected by a community, this may make the newcomer less willing to persist

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in efforts to become a participating member. Similarly, a newcomer’s unwillingness to join a community may also affect the community stance and result in reduced access. In Lave and Wenger’s (1991) situated learning model, learning is conceptualized as the historical production and transformation of a person that involves the (re)construction of identities (p. 53). This framework emphasizes the interrelationship between identity, learning and social membership. The development of identity is central to this framework, as is learning how to communicate in the manner of full participants. Lave and Wenger viewed human agency as mediated and relational; it is realized through the integration of agent, world and activity. This point reflects the influence of Vygotsky’s (1978, 1986) and Engeström’s (1999) work on Lave and Wenger’s framework. A key point that distinguishes Lave and Wenger’s framework from language socialization theory is that rather than merely reproducing the existing community, the entry of newcomers also entail changes and transformation of the community (1991, pp. 116–117). In Wenger’s (1998) development of the community of practice framework, Wenger defined practice in a community as having three essential dimensions: mutual engagement, a joint enterprise and shared repertoire, which includes artefacts, actions and language. Wenger drew attention to the importance of competence in the construction of identity: Our membership constitutes our identity, not just through reified markers of membership but more fundamentally through the forms of competence that it entails. . . . When we are with a community of practice of which we are a full member, we are in familiar territory. We can handle ourselves competently. We experience competence and we are recognized as competent. We know how to engage with others. We understand why they do what they do because we understand the enterprise to which participants are accountable. Moreover, we share the resources they use to communicate and go about their activities. These dimensions of competence . . . become dimensions of identity. (p. 152) Wenger also introduced issues of nonparticipation in addition to participation, maintaining that identities are produced not only through the practice we engage in, but also through the practices that we do not engage in (p. 164). Wenger compared the nonparticipation of peripherality with the nonparticipation of marginality: the former is enabling because it permits a newcomer to learn gradually, whereas the latter is constraining because a marginalized newcomer has restricted access to resources.


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Another important concept that Wenger (1998) elaborated upon, which I think is especially pertinent for second language learners and learning, is that identity entails multimemberships. Each person has membership in different communities of practice, which have different norms of behaviour and worldviews. However, in contrast to the post-structural view of identity as multiple and fragmented, Wenger argued that multimemberships require the work of reconciliation in order to maintain one identity across boundaries: The work of reconciliation may be the most significant challenge faced by learners who move from one community of practice to another. . . . e.g., when an immigrant moves from one culture to another . . . learning involves more than appropriating new pieces of information. Learners must often deal with conflicting forms of individuality and competence as defined in different communities. (p. 160) However, Wenger did not elaborate upon why it is necessary to maintain ‘one’ identity. I will address this point further in the discussion section of this chapter. Wenger added that ‘multimemberships may involve ongoing tensions that are never resolved’ and are in constant struggle (p. 160). Thus, a community of practice perspective views the negotiation of identities as potentially conflictual as learners move across the boundaries of different communities. Lave and Wenger’s (1991; Wenger, 1998) community of practice framework has been used by a number of SLA researchers to inform their studies of second language acquisition in various naturalistic contexts. These studies include earlier works by Haneda (1997) and Toohey (1996), as well as later works by Leki (2001), Marx (2002), Morita (2004), Norton (2001) and Toohey, Waterstone and Julé-Lemke (2000). I will review work by Morita (2004) and Norton (2001) in greater detail below. Both focused on adult second language learners, and revealed the importance of learners’ agency in shaping their own learning and participation. In addition, these works showed that acts of resistance and nonparticipation are also indicative of identity and agency. Morita’s (2004) ethnographic study examined the experiences of six female Japanese graduate students in a Canadian university. Morita found that the students faced major challenges in negotiating competence, identities and power relations, which were necessary for them to be recognized as legitimate peripheral participants in their classroom communities. The methods of negotiation depended on the context of a particular classroom

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community as well as on the student’s personal history, values and goals. The data clearly showed the contingent nature of the students’ identities, as their identities changed in different contexts or in the same context over time. For example, in one class, Nanako felt like a legitimate peripheral participant because the instructor acknowledged that there were different learning styles and that it was normal for international students to take some time to get accustomed to the North American style of classroom interaction. The instructor also told Nanako that as a newcomer, she had a valuable perspective to contribute. However, in another course, when Nanako appealed to the instructor for help, the instructor ‘did not seem to care’ and ‘offered no constructive advice’ (Morita, 2004, p. 589). In the latter context, Nanako’s limited participation was not peripheral but marginalized. Another important finding was the enactment of learner agency as resistance and nonparticipation. Rie actively resisted being marginalized in a course where the instructor and other students whose first language (L1) was English positioned the international students as deficient. As a result of the unsupportive atmosphere in the class, Rie consciously decided not to become a full participant as a way of ‘coping and exercising her personal agency’ (Morita, 2004, p. 594). These examples were also important in showing the value of learners’ perspectives. To an outside observer, Nanako and Rie may have appeared to exhibit similar behaviour, that is, limited participation. But the participants’ narratives showed that their identities were quite different in each case. For example, Nanako was a legitimate peripheral participant in one classroom context, and was marginalized as an outsider in another classroom context. Rie’s limited participation was an act of resistance to her marginalization. In a reanalysis of her research data, Norton (2001) drew upon Wenger’s (1998) concepts of nonparticipation and imagination to examine the agency of two of her participants. Regarding the role of imagination, Kanno and Norton (2003) argued that for some language learners, ‘their investment in the target language . . . can be best understood in the context of future affiliations and identifications, rather than prevailing sets of relationships’ (p. 244). For example, Katarina, one of Norton’s participants, had 17 years of teaching experience and was a highly respected professional in Poland. In Canada, she was unable to find work as a teacher, and her socioeconomic status decreased significantly. Katarina was eager to improve her English so that she could regain her professional identity. Thus, Katarina’s imagined community was a community of professionals, which


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was both a reconstruction of her past as well as an imaginative construction of the future. A critical incident occurred when Katarina was discouraged by her ESL teacher from taking a computer course that would give her greater access to her imagined community. According to Norton (2001), Katarina felt that her ESL teacher did not acknowledge her professional history and identity, and she resisted being positioned as an immigrant. As a result, Katarina dropped out of the ESL course. Norton explained that Katarina’s extreme act of non-participation was committed to preserve the integrity of her imagined community, which was central to her identity as a professional. Norton’s analysis of the importance of the participant’s professional identity in mediating her agency resonates with my research context. 2.3.3 Summary In summary, situated learning models such as language socialization and the community of practice framework construe second language learning as a complex and dynamic socially situated process that involves the construction of identity through participation. An important contribution of the community of practice framework to SLA is its focus on the contingent and socially constructed nature of language learning, learner identity and learner agency. This framework also draws attention to power relations in socially situated learning, which affect a newcomer’s access to a community’s resources. A number of SLA scholars working within different theoretical perspectives have incorporated concepts from the community of practice framework in their analysis of identity and agency in the SLA process: for example, Block’s (2007) discussion of a ‘broad post-structural approach’ in identityin-SLA research and theory; Pavlenko et al. (2001) and their post-structural approach to research and theory on gender and second language learning; Watson-Gegeo’s (2004) description of a contemporary model of language socialization; Menard-Warwick’s (2004) work on identity in SLA and literacy from a dialogic perspective; and Lantolf and Pavlenko (2001) and their discussion of second language acquisition from a sociocultural theory perspective, which I will discuss in greater detail in the next section. In my view, this shows that concepts from the community of practice framework – with its focus on learning as social practice and becoming a member of a community, and the necessary negotiation of access and identity – are compatible with other theoretical frameworks, and are useful for theorizing and researching identity and agency in second language learning.

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2.4 Mediated Mind and Agency: Sociocultural Theory Sociocultural theory of mind is attributed to the work of Russian psychologist, L.S. Vygotsky (1978, 1986). Vygotsky problematized the prevailing orientations in psychology in his time – psychoanalysis and behaviourism – which perpetuated the Cartesian dichotomy between mind and matter. Vygotsky argued that it was essential to incorporate human culture and history in the study of the human mind, and posited a dialectic relation between mind and the social milieu. A fundamental principle is that of mediation: Humans use physical tools and socioculturally and sociohistorically constructed symbolic artefacts, of which language is the most important, to control and master nature and themselves. With these tools and artefacts, individuals are able to shape their world and their relationships to others, which in turn, shape the individuals. According to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind, higher cognitive processes develop from social interactions that are mediated through language and other semiotic artefacts. A key point is that the social environment is not only the context for, but also the source of mental development. In this developmental process, a novice is first other-regulated, that is, receives mediated assistance from an expert who scaffolds the interaction in order to assist the novice to appropriate new knowledge (Block, 2003; Lantolf & Appel, 1994). Over time, the new knowledge is internalized and the novice becomes self-regulated. Lantolf (2000, p. 13) defined internalization as the ‘reconstruction on the inner, psychological plane, of socially mediated forms of goal-directed activity.’ The transfer and appropriation of higher cognitive processes from the intermental to the intramental plane occurs in the zone of proximal development (ZPD). While traditional approaches to the study of mental behaviour focus on the individual and what the individual is doing, sociocultural theory takes into account the complex and dynamic interaction between the individual, mediational tools and the sociocultural context. Sociocultural theory views individuals as ‘agentsoperating-with-mediational-means’ and posits a dialectic relationship between agent and mediational means (Wertsch, 1998). Thus, people are not ‘free’ agents, but their actions are enhanced or constrained by the tools that are available as well as by other affordances or constraints in the environment. Vygotsky’s theory was further developed by his students and colleagues (e.g., Galperin, 1969; Leont’ev, 1978; Luria, 1982), as well as by contemporary scholars in fields such as psychology, anthropology, education, (e.g., Cole, 1996; Holland, Lachiotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998; Ratner, 1991; Robbins,


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2003; Rogoff, 1990; Wells, 1999; Wertsch, 1991, 1998) and in SLA (e.g., Donato, 2000; Lantolf, 2000; Lantolf & Appel, 1994; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Swain, 2000, 2006). In their introduction to a special issue on sociocultural and activity theory in educational research, Edwards and Daniels (2004, p. 1465) identified two strands that have developed from Vygotsky’s work: the sociocultural/ cultural-historic, developed by North American scholars Bruner, Cole and Wertsch; and activity theory, developed in Russia by Vygotsky’s contemporaries Luria and Leont’ev, and in more recent years by Finnish scholar Engeström. The North American strand, referred to as sociocultural theory, was connected with the disciplines of developmental psychology and cognitive anthropology, and focused on the socially mediated development of an individual’s higher cognitive functions. The strand referred to as activity theory focused on the activity system as the unit of analysis, and examined the complex interrelationships between the various components in an activity system. Edwards and Daniels noted the complementarity of the two strands, and in their work, they write about sociocultural and activity theory as a unified set of concepts. The following review discusses identityin-SLA work that is informed by the sociocultural theoretical concepts of mediation, internalization and agency. There is a growing body of SLA research that has used various Vygotskian concepts to further our understanding of the second language acquisition process. For example, previous SLA research has examined inner and private speech (e.g., de Guerrero, 2004; McCafferty, 1998; DiCamilla & Antón, 2004; Lee, 2006); collaborative dialogue (e.g., Belz & Kinginger, 2003; Buckwalter, 2001; Ohta, 2001; Swain, 2000; Swain & Lapkin, 1998); and the zone of proximal development (e.g., Aljaafreh & Lantolf, 1994; Donato, 1994; Kinginger, 2002). While there has been some work in SLA that has examined issues of learner agency and identity from a sociocultural theoretical perspective (e.g., Donato, 2000; Kramsch, 2000; Lantolf & Genung, 2003; Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001; Marx, 2002; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000; van Lier, 2000, 2004), this research is fairly recent and less developed than other SLA research that is informed by sociocultural theory. Two earlier SLA studies informed by sociocultural theory, Coughlan and Duff (1994) and Gillette (1994), both drew attention to the importance of learner’s goals and agency in second and foreign language learning contexts. Coughlan and Duff’s study showed how the conditions surrounding a task as well as a second language learner’s goals changed the nature of the activity. Although the picture description task in this study was the same, the activity was different because of the learner’s own goals that were different

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from the researcher’s goals. Gillette’s study of French-as-a-foreign-language students also highlighted the importance of learners’ goals in affecting learners’ strategies and success in their university foreign language courses. In addition, Gillette’s data revealed that the learners’ goals were strongly influenced by their personal histories, experiences and values. Both of these studies showed that learners can be engaged in the same task, but differences in learners’ goals result in a different activity. An individual’s history, intentions, affect, identity and agency are central to Pavlenko and Lantolf’s (2000) argument that second language learning is a struggle for participation and membership in a new linguistic and sociocultural community. In their analysis of autobiographies written by adult immigrants who became bilingual, Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) explored the importance of one’s inner voice in mediating the construction of one’s identity, and how the loss or attrition of one’s first language resulted in the loss of one’s identity. The authors maintained that the recovery and reconstruction of identity involves the appropriation of a voice in the second language, and that this necessarily depends on one’s agency: ‘It is ultimately through their own intentions and agency that people decide to undergo or not undergo the frequently agonizing process of linguistic, cultural, and personal transformation’ (p. 171). These themes were also explored in Vitanova’s work, as discussed earlier. In another work, Lantolf and Pavlenko (2001) further examined the participation metaphor and issues of agency in SLA. In addition to sociocultural theory, the authors also drew upon other theoretical perspectives such as post-structuralism and the community of practice framework. The authors posited that human agency is about significance, about things that matter to people, and that agency links motivation to action. The authors also stated that agency is socially and historically constructed, and that dispositions appropriated in childhood incline individuals to act and react in certain ways (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001, p. 146). Lantolf and Pavlenko viewed agency as both unique to individuals and co-constructed with other agents and the wider society; agency is shaped by a learner’s history and is mediated by artefacts and social interactions. From a sociocultural theoretical perspective, agency is always mediated. In their study of an adult foreign language learner, Lantolf and Genung (2003) explored issues of power in addition to identity and agency. This study was based upon written reflections by the second author (PG) of her experiences in a Chinese-as-a-foreign-language class. PG’s identity as a successful language learner and beliefs about language learning were challenged in this teacher-centred classroom, taught by an instructor who


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was not open to suggestions from the learners. This led to PG’s enactment of her agency as resistance to learning the language. Because PG was not able to affect change in the instructor’s teaching methods, PG abandoned her original goal of learning Chinese, and replaced it with her new goal of passing the course and fulfilling her graduate programme requirements, which she achieved by complying with the instructor’s expectations. As a result, PG’s motives and goals, as well as her mental and physical behaviour, changed. From the field of educational research, Edwards (2005b) introduced an alternative concept of agency from a sociocultural perspective. Edwards defined relational agency as ‘a capacity to align one’s thought and actions with those of others in order to interpret problems of practice and to respond to those interpretations’ (2005b, pp. 169–170). Edwards and D’Arcy (2004) argued that by ‘engaging with the disposition of others within a zone of proximal development, learners gain new insights into the phenomena they are tackling. They can draw on the histories and interpretations of others in their sense-making and are not riskily isolated’ (p. 150). I mention Edwards’ work to introduce her concept of relational agency, which I believe can be fruitfully explored in SLA research. To conclude, the works discussed in this section highlight the role of learner agency and goals in the second language learning process. As I mentioned above, identity-in-SLA research from a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective is fairly recent and less developed than other research that is informed by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind. One reason for the paucity of identity-in-SLA research from a sociocultural perspective may be because Vygotsky’s work did not focus specifically on issues of identity. In addition, as noted by Block (2007), post-structural perspectives became the approach of choice in the work of scholars who explored the connections between identity and second language learning. In the next section, I discuss the work of Penuel and Wertsch (1995) and Holland and Lachiotte (2006), who connected Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical concepts with the seminal works of two scholars on issues of identity and self: Erik Erikson and George Herbert Mead. 2.4.1 A mediated-action approach to Erikson’s identity formation In the mid-1990s, when the topic of identity was attracting the attention of some SLA scholars, Penuel and Wertsch (1995) proposed a sociocultural approach to the study of identity formation that connected elements of Vygotsky’s work on the development of higher mental functions with Erikson’s

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well known work on identity formation. Penuel and Wertsch noted that scholars who have used Eriksonian perspectives in the analysis of identity issues have tended to focus on the role of isolated individual experience, and that such a focus did not do justice to Erikson’s integration of sociocultural, historical and psychological factors in identity formation. Erikson, who was a psychoanalyst and had immigrated to the United States as an adult in the 1930s, is renowned for his work on identity and the life cycle. Erikson (1959) stated that the conscious feeling of having a personal identity is based on ‘the immediate perception of one’s selfsameness and continuity over time; and the simultaneous perception of the fact that others recognize one’s sameness and continuity’ (p. 23). Erikson (1968) viewed identity formation as a process that is located in the individual as well as in the individual’s communal culture; identity formation is a unity of personal and cultural identity. Furthermore, Erikson stated that this process takes place on all levels of mental functioning and is always changing and developing. Erikson emphasized that personal growth and communal change cannot be separated, and that identity formation is an ‘interplay between the psychological and the social, the developmental and the historical’ (1968, p. 23). Penuel and Wertsch (1995, p. 83) summarized Erikson’s notion of identity as ‘a sense, felt by individuals within themselves, and as an experience of continuity, oriented toward a self-chosen and positively anticipated future.’ According to Penuel and Wertsch (1995, p. 87), Erikson formulated the problem of identity as ‘the need for coherence and the need for community validation of one’s unified personal and cultural identity.’ Furthermore, validation of identity is essential for psychological well-being; Erikson maintained that without some form of validation, neurosis or pathology could develop in an individual. Penuel and Wertsch (1995) identified three domains in Erikson’s work in which an individual must make choices in order to form an identity: fidelity, ideology and occupation. Fidelity refers to commitment to a group of people and to a set of ideas. Ideologies mediate the choices of commitment, and the choice of an occupation is integral to the coherence and continuity of a person’s identity. As Penuel and Wertsch summarized: Taken together, commitments to others whom one can trust, to an ideology that promises a place in the world with a hopeful future, and to a career choice that can actualize those promises, form the three important domains of identity formation. To fashion these together into a sense


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of coherence, of ‘self-sameness’ is the task of the individual forming a healthy identity. (1995, p. 88) Penuel and Wertsch maintained that one of the most important insights of Erikson’s theory of identity formation is the status Erikson gave to the role played by the cultural and historical context: life history ‘intersects’ with the historical moment . . . The artifacts, images, and myths that are part of the environment of children growing up are traces of a culture’s history that, over time, become internalized to a greater or lesser degree by youth who grow up in that culture. (1995, p. 89) Penuel and Wertsch (1995) argued that integrating a Vygotskian sociocultural approach with Eriksonian conceptions of identity could further our understanding of how sociocultural processes shape individual identity formation. Penuel and Wertsch proposed the use of mediated action, rather than an inner sense of identity, as the unit of analysis. Their proposed sociocultural approach to identity formation emphasized the complex interrelationship between actions, cultural artefacts used in the action, the sociocultural context and the goals behind the action. Key points in their proposed ‘mediated-action approach’ to identity formation include the use of a genetic method, which ‘calls attention to the importance of studying identity in settings where forming identities are at stake in the course of the activity’; the integral role of cultural and historical resources (such as ideologies) as empowering or constraining tools for identity formation; and mediated action, rather than ‘an inner sense of identity,’ as the unit of analysis. Although Penuel and Wertsch did not discuss individual agency directly, they referred to Erikson’s belief that commitment requires action, and through action, individuals are able to achieve a sense of competence and mastery. Penuel and Wertsch (1995) stated that a sociocultural approach to identity formation examines how identity is shaped by mediational means or cultural tools, and ‘how individuals select, choose, and commit to different people and idea systems in the course of their activities’ (p. 91). A final point that Wertsch and Penuel made, which is especially relevant to my study, is that identity can be ‘conceived as a form of action that is first and foremost rhetorical, concerned with persuading others (and oneself) about who one is and what one values’ (p. 91).

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2.4.2 The Meadian self Holland and Lachiotte (2006) acknowledged the importance of Erikson’s work on identity formation, and Penuel and Wertsch’s (1995) sociocultural approach to Erikson’s notion of identity. However, Holland and Lachiotte offered an alternative sociocultural perspective on identity issues through the work of another renowned scholar, George Herbert Mead. As discussed by Edwards (2006), there are a number of similarities between the work of Vygotsky and the work of Mead. Mead (1934, 1964) is considered the founder of the American school of social psychology, from which the influential sociological perspective symbolic interactionism developed. Holland and Lachiotte (2006) noted that Eriksonian and Meadian notions of identity are oriented to different phenomena: The questions of the Eriksonian orientations have to do with processes of and obstacles to achieving an integrated, enduring, and consistent identity/self in social life; those of Mead have to do with the means by which individuals form senses of self – identities – in relation to roles, statuses, and cultural persona, and how these identities organize affect, motivation, action, and agency. (p. 104) Holland and Lachiotte defined identity, according to a Meadian perspective, as ‘a self-understanding to which one is emotionally attached and that informs one’s behavior and interpretations’ (p. 104). Holland and Lachiotte also clarified that the term identity is a relatively recent concept, and attributed the rise of this term in the social sciences to Erikson’s influential work in the 1950s. In Mead’s time, that is, in the early decades of the twentieth century, the term ‘self’ was used. Thus, in their work, Holland and Lachiotte used the terms self and identity synonymously. Holland and Lachiotte (2006) posited that Vygotsky’s view of the development of personality was similar to Mead’s view of self as an emergent phenomenon that is continually produced through social interaction, which is mediated by symbolic forms and provides resources as well as constraints for the development of a sense of self (2006, pp. 104–105). In addition to this shared view of the sociogenetic formation of self, both theorists emphasized active internalization, internalized self-other dialogues and the semiotics of behaviour. Active internalization refers to individuals’ novel variations in their imitation of social behaviour. Internalized self-other dialogues refers to Mead’s ‘I-me’ distinction and notion of the ‘generalized other.’ The Meadian self emerges from the dialectic relationship between the ‘I’ and the ‘me.’ The ‘me’ is the internalized norms


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of a social group, referred to as ‘the generalized other,’ while the ‘I’ is the impulsive and unpredictable actor: We actively internalize a sense of our own behavior as compared to the behavior of others acting in related roles and positions. We develop an inner sense of the collective regard that society is likely to have for our performances. Then, we craft our own way of being in roles and positions in relationship to this ‘generalized other’, the collective sense that we gradually develop from those who evaluate us. (Holland & Lachiotte, 2006, p. 107) As noted by Strauss (Mead, 1964, p. xxiii–xxiv), the ‘me’ is the controlling and limiting side of a person, whereas the ‘I’ introduces novelty and creativeness into a situation. It is the ‘I’ that creates the possibility for social change. The semiotics of behaviour refers to the meaning that is associated with words, gestures, artefacts and acts, and the transitivity of signs for self and others. Holland and Lachiotte drew attention to the important implication of semiotic mediation for human agency: Vygotsky argued that, without semiotic mediation, people would be buffeted about by the stimuli they happened to encounter as they went about in the world. Instead, semiotic mediation provides the means for humans to control, organize, and resignify their own behavior. (2006, p. 115) Holland and Lachiotte (2006) maintained that Meadian identities – which comprise thoughts, feelings, memories and experience – could be considered higher-order psychological functions that mediate behaviour. In addition, individuals pursue actions to enact and validate one’s claimed identity. Holland and Lachiotte concluded that a synthesis of Mead’s theory of self with Vygotsky’s concept of semiotically mediated agency can further our understanding of identity and identity processes, which, as higher mental functions, contribute to human agency and have the potential to affect social change (p. 116).

2.4.3 Summary In this section, I have discussed Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind, and reviewed the work of several SLA scholars who have used sociocultural theoretical concepts to further our understanding of second language

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learning. A sociocultural theoretical perspective acknowledges the importance of an individual’s agency in the second language learning process. As Donato (2000) stated, in contrast to mentalist theories, a sociocultural theoretical perspective of SLA highlights the importance of learner agency in second language learning tasks and the situatedness of learning and development: ‘Learners bring to interactions their own personal histories replete with values, assumptions, beliefs’; learners ‘actively transform their world and do not merely conform to it’ (p. 46). As I mentioned above, issues concerning identity – its formation and its mediating function on human action – have not been much examined from a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective. A key concept that can be fruitful for understanding the nature of identity is how mediation and appropriation of culturally constructed artefacts such as beliefs can shape action. To my knowledge, few scholars in SLA have explored the construction of identity through Vygotskian concepts of mediation and internalization. Penuel and Wertsch (1995) and Holland and Lachiotte (2006) made important links between Vygotsky’s theory and the influential works of Erikson and Mead on the conceptualization of identity and self. I maintain that issues of identity and the relationships between identity and agency in the second language learning process can be further explored and theorized from a sociocultural theoretical perspective. I will further elaborate on this topic in the following section.

2.5 Theorizing Identity and Agency in SLA: Discussion In the preceding sections, I have identified three major strands of SLA research that focused on issues of identity and agency. In this section, I compare the various perspectives, and discuss some issues in identityin-SLA research. I also present my conceptual understanding of identity and agency, and the theoretical concepts that I will use in the analysis of my research data.

2.5.1 Summary of theoretical conceptions of identity and agency Table 2.1 provides a summary of the various theoretical conceptions of identity and human agency discussed in this chapter. All three theoretical strands take the perspective that identity and agency are socially constructed phenomena; however, there are differences in the ‘analytic primacy’ (to use Penuel and Wertsch’s term) of each theoretical approach.

Table 2.1 Conceptions of identity/self and agency Definition/conception of identity/self

Definition/conception of agency

Post-structural/ Feminist post-structural theory

• Identity (subjectivity) is viewed as ‘precarious, contradictory and in process, constantly being reconstituted in discourse each time we think or speak’ (Weedon, 1997, p. 32). • Identity is constructed by discourse and is fluid, conflictual, multiple, fragmented and contingent upon space/context and time.

• In post-structural theory, human agency is limited as individuals are subject to existing societal discourses that position and constrain them. • In feminist post-structural theory, human agency is afforded through the use of discourse to challenge positioning and to affect change.

Dialogism

• Dialogism views language as the basis for human consciousness, and as dynamic, interactional and contextdependent. • An individual’s consciousness and perception of self is constructed through dialogue: having a voice, being heard and being able to respond.

• Human agency exists in an individual’s ‘appropriation of others’ discourses and making them one’s own with our individual accents, desires, and actions’ (Vitanova, 2002, p. 41). • Human agency is established through a person’s active dialogic processes.

Language socialization

• Ochs (1993) defined social identity as ‘a cover term for a range of social personae, including social statuses, roles, positions, relationships and institutional and other relevant community identities one may attempt to claim or assign in the course of social life’ (p. 288). • Identity is conceived as being contingent and socially constructed through the interactions between the individual and others in a particular community.

• Human agency is accorded an important role in language socialization theory; according to Ochs (1993), individuals are active agents in claiming identities, and in deciding how to participate in social interactions. • Watson-Gegeo (2004) stated that individuals are not only active participants in their development (learning), but can also change their environment.

(Continued)

Table 2.1 (Continued) Definition/conception of identity/self

Definition/conception of agency

Community of practice framework

• An interrelationship exists between learning, identity formation and social memberships: ‘the development of identity is central to the careers of newcomers in communities of practice’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 115). • Wenger (1998) connected the notions of competence and multimemberships with identity: • ‘Our membership constitutes our identity, . . . fundamentally through the forms of competence that it entails’ (p. 152). • ‘We engage in different practices in each of the communities of practice to which we belong. We often behave rather differently in each of them, construct different aspects of ourselves, and gain different perspectives’ (p. 159).

• Lave and Wenger (1991) viewed human agency as mediated and relational; it is realized through the integration of agent, world and activity. • Wenger (1998) also discussed agency as resistance in the form of nonparticipation, which is also related to identity, as identity is produced not only through the practices we engage in, but also through the practices we do not engage in.

Sociocultural theory of mind

• Self/identity is conceived of as a higher psychological process, whose formation is mediated by language and other semiotic artefacts, and the sociocultural and sociohistorical context.

• Agency is both unique to individuals and co-constructed with other agents and the wider society; it is historically and socially constructed, shaped by an individual’s history and mediated by physical tools and socioculturally and sociohistorically constructed semiotic artefacts (of which language is the most important), as well as by social interaction (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001). • A dialectic relationship exists between agent and mediational means (Wertsch, 1998).

Erikson/SCT – Penuel and Wertsch (1995)

• Identity is ‘the immediate perception of one’s selfsameness and continuity over time; and the simultaneous perception of the fact that others recognize one’s sameness and continuity’ (Erikson, 1959, p. 23). • Individuals need external (others in the community) validation of one’s identity for psychological health.

• Human agency, mediated by sociocultural and sociohistorical context, is present in the choices that an individual makes in terms of commitments in three domains of identity formation: fidelity, ideology and work.

Mead/SCT – Holland and Lachiotte (2006)

• Identity is ‘a self-understanding to which one is emotionally attached and that informs one’s behaviours and interpretations’ and comprises ‘roles, statuses, and cultural persona’ (Holland & Lachiotte, 2006, p. 104). • Identity/self is an emergent phenomenon that is continually produced through social interaction, which is mediated by symbolic forms and provides resources as well as constraints for the development of a sense of self.

Norton (2000)

• Identity is ‘how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future’ (p. 5).

MenardWarwick (2004)

• Identity is ‘various social personae that research participants claim as their own in discourse, especially narrative. ( . . . ) Although all of this takes place in discourse, and with some fluidity, it is my contention that identities generally remain relatively stable across multiple instances of discursive interaction’ (p. 23).

Hall (2002)

• Social identity is ‘membership in a range of social groups into which we are born such as gender, social class, religion and race’ as well as group memberships which we appropriate ‘though our involvement in the various activities of the social institutions that comprise our communities, such as school, church, family and the workplace’ (p. 32).

• Identity and identity processes, as higher mental functions, contribute to human agency, i.e., individuals pursue action to enact and validate their claimed identities. • Semiotic mediation provides the means for human agency.

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A discussion of the various theoretical perspectives on the nature of identity and agency requires a clarification of the term identity. As noted by a number of scholars who have examined these issues in SLA as well as in other disciplines (e.g., Côté & Levine, 2002; Holland & Lachiotte, 2006; Menard-Warwick, 2005; van Lier, 2004), the term and concept of identity is difficult to define. Holland and Lachiotte stated that ‘concepts of identity are often promiscuously mingled, producing a good bit of confusion and ambiguity’ (2006, p. 101). Menard-Warwick also noted the definitional confusion in the literature, with some scholars using multiple definitions for a single term, and other scholars conflating terms. Another issue is that some authors do not provide a definition of identity. In addition to the definitions of identity in Table 2.1 from the various theoretical perspectives, I have also included the definitions by SLA scholars Norton, MenardWarwick and Hall, who provided explicit definitions of the term identity in their work. Related to the issue of defining identity, is the use of the term ‘self.’ Van Lier noted that many psychologists treat self and identity as the same construct, whereas others, for example, Wiley, differentiated between self and identity, regarding ‘the self as an expression of general, universal nature (. . .) and identity as an individual self-concept, constructed both from social processes outside of the individual, and from within’ (van Lier, 2004, p. 124). As discussed in the previous section, Holland and Lachiotte (2006) viewed self and identity as the same construct, and explained that the term ‘self’ was used in Mead’s time whereas ‘identity’ is a relatively recent term which gained popularity in usage with Erikson’s influential work. Some authors (e.g., Norton, 2000; Menard-Warwick, 2004; Lantolf & Genung, 2003) focus on social identity as defined by Ochs (1993) and Hall (2002), whereas others (e.g., Vitanova, 2002; Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2000) focus on identity as a consciousness of self as existential being. In the next section, I will further address this issue of defining identity. From my review of the identity-in-SLA literature, I discerned three major issues concerning identity and agency: (a) the nature of identity and agency, which is interrelated with (b) how identity and agency are constructed and (c) the relationship between identity and agency. As I discussed in the first section, post-structural theory challenged modern, positivist perspectives that conceived of individuals as having a stable and unified identity that is independent of the social context, and as having the ability to enact personal agency that is based on rational thought and a free will, also independent from the social context. According to a post-structural perspective, identity (often referred to as subjectivity) is


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constructed in discourse, and is dynamic, conflictual and always in process. The focus on the discursive construction of identity is similarly espoused in a Bakhtinian dialogic view of the dialectic development of language, self and consciousness. However, as argued by Vitanova (2002, 2005), a dialogic view of self gives greater possibilities for human agency, as individuals are able to ‘accent’ societal, authoritative discourses with their own emotionalvolitional tone. This perspective is similar to a feminist post-structural perspective (Weedon, 1997) that maintains that discursive agency enables individuals to challenge positioning by societal discourses. A language socialization approach also highlights the central role of language in the construction of identity. However, language socialization theory has more in common with the community of practice framework as the analytic primacy of both of these approaches is the enculturation and socialization of newcomers (novices) into a certain existing community through their language and other social practices with established members in the community. Both of these approaches view the construction of identity as interrelated with learning and community membership. With regard to agency, as shown in Table 2.1, language socialization views individuals as active agents in claiming identities and in deciding how to participate in social interactions. In Lave and Wenger’s (1991) situated learning model, human agency is viewed as mediated and relational; their social practice theory emphasizes the integration of the agent, the sociocultural context and the activity. Furthermore, agency is viewed in terms of a newcomer’s trajectory, which is influenced by one’s history and memberships in other communities of practice. In Wenger’s (1998) later elaboration of the community of practice framework, Wenger discussed the need for individuals to reconcile multimemberships, and the potential conflicts in how different communities define competence, which Wenger posits is dialectically related to identity. Wenger also discussed the notion of nonparticipation; that is, individuals define themselves through practices that they do not engage in. Thus, identity can result in agency as resistance to adaptation. Third, a number of SLA scholars have addressed issues of a learner’s identity and agency from a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, focusing on the concepts of mediation and internalization. For example, in their analysis of adult immigrant autobiographies, Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) examined how one’s inner voice mediates the construction of identity: The attrition of one’s first language resulted in the loss of identity, and the appropriation of a voice in the second language helped some individuals to recover and reconstruct their identity. This view of the key role of

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language and discourse in identity formation is a common theme across the various theoretical perspectives. Regarding learner agency, other works from a sociocultural theoretical perspective have emphasized how the sociocultural histories and contexts of individuals affect their goals and desires. A sociocultural theoretical perspective views agency as shaped by a learner’s unique history and also as mediated by artefacts and social interactions. I also discussed the work of Penuel and Wertsch (1995) and Holland and Lachiotte (2006), who offered additional and valuable insights regarding issues of identity and agency by connecting Vygotsky’s theory of psychological development with the works of Erikson and Mead. Drawing upon Mead’s work on the social construction of self through interactions with others, Holland and Lachiotte focused on how identities – defined as social ‘roles, statuses and cultural persona’ – mediate affect, motivation, action and agency (2006, p. 104). Penuel and Wertsch maintained that a mediated-action approach to Erikson’s work on identity formation could provide important theoretical and methodological tools for understanding the relationships between sociocultural processes and identity formation. What I found particularly interesting about Erikson’s work on identity is his conception of identity as a perception of continuity, which contrasts post-structural conceptions of identity as in constant flux. However, as noted by Penuel and Wertsch (1995), Erikson’s conception of identity is not static, but is a process that is influenced by an individual’s sociocultural history and context. Another important contribution is Erikson’s psychoanalytic perspective, which maintains that individuals need to have a sense of a coherent identity, and need to have community validation of their identity for psychological well being. To date, few identity-in-SLA studies have explored identity from a psychoanalytic perspective. As Block (2007) suggested, a psychoanalytic perspective on identity issues can further our understanding of the relationships between identity and the SLA process. In addition, Erikson’s focus on commitment to an occupation as one of the essential components of identity formation is especially relevant to my study of immigrant professionals and the relationships between identity, agency and professional acculturation. In this chapter, I have reviewed SLA research that examined issues of identity and agency in the second language learning process from a variety of social perspectives. All of these socially informed approaches offer valuable insights on the second language learner as a complex social being. There are similarities between these perspectives, which have been heightened in recent years with scholars combining concepts from the various


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theoretical strands in order to attain a more complete understanding of identity and agency. Methodologically, these studies are similar in their use of qualitative data such as first person narratives, in-depth interviews and ethnographies, which provide emic and longitudinal perspectives. Many of the studies reviewed have shown the contingent and socially constructed nature of identity and agency. However, there are also differences in the various theoretical perspectives regarding the nature of identity and agency. One point of contention, as noted by Menard-Warwick (2004, 2006), is the debate concerning the stable versus fluid nature of identity. Regarding human agency, most of the theoretical perspectives and studies reviewed in this chapter emphasize the important role of human agency in the learning process. 2.5.2 A social and psychoanalytic perspective of identity and agency In this section, I discuss the theoretical conceptions of identity and agency that inform my analysis in the following chapters. As I mentioned above, one major issue in previous work regarding identity is defining what is meant by this term. To address the definitional confusion regarding the term identity, sociologists Côté and Levine (2002) developed a multidimensional model of identity that clarifies different aspects of identity. Côté and Levine’s model, which builds upon Erikson’s work on identity formation and House’s ‘personality and social structure perspective,’ includes social identity, personal identity and ego identity. In this model, social identity comprises positions and roles that develop from macro-structural factors. According to Côté and Levine (2002), individuals are socialized into roles and positions determined by institutionalized societal norms and conventions. These social roles and positions structure their behaviour, and give it meaning and justification (p. 132). These social roles and positions are also a mechanism for social control and the reproduction of social structure. Personal identity comprises behavioural and character repertoire that differentiates individuals and that develops from micro-interactional factors. Côté and Levine explained that personal identity develops from the internalization of the outcomes of ongoing, day-to-day interactions with others. Côté and Levine emphasized that during such interactions, people ‘actively define situations and develop individual constructions of reality’ [italics in original] (p. 132). An individual’s behaviour is ‘in part a product of past internalizations’ and ‘in part a result of their attempt to act appropriately in a given situation’ (p. 132). Ego identity is a subjective sense of temporal-spatial continuity

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that develops from individual, psychological factors. Côté and Levine defined ego identity as: . . . a subjective sense of continuity of being the same person over time and in different situations. If they have a strong sense of ego identity that is nurtured and reinforced in their lives, they should feel a sense of continuity with the past, meaning in the present, and direction for the future. If their sense of ego identity is weak, or has weakened for some reason, they may feel . . . who they felt they once were no longer applies. (2002, p. 121) This model emphasizes the dialectic relationship between all three aspects of identity, and conceives of identity as a social and psychological phenomenon. This conception is compatible with Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind, a central tenet of which is the bridging of social interactions and contexts with an individual’s psychological development. I believe that this model and conception of the three aspects of identity is a useful heuristic for understanding different aspects of identity. Relevant to my work is Côté and Levine’s (2002) stance that ‘people are capable of “agentic” or intentional behaviors, even though they are often constrained by normed social structures’ (p. 9). This stance has also been espoused in the field of applied linguistics by Sealy and Carter (2004) and Ushioda (2007). In my work, following Côté and Levine (2002), I conceptualize identity as having three interrelated aspects: social identity, personal identity and self identity. Following Hall (2002), I define social identity as the roles that a person is born into or appropriates through various group memberships. I define personal identity as the dispositions of a person, such as perseverance, optimism and openness. Drawing upon Côté and Levine’s concept of ego identity, I use the term self identity to refer to a sense of self integrity and self coherence, that is, a sense of one’s identity as coherent and consistent over time and space. This understanding of self identity draws upon Erikson’s work on identity formation. This is identity at the intrapsychic level, a person’s sense of self that requires wholeness, coherence, affirmation and validation for psychological well-being. I believe that this concept of self identity clarifies Wenger’s (1998) claim that a person needs to reconcile multimemberships to maintain ‘one’ identity across boundaries. In addition, I maintain that Vygotskian sociocultural theory, and the concepts of mediation and internalization, can also be further explored in identity-in-SLA research. Regarding the nature of identity, I take a sociocultural theoretical perspective; that is, my understanding is that all three


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aspects of identity are socially constructed but also internalized. In contrast to a post-structural view of identity as constantly being recreated in discourse, according to a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, identity is formed through the internalization of mediated activity, which suggests an element of continuity. To summarize, I conceptualize identity as comprising three dialectically related aspects: social identity, which comprises the roles that a person is born into or appropriates through various group memberships; personal identity, which comprises the individual disposition or temperament of a person; and self identity, which is a sense of self integrity and self coherence (i.e., a sense of wholeness and consistency) over time and space. I conceive of identity as socially constructed but internalized in the individual; as a process that changes over time and space, but also as a coherent and continuous psychological function that mediates agency. My conception of agency is also informed by a Vygoskian sociocultural perspective. Following the work of Wertsch (1998), I conceive of agency as mediated by tools and artefacts, as well as by interactions in a social context. I define agency as the mediated ability of individuals to act according to their goals and desires. In my analysis of identity and agency in the SLA process, I am especially interested in connecting Eriksonian and Meadian conceptions of identity with sociocultural theory, as discussed by Penuel and Wertsch (1995) and Holland and Lachiotte (2006). Erikson’s psychoanalytic perspective and Mead’s social psychological perspective provide different pieces of the picture on the formation of identity, and how identity mediates agency. As I discussed above, a number of SLA scholars have used concepts from Lave and Wenger’s (1991) community of practice framework in their identity-in-SLA work. My analysis also draws upon concepts from this framework. The notion of legitimate peripheral participation, which deals explicitly with power relations, and the centrality of issues of identity in this social practice theory of learning resonate with my research context of immigrant professionals who are learning a new language and culture, and seeking entry into a new community of practice. I believe that it is fruitful to use concepts from both sociocultural theory and the community of practice framework in examining issues of identity and agency in my study of the professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers. Both approaches highlight the importance of mediation and social interactions in learning, but each has a different emphasis. The community of practice framework focuses explicitly on identity formation in the learning process, and the notion of legitimate peripheral

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participation addresses power relations. However, as critics have noted (see Barton & Tusting, 2005), this framework does not adequately address an individual’s sociocultural history and how that may affect a newcomer’s trajectory. The strength of sociocultural theory, especially as it has been used in SLA studies, is its focus on the important role of a person’s sociocultural history, goals and agency in the learning process, and the role of mediation and internalization in the development of higher cognitive processes. However, as discussed above, Vygotsky did not deal explicitly with issues of identity. Some scholars (see Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007) have also argued that issues of power and social justice are under-conceptualized within sociocultural theory. Thus, I maintain that combining these two approaches can provide insights and further our understanding of the relationships between identity, agency and second language learning.

Chapter 3

Qualitative Research in SLA

‘A central concern of social science is to contribute knowledge to ameliorate the human condition and enhance human dignity.’ This statement by Kvale (1996, p. 109) speaks to the goal of my research study. As I discussed in Chapter 1, the declassing of immigrant professionals is a major issue in many contemporary societies. My study aims to better understand the professional acculturation processes of high-skilled immigrants in order to improve their integration into their destination societies and hence, improve the quality of their lives. As I discussed in Chapter 2, the rise of social perspectives in SLA research since the mid-1990s resulted in an increase in the use of qualitative research methods that aimed to understand the experiences of language learners in naturalistic contexts and from the perspectives of the learners themselves. The studies discussed in Chapter 2 used a variety of qualitative methods such as interviews, autobiographies, diary studies, ethnographies and case studies. In this chapter, I discuss the use of qualitative research methods in SLA research. The first part of this chapter focuses on the characteristics of qualitative research. First, I discuss ontological and epistemological characteristics of qualitative research. Second, I describe three qualitative research methods that have been used in the study of identity issues in SLA – in-depth interviews, narratives and case studies – and the strengths and limitations of these methods. Finally, I discuss the evaluation of qualitative research. In the second part of this chapter, I discuss practical issues related to conducting qualitative research in SLA, including research design and sampling, data processing and analysis and research ethics. Throughout the chapter, I illustrate the various aspects of conducting qualitative research in SLA with examples from my study.

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3.1 Qualitative Research: Characteristics and Methods 3.1.1 Connecting research questions with research methodology First of all, a research study is framed by questions that one has about a particular phenomenon. My study was guided by the following questions: 1. What are the affordances and constraints to the successful professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers (IETs) in Ontario? 2. Are there relationships between identity, agency and IETs’ acquisition of professional language and culture in the Ontario public education system? If so, what is the nature of these relationships? I define ‘successful professional acculturation’ as the ability to fulfill professional functions, in this case, teaching-specific functions. Drawing upon van Lier’s (2004) work, I define affordances and constraints as any physical, social and symbolic elements in an environment that interact with a person (learner). Affordances facilitate goal-directed action while constraints limit goal-directed action. As I discussed in Chapter 2, I define identity as consisting of three dialectically related aspects: social identity, personal identity and self identity. I define agency as the mediated ability of individuals to act according to their goals and desires. In my study, ‘successful professional acculturation’ is operationalized by IETs’ and other individuals’ descriptions of IETs’ level of communicative ability (Canale & Swain, 1980) – which includes linguistic, sociolinguistic and strategic abilities – and the perceptions (by self and others) of IETs’ ability to function well in an Ontario English public school or college.1 Identity and agency are also operationalized by IETs’ self descriptions and descriptions of IETs by others. Because of the nature of my research questions, which seeks to better understand the lived experiences of immigrant teachers and their professional acculturation and integration into a new education system, I chose to use qualitative research methods. 3.1.2 Contrasting research paradigms Citing the work of Guba and Lincoln, Johnson (1992) discussed the ontological, epistemological and methodological differences between quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. Ontology deals with the nature of existence and reality; epistemology deals with the theory of knowledge. A quantitative paradigm holds a realist ontological view of the existence of


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an objective reality and an objectivist epistemology that inquiry and knowledge can be value-free. In contrast, a qualitative paradigm holds a relativist view of reality, which asserts that reality is cognitively and socially constructed, and that there are multiple realities. A qualitative paradigm has a subjective epistemology, which views knowledge as constructed in the interaction between the researcher and the object of research. In terms of methodology, Guba and Lincoln also contrasted the interventionist methodology of quantitative research and the hermeneutic methodology of qualitative research. Interventionist methodology involves the researcher’s manipulation of variables in a situation in order to determine causes of certain effects, whereas hermeneutic methodology involves a continuing dialectic of iteration, analysis and critique in order to understand a situation. As noted by Johnson (1992), this overview of the two contrasting paradigms was given by two scholars who favoured naturalistic and constructivist approaches to research. Johnson stated that the important point is awareness of the fact that all research is guided by philosophical assumptions about the nature of reality and knowledge. In more recent works on research methods in applied linguistics, both Dörnyei (2007) and Duff (2008) suggested that a more constructive approach is to view quantitative and qualitative research not as a dichotomy, but as a continuum. For example, Richards (2005, cited in Dörnyei, p. 25) pointed out that the numerical versus nonnumerical distinction between quantitative and qualitative research does not hold true since qualitative researchers also collect information in numbers, and quantitative researchers also collect non-numerical information. Croker (2009) discussed another approach to research that encompassed both qualitative and quantitative research – pragmatism. A pragmatic researcher focuses on the consequences or impact of research and selects methods based on the goals of the research rather than ontological or epistemological concerns. In a pragmatic approach to research, the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods is not mutually exclusive. This is the philosophical underpinning of mixed methodology research, which has become more prominent in applied linguistics in recent years. Johnson (1992) concluded that a diversity of methods is a positive development in applied linguistics research because it expands ways of examining and understanding phenomena.

3.1.3 Characteristics of qualitative research Merriam (1998) stated that qualitative research is concerned with understanding people’s lived or felt experiences and how people make sense of

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their world and their experiences. Qualitative research – also referred to as interpretative, naturalistic research – focuses on meaning in context. Its main means of gathering information are interviewing, observing and analysing documents. Given that the aim of my research study was to better understand the lived SLA experiences of internationally educated teachers, the use of qualitative research methods was suitable for this study. As discussed earlier, the key philosophical assumption of qualitative research is the view that reality is mentally and socially constructed. Merriam (1998) identified the following essential characteristics of qualitative research: the goal of eliciting and understanding meaning, the researcher as the primary instrument of data collection and analysis, the use of fieldwork, an inductive approach to data analysis and richly descriptive findings. Qualitative research assumes that meaning is embedded in people’s experiences, and thus, a key aspect of qualitative research is understanding a certain phenomenon from a participant’s perspective, that is, an emic, insider’s perspective. Furthermore, this meaning is mediated through the researcher’s own perceptions. Because qualitative research strives for a deep understanding of participants in a particular setting, the researcher must go to the participants and/or the sites in order to collect data in a natural setting. Qualitative studies are often undertaken because there is a lack of theory, or existing theory does not adequately explain a phenomenon (Merriam, 1998). Qualitative research findings are typically in the form of ‘themes, categories, typologies, concepts, tentative hypothesis, even theory, which have been inductively derived from the data’ (Merriam, p. 7). Regarding theory, Duff (2008) clarified that exploratory qualitative research is not atheoretical. In fact, ‘the researcher must articulate the theoretical framework guiding the study, the relationship between the study and other published research, the chain of reasoning underlying the study, and the theoretical contributions the study makes’ (p. 44). Another characteristic of qualitative research is an emergent design. Ideally, a qualitative study is flexible and responsive to the changing conditions of a study; however, in practice, such a design is not always possible because of the need to specify the research design in order to obtain approval from ethics review boards and funding agencies. Nevertheless, as I will demonstrate with examples from my study, a degree of flexibility is essential to qualitative research. Dörnyei (2007, pp. 39–42) discussed strengths and limitations of qualitative research for applied linguistics. Strengths include the use of qualitative research in exploratory areas, the ability of qualitative research to make


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sense of highly complex situations and the ability to reach a broader, fuller and deeper understanding of a phenomenon. Longitudinal qualitative research studies have the potential to examine the dynamic nature of processes studied in applied linguistics. The flexibility in the research process can assist in the gathering of meaningful findings. Finally, qualitative research often generates rich material for a research report, which makes it easier to produce a convincing and vivid case. Limitations of qualitative research include the small sample size that is typical in qualitative research, and hence, the lack of generalizability. Another limitation is the researcher as the primary instrument for data collection and analysis; thus, a qualitative study is affected by the competence, personal biases and idiosyncrasies of the researcher. Because of its focus on a few specific cases, qualitative research can lead to theories that are too narrow; because of its rich data, qualitative research can lead to theories that are too complex. Finally, Dörnyei mentioned the time-consuming and labour-intensive nature of conducting qualitative research. Many of the strengths and limitations of qualitative research are closely related to the fact that the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. On the one hand, the researcher can maximize opportunities for collecting rich and meaningful data by responding to the situation and participants; on the other hand, the researcher can make mistakes and miss opportunities. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the researcher’s personal biases can affect the research process, so a qualitative researcher must be self aware and reflective. Merriam (1998) maintained that an effective qualitative researcher needs to have enormous tolerance for ambiguity, have sensitivity and be a good communicator. Because of the emergent design of qualitative research, a researcher needs to adapt to unforeseen events in data collection. A qualitative researcher also needs to be sensitive to the physical setting, the people, the overt and covert agendas, the nonverbal behaviours and the information being gathered. In addition, good communication skills are crucial in the data collection process in order to establish rapport with participants and an atmosphere of trust.

3.1.4 Qualitative research methods 3.1.4.1 In-depth interviews Interviewing is one of the main methods in qualitative research. Kvale (1996, p. 8) stated that ‘conversation is an ancient form of obtaining knowledge.’

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Dörnyei (2007, p. 134) summarized the appeal of research interviews: ‘The interview is a natural and socially acceptable way of collecting information that most people feel comfortable with and which can be used in a variety of situations and focusing on diverse topics to yield in-depth data.’ Interviews have been used regularly in a variety of applied linguistics research. An interview study can comprise single or multiple interview sessions with participants. Interviews can also be conducted with individual participants or with focus groups. There are three main types of interviews: structured, semi-structured and open (Richards, 2009). In a structured interview, the researcher employs a precisely worded interview schedule. As noted by Richards, this type of interview is a kind of spoken questionnaire that aims for precision and comparability. At the other end of the continuum is the open interview, which aims to explore a participant’s views, feelings or experiences in as much depth as possible, and in which the direction of an interview is determined primarily by the participant. In-depth semi-structured interviews are the most common type of interview for qualitative research. Dörnyei (2007) stated that a semi-structured interview offers a compromise between a structured interview in which the interview protocol is strictly adhered to and an open interview that is guided by broad topics. A semi-structured interview is guided by a list of questions, but allows for flexibility in the manner and sequence of the questions, and importantly, allows both the researcher and the participant to explore certain topics in greater depth. Dörnyei (2007) added that a semi-structured interview is appropriate when the researcher has sufficient knowledge of the phenomenon to develop questions in advance. In-depth qualitative interviews capture experiences that researchers may not otherwise be able to access, for example, experiences in real life contexts and retrospective accounts of experiences over time. In previous identity-in-SLA research, including the studies discussed in Chapter 2, in-depth interviews have often been used in combination with other qualitative data collections methods. For example, Morita’s (2002) case study of Japanese international students used a combination of weekly self-reports from the participants, researcher observations and in-depth interviews with the participants. Menard-Warwick (2004) also used in-depth interviews with her participants in addition to classroom observations. The quality of interview data depends on the researcher’s skills as well as the participant’s articulateness. In interview research, as in all qualitative research, the researcher is the primary instrument for collecting data. This has advantages as well as disadvantages. Kvale (1996) stated that interview


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research ‘is a craft that, if well carried out, becomes an art’ (p. 13). As Merriam (1998) explained, during a qualitative interview, the researcher needs to respond to the interview context and participant, for example, to probe with further questions in order to gather meaningful information. This requires the interviewer to be highly skilled and sensitive to the context and to the participant. Being sensitive means knowing when to probe, when to be silent and when to change directions in the interview. Merriam also stated that what is crucial for qualitative research interviewers is good communication skills. A good interviewer empathizes with participants, is able to establish rapport and is able to ask good questions and listen intently. Limitations of qualitative interview research are also related to the fact that the researcher is the primary instrument. Insufficient knowledge of the research topic or lack of sensitivity to the context and participant may impact the quality of the information collected. In addition, personal biases of the researcher may also affect the information gathered. In my study, in-depth semi-structured interviews were one of my main methods of data collection. Interviews with 34 IET participants across divisions, subject specializations and personal backgrounds – for example, countries of origin, ethnolinguistic backgrounds and professional histories – enabled me to explore similarities and differences in the experiences of IETs. I also gained additional perspectives on the professional acculturation of IETs by interviewing 15 school administrators and professional development facilitators who worked with IETs. 3.1.4.2 Narrative inquiry First-person narratives have been used in SLA research to investigate learners’ perceptions of themselves, their teachers and the language learning process (Oxford, 1995). Earlier studies include work by Bailey (1983), Schmidt (1983) and Schmidt and Frota (1986). More recently, as reviewed in Chapter 2, many studies of identity, agency and second language learning have focused on first-person narrative data. For example, the studies by Norton (2000), Morita (2004) and Lantolf and Genung (2003) all used learner diaries to capture the experiences of the participants. Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) examined first-person narratives in published autobiographies of language learners. In its broadest sense, a narrative refers to anything recounted or told. In the educational research literature, the term narrative is often used synonymously with the term ‘story.’ Carter (1993, p. 6) stated that a story

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consists of ‘events, characters, and settings arranged in a temporal sequence implying both causality and significance.’ Narrative inquiry is a research methodology that uses the form of stories to explore human experience. Bell (2002) explained that the epistemological assumption of narrative inquiry is that human beings make sense of their experience through the imposition of story structures, and narrative inquiry involves the analysis of the underlying insights that the story illustrates. Polkinghorne (1988) distinguished between the analysis of narratives and narrative analysis. The analysis of narratives involves the collection and analysis of some form of narratives in order to arrive at common themes; narrative analysis typically involves case studies and producing storied accounts to make the data meaningful. Clandinin and Connelly (1994, 2000) described narrative as both phenomenon and method. To distinguish between the two, they call the phenomenon ‘story’ and the inquiry ‘narrative.’ Following a Deweyan view of experience, Clandinin and Connelly framed their narrative inquiry in terms of a three-dimensional space that consists of interaction (personal and social), continuity (past, present and future) and situation (place). In terms of research methodology, Clandinin and Connelly identified the significance of who the researcher is in relation to the narrator, the text and the interpretation of the text. Data collection methods for narrative inquiry include oral history, life history annals, personal and family artefacts, research interviews, journals, autobiographical writing, field observations and conversations. One of the main strengths of first-person narratives is that they offer an alternate way of knowing. Proponents of narrative inquiry in the social sciences maintain that the complexity and interconnectedness of human phenomena cannot be captured by traditional positivistic approaches (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). Bruner (1985) distinguished between scientific knowledge and narrative knowledge: Whereas the former requires consistency and noncontradiction, the latter accommodates ambiguity and dilemma. Polkinghorne (1988) argued strongly for the need in the human sciences to develop ‘additional, complementary approaches that are especially sensitive to the unique characteristics of human existence’ (p. x), and claimed that narrative is the ‘primary form by which human experience is made meaningful’ (p. 1). Clandinin and Connelly (1994) echoed this claim by maintaining that ‘stories are the closest we can come to experience as we and others tell of our experience. A story has a sense of being full, a sense of coming out of a personal and social history’ (p. 415). According to McEwan and Egan (1995), a vital link exists between narrative form and human action and mind.


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Narrative inquiry also provides an emic, insider perspective, and gives voice to those who may have been previously silenced in educational research. In second language acquisition research, there has been an increase in the use of first-person narratives to understand second language learning experiences from the perspectives of learners themselves. As noted by Pavlenko (2002, p. 213), narratives allow ‘learners’ voices to be heard on a par with those of the researchers.’ Another argument made for the use of narrative inquiry is its potential to instruct and transform. From the field of teacher education, Olson (cited in Carter, 1993, p. 7) stated that ‘narrative structures provide a format into which experienced events can be cast in the attempt to make them comprehensible, memorable and shareable.’ Carter argued that teacher’s stories can help other teachers to learn, develop professionally and improve their practice. The potential of narratives to transform relates to the self-reflection that is encouraged by narratives. A number of SLA scholars have also noted the value of narrative research. Pavlenko and Lantolf (2000) spoke of the need for first-person narratives in SLA research as they ‘provide a much richer source of data than do third-person distal observations’ (p. 157). Pavlenko (2001) stated that language learning stories provide rich sources of information about language and identity in second language learning: It is possible that only personal narratives can provide a glimpse into areas so private, personal, and intimate that they are rarely – if ever – breached in the study of SLA, and that are at the same time at the heart and soul of the second language socialization process. (p. 167) Pavlenko (2002) maintained that narratives are a legitimate source of data in the hermeneutic tradition, which can complement more traditional empirical research, and that researchers can gain insights into learners’ motivations, struggles and ideologies that guide their learning. Bell (2002) stated that narratives can provide insight into people’s beliefs and experiences, and ‘allow researchers to present experience holistically in all its complexity and richness’ (p. 209). Furthermore, Bell argued that issues that affect learners’ experience of immigration, settlement and language learning are revealed in the stories they hold. As with any method of inquiry, there are limitations related to using firstperson narratives for research. One issue regarding narrative inquiry that has generated discussions and debates among scholars concerns the truth of narratives. Critics, such as Phillips (1997), stated that we do not always

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know, are not always conscious of or are not always honest about the reasons for our actions, and that sometimes, an etic, outsider, account is more veridical than a first-person narrative. Proponents of narrative research (e.g., Riessman, 2002) argue that the value of narratives is not so much whether it is reporting true events, but how narratives highlight issues of importance for the narrator. Fenstermacher (1997) stated that if a narrative helps a reader to make sense of an action, there is some ‘truth’ to the narrative. Kvale (1996) suggested that one way to address the issue of the truth of narratives is to draw insight from how the narrative is told. Whereas a veridical reading of narrative data views the information given by participants as reliable and ‘true,’ a symptomatic reading of narrative data sees the information as reflecting their relationship to the topic rather than the topic itself. Such a reading can provide insight on experience. Bell (2002) stated that narrative inquiry recognizes that people’s consciously told stories rest on deeper stories of which people are unaware, and that people construct stories that support their claimed identities. Bell argued that narrative inquiry goes beyond specific stories to explore assumptions and beliefs that shape the stories. Another issue concerning narrative inquiry is that people’s stories vary according to the context and time of the telling, and to whom the stories are told. As Bell (2002, p. 210) explained, ‘the constructed nature of truth and the subjectivity of the researcher are particularly evident’ in narrative inquiry. Bell also maintained that the constructed narrative and analysis of the narrative illuminates the researcher as much as the participant. Pavlenko (2002, p. 214) reiterated this point, stating that ‘narratives are not purely individual productions – they are powerfully shaped by social, cultural, and historical conventions as well as by the relationship between the storyteller and the interlocutor.’ Finally, ethical considerations are prominent in narrative inquiry. Clandinin and Connelly (1994) discussed the ethical dimensions of researcher-participant relationships in narrative inquiry: ‘When we enter into a research relationship with participants and ask them to share their stories with us, there is the potential to shape their lived, told, relived, and retold stories as well as our own’ (p. 422). Because the researcher is the one initiating the research relationship, the researcher needs to be especially careful about the impact of research texts on the lives of the participants. In my study, I use both ‘analysis of narratives’ and ‘narrative analysis,’ as defined by Polkinghorne. In Chapter 4, I present findings of common themes that emerged from a content analysis of the complete data set, including the first-person narratives gathered through in-depth interviews.


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However, noting the limitations of such an analysis of narratives, in Chapters 5 and 6, I focus on the ‘narrative analysis’ of the second language learning and professional acculturation stories of selected case studies. 3.1.4.3 Case study research A case study is ‘a study of a “bounded system”, emphasizing the unity and wholeness of that system, but confining the attention to those aspects that are relevant to the problem at the time’ (Stake, cited in Johnson, 1992, p. 76). Case study research is generally naturalistic, examining the individual or other entity in its natural state and environment (Johnson, 1992). Case study research enables the investigation of complex social units and multiple variables of potential importance in understanding a phenomenon. Furthermore, a case study provides a ‘rich and holistic account of a phenomenon’ (Merriam, 1998, p. 19). As noted by Duff (2008, p. 35), case study research has been an important component of applied linguistics research, especially in SLA, with its focus on individuals and their characteristics, knowledge and development. Duff also noted that case study research has been very productive and influential in applied linguistics; many models and hypotheses in SLA were based upon a small number of case studies, for example, Schmidt’s (1983) longitudinal case study of Wes. Johnson (1992, p. 76) stated that case studies can provide rich information about an individual learner: ‘They can inform us about the processes and strategies that L2 learners use to communicate and learn, how their own personalities, attitudes, and goals interact with the learning environment, and about the precise nature of their linguistic growth.’ Thus, case study research in SLA enables the investigation of the contextual basis of second language learning and ‘the interplay of individual mental processes, meanings, and actions as well as social interactions that occur within a particular time and place, and learning history’ (Duff, p. 37). Duff also discussed other strengths of case study research, including the depth of description enabled by the triangulation of data, its potential to generate hypotheses or models, and its potential to provide ‘counter-evidence to existing theoretical claims’ (p. 45). Case studies can be categorized into three types: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory (Yin, cited in Duff, 2008, p. 31). The purpose of an exploratory case study is to define questions and hypotheses of a subsequent study. A descriptive case study describes a phenomenon in its context, and an explanatory case study explains cause-effect relationships or to explain how events happened. Case study research can comprise single or multiple cases. Case study research may be longitudinal.

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Longitudinal case study research is particularly useful in SLA research as it enables the examination of language development over time. Dörnyei (2007) pointed out that longitudinal research must be defined in terms of both the data and the research design. The purpose of longitudinal research is to describe patterns of change, and to explain causal relationships. A research study that involves multiple points of data collection over time may provide breadth and depth of data, but may not show change. Such a study would not be considered longitudinal. Alternatively, in an in-depth life history interview, the data collection may take place on one occasion, but may provide data regarding change over time. Such a study would be considered longitudinal. Dörnyei (2007) cautioned against the use of retrospective longitudinal studies, stating that the quality of recollected data can be inaccurate, that retrospective accounts can be simplified or selective, and that past events might be reinterpreted to match the participant’s current perceptions or to fit a coherent storyline. Dörnyei maintained that if a study focuses on a relatively short period (weeks or months rather than years), a retrospective design may be appropriate, especially if the data primarily concerns events or behaviour rather than attitudes or beliefs. This view of retrospective narratives contrasts the view held by narrative researchers, who interpret and find meaning in the stories in retrospective narratives, as discussed in the previous section. Limitations of case study research include concerns about generalizability, the logistics of managing a large amount of data, objectivity versus subjectivity and research ethics. For longitudinal case studies, there is the additional challenge of attrition. Regarding concerns about generalizability, Duff (2008, p. 52) noted that the theoretical findings from groundbreaking early case studies, for example, work by Schumann and Schmidt, as well as more recent work by Norton, have contributed to important new understandings of second language learning and use, and thus, has achieved theoretical generalization. A practical strategy to enhance generalizability is to include multiple cases. In my study, I included case studies of eight internationally educated teachers in addition to the in-depth semi-structured interviews with 49 participants. My rationale for including case studies was because of the potential of case studies to provide a deeper and more holistic understanding of the professional acculturation experiences of some immigrant teachers. Some of the case studies were longitudinal. My case studies included a variety of data collection methods and sources, which I will describe in greater detail in the second part of this chapter.


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3.1.5 The quality of qualitative research Traditionally, research studies have been evaluated according to their reliability, validity and generalizability. Many qualitative researchers have eschewed these terms, which were commonly used to assess quantitative research, for terms such as dependability, credibility and transferability.

3.1.5.1 Internal validity and credibility First of all, there is the question of internal validity, that is, whether the findings are credible and congruent with ‘reality.’ However, even the term reality is open to interpretation. Merriam (1998) stated that ‘one of the assumptions underlying qualitative research is that reality is holistic, multidimensional and ever-changing; it is not a single, fixed, objective phenomenon waiting to be discovered, observed and measured as in quantitative research’ (p. 202). Having said that, there are strategies to increase the credibility of a qualitative research study. One strategy is to triangulate the data sources and data collection methods. For example, in my study, the credibility of my findings rests upon my research design, which includes multiple data collection methods and sources. My interviews with 34 IETs from diverse backgrounds, and my interviews with 15 other individuals who worked with IETs provided multiple perspectives. In addition, my use of different methods of data collection in the case studies enabled deeper insight and understanding of the experiences of the participants. Another valuable component of the case studies was the longitudinal aspect, which also contributed to the credibility of the findings. Completing member checks of the data is another strategy to increase the credibility of the data. Member checks are especially important with interview transcript data in order to ensure that the transcript is an accurate representation of the oral interview. Finally, some qualitative research scholars recommend sharing the researcher’s analysis and interpretation of the data with the participants, particularly with narrative research.

3.1.5.2 Reliability and dependability Reliability and dependability refer to the consistency of the research process. Qualitative researchers recommend the inclusion of a clear ‘audit trail’ (Merriam, 1998; Miles & Huberman, 1994), that is, a detailed description of the research design, and the data collection and analysis procedures.

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In my study, I followed certain procedures as consistently as possible. For example, all of the participants in the first and third phases of my study received the interview schedules in advance of our meeting. All of the interviews were audio-tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. I also personally checked and formatted all of the transcripts so that there was consistency in converting the interviews to texts. For the case study data, I also followed consistent procedures as often as possible. For example, I sent each case study participant an introductory email with suggestions for the case study data collection. I also tried to maintain consistency in my role as an observer during the classroom visits by sitting at the back of the classrooms and taking notes by hand. However, each case study was also unique; as a result, data collection methods varied. As Merriam (1998) maintained: Because information gathering is a function of who gives it and how skilled the researcher is at getting it, and because the emergent design of a qualitative case study precludes a priori controls, achieving reliability in the traditional sense is not only fanciful but impossible. (p. 206) Regarding reliability during the data analysis, I completed intercoder and intracoder agreement checks of my coding of the data, which I will describe in greater detail in a later section.

3.1.5.3 Generalizability, transferability and external validity Transferability is the third major criterion used in assessing research, that is, whether the findings can be applied to other contexts. Because of the uniqueness of human experience and the contextual conditions examined in qualitative research, findings can rarely be generalized in the traditional sense. However, the findings can nevertheless be useful. Providing detailed descriptions of the cases in the study enables ‘reader or user generalization’ (Merriam, 1998, p. 211); the reader can determine to what extent the findings could be applied to other cases and contexts. Miles and Huberman (1994) also discussed the ‘Utilization / Application / Action Orientation’ of research findings, that is, the importance of applying research to real world issues. Citing Lincoln, they described good qualitative research as enhancing ‘(a) levels of understanding and sophistication and (b) the ability of participants and stakeholders to take action during and after an inquiry and to negotiate on behalf of themselves and their own interests in the political arena’ (Miles & Huberman, p. 279). In addition,


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Miles and Huberman stated that findings should be intellectually and physically accessible to potential readers and ‘stimulate “working hypotheses” on the part of the reader as guidance for future action’ (Donmoyer, as cited in Miles & Huberman, p. 279). Thus, qualitative research aims to have a positive impact on individuals and the greater society through real life actions. This is also the raison d’être of applied linguistics research.

3.2 Conducting Qualitative Research in SLA In the following sections, I discuss practical issues in conducting qualitative research in SLA by describing aspects of my study. I begin with a description of the emergent process of research design and participant selection. I then discuss issues related to data collection, data processing and data analysis. Finally, I discuss ethical issues in conducting qualitative research.

3.2.1 Qualitative research design and participants: An emergent process I collected data for this study in three phases. In the first phase, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 34 internationally educated teachers (IETs) in the publicly funded kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) education system and system of postsecondary colleges of applied arts and technology (CAATs) in the province of Ontario, Canada. In the second phase, I conducted case studies of eight of these IETs who were interviewed in the first phase. In the third phase, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 individuals who had professional contact with IETs, such as school administrators and professional development facilitators. In this section, I illustrate the emergent process of qualitative research by describing how my research study design evolved over the course of the study.

3.2.1.1 Phase one of study A key issue for any study is defining the population of the study. For this study, I define IETs as individuals who are currently teaching or seeking teaching positions, and who have been educated in another country. Many of the participants, particularly the IETs in the K-12 school system, were trained as teachers and had teaching experience before immigrating to Canada. However, because of the different hiring criteria for faculty at

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CAATs, for example, the importance of industry experience and the fact that CAAT faculty are not required to be certified teachers, some of the college division participants in this study were educated and had professional experience in other countries, but were not necessarily trained or had experience as teachers before they entered the college system in Ontario. Because I wanted to compare the experiences of IETs across divisions and to compare the experiences of IETs who were in the Ontario education system with those who were in the process of seeking entry into the system, I recruited and selected participants purposefully from different divisions and at different stages of entry into the system. There are differences between the K-12 system and the college system in how I define what constitutes successful entry into the system. For the K-12 system, I define successful entry as obtaining a full-time, permanent (FT) contract, as the nature of their work and working conditions are different from substitute teachers. In Ontario, these substitute teachers are referred to as ‘supply’ teachers. They substitute for a teacher on a short-term, often daily basis. Those who were not in the system were either substitute teachers or those who were still seeking entry. The definition of ‘IETs seeking entry’ and ‘IETs in the system’ for the college division differed because the structure and criteria for hiring are different. For example, there is no certification requirement and no formal system of substitute teachers in the college division, so it was difficult to find participants who were seeking entry or working as substitute teachers. For the college division, the category of ‘IETs seeking entry’ were part-time faculty who had part-time hours and/or short-term contracts, and the category of ‘IETs in the system’ were full-time college faculty. Most part-time faculty were relatively new to the system, whereas most full-time faculty had been in the system for many years. Given my research questions, my initial plan was to conduct in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 internationally educated teachers, 10 from each division (elementary, secondary and college). In each division, I also wanted to include five IETs who were in the system, and five IETs who were seeking entry. In addition, I wanted to conduct one longitudinal case study of an IET from each of the six categories. Table 3.1 shows my initial research design. What emerged once I had completed a number of interviews with IETs in the K-12 system was that the narratives of IETs who had recently started teaching in the school system were in a different stage of professional acculturation from IETs who were well established in the system. For this reason, I subdivided K-12 IETs who were in the system into two categories: those


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Table 3.1 Initial research design

IETs in the system

Elementary division Kindergarten to grade 6

Secondary division Grades 7–12

College division Colleges of applied arts and technology

5 interviews + 1 case study

5+1

5+1

IETs seeking entry

5+1

5+1

5+1

Total participants

10

10

10

who were new in the system, and those who were established in the system. I also included two additional participants in the K-12 system. I also decided to include two additional participants in the college division. Estrella, who was on short-term contract professor of Spanish at a university at the time of our interview, was at the same time seeking certification and entry into the K-12 system. In fact, a number of the college participants had also applied for Ontario teacher certification. This shows that in reality, IETs may not fit in categories that are defined from the point of view of the Ontario education system. In fact, part of the process for some IETs was finding the division and teaching context in Ontario that corresponded to their previous experience in an education system that was structured differently. In addition, I interviewed Kerri, who was another unique case that I had not anticipated. Kerri had left Canada in her mid-20s, and had lived in Denmark for 19 years, where she completed her Masters and PhD and was professionally and socially well integrated in Danish society. She returned to Canada when she obtained a full time position at a college. Table 3.2 shows the main categories and number of participants in the first phase of my data collection. Pseudonyms are used for all participants and educational institutions in this study. Participants were invited to select their own pseudonym; when they did not have a preference, I made a suggestion, which was approved by the participants. An asterisk (*) indicates that the pseudonym was self selected. I will provide greater detail about the participants’ demographic and professional background in Chapter 4.

3.2.1.2 Phase two of study In the second phase, I conducted case studies of eight IETs (see Table 3.3). All of these IETs had completed the first phase interview and were interested in participating in the case studies. The case studies involved multiple methods of data collection that took place over the course of at least one

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Table 3.2 Participants in phase one First phase: Elementary division In-depth, Kindergarten to semi-structured grade 6 interviews


College division Colleges of applied arts and technology

Established in the system (Full-time permanent contract)

IETs in the system

Wanda – India Serena – India Merida* – Venezuela

Full-time permanent contract

Victor* – Poland, Chile Evelyn – Austria Rose – India

New in the system (Full-time temporary or new permanent contract) Bud* – Belarus Galina* – Russia Elisa – Russia Marjorie – Hong Kong IETs seeking entry

Total

Emily* – Hong Kong Dragomir* – Moldova Christine* – Hong Kong Kameela – Egypt, France

Helena – Bulgaria Nemo* – Russia Peter* – Poland Sanjay – India Ella – Hong Kong Kerri – Canada/ Denmark

Substitute teaching or seeking teaching position

Part-time or short-term contract

Susan* – China Raj* – Mauritius Audrey* – Jamaica Lin – China

Clarissa* – Romania Lillian – Albania Autumn* – Philippines Lucy* – Kenya

Natalie – Romania Adnan – Pakistan Alex – Greece Isabel – Colombia Monsell* – Jamaica Estrella* – Philippines

11

11

12

Table 3.3 Participants in phase two Second phase: Case studies

Elementary division Kindergarten to grade 6


College division

IETs in the system

Bud – Belarus (full-time temporary contract)

Emily – Hong Kong (full-time temporary contract)

Helena – Bulgaria General Arts and Science (full-time permanent) Peter – Poland Chemical Engineering (full-time permanent)

IETs seeking entry

Audrey – Jamaica (substitute teacher)

Lucy – Kenya (seeking entry)

Adnan – Pakistan Night School Programme (part-time contract) Estrella – Philippines University (short term contract)

Total

2

2

4


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academic semester. I had originally planned to have one participant from each of my six main categories, but I decided to include two additional case study participants in the post-secondary division. From the first phase interviews, I learned that there were notable differences between faculty who teach required specialization courses for a diploma or certificate, who often come from industry, and faculty who teach general arts and science courses, who often come from a teaching and academic background. Therefore, case studies for the full-time college faculty category included Peter, who taught in the chemical engineering department, and Helena, who taught in the general arts and science department. The case study participant for the part-time college faculty category was Adnan, who had a part-time contract in a night school programme. As I mentioned above, Estrella was a special case as she was teaching at a university, but was also applying for teacher certification for the K-12 public system.

3.2.1.3 Phase three of study In the third phase, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 individuals who had professional contact with IETs, such as school administrators, mentors and professional development facilitators (see Table 3.4). As a number of qualitative researchers have noted, qualitative research design is emergent; phase three of my study was added after data collection was under way for the first and second phases. Two of my case study participants had suggested that I speak to their school administrator

Table 3.4 Participants in phase three Third phase: In-depth, semi-structured interviews

K-12

College division

Administrators

Don – school district administrator Gail – principal Tom – vice principal Rashad – vice principal Jim – department head

Noreen – department chair Anton – department chair Sarah – programme coordinator

Professional Development (PD) Facilitators / Mentors

Rene – PD facilitator Avinath* – PD facilitator Irene – PD programme administrator Anne – IET mentor

Roma* – PD facilitator Ariel* – PD facilitator Karen – PD facilitator

Total

9

6

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to gain additional perspectives. In addition, as a result of the ongoing data collection and analysis from the first and second phases, I felt that it would be valuable to have additional perspectives on the acculturation experiences of IETs, particularly from individuals in hiring positions and from individuals who provide support for the professional development of IETs. 3.2.1.4 Participant recruitment I recruited participants for this study through a variety of means, depending on the category and the phase. My primary recruitment procedure was distributing an electronic message about my study via listservs. For the K-12 divisions, I recruited IETs through two main avenues. To recruit IETs who were in the system, I contacted the Ontario Teachers’ Federation affiliates (English system): the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. These affiliates placed a notice about my study in their newsletters. To recruit IETs who were seeking entry into the system, I contacted a provincial bridging programme for IETs (Teach in Ontario), as well as a teacher education programme at a university. For the college system, I contacted administrators at four colleges in the metropolitan area where the study took place. In all cases, my notice was distributed on my behalf by the administrators, and the participants self identified their suitability for study. As I mentioned earlier, my study was extended to include a third phase of interviews. Recruitment for this phase also varied according to divisions. To recruit school administrators in the K-12 divisions, I contacted the Ontario Principals’ Council. In addition, several of the administrators interviewed were referred to me by participants in the study. In order to recruit professional development facilitators for IETs in the K-12 division, I contacted a bridging programme administrator, an administrator of a language upgrading programme for IETs, and an administrator of a teacher induction programme. For the college division, I contacted the four colleges to request permission to extend my study and to distribute an information letter to administrators such as chairs, programme managers and to professional development facilitators. 3.2.2 Data collection methods and overview of data sources In this study, multiple perspectives and multiple sources of data provided a deeper understanding of the professional acculturation experiences of


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internationally educated teachers in Ontario. My research design combined in-depth interviews with a cross-section of IETs, school administrators and professional development facilitators with case studies of selected IETs. The primary source of data for this study was in-depth interviews, but the case studies also included a variety of data collection methods such as field observations, written reflections, surveys of students and other document

Phase one

in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of 34 IETs in terms of: teaching divisions teaching subjects countries of origin first language backgrounds age groups gender ethnic and racial backgrounds stages of entry into the Ontario education system stages of teaching career length of time in Canada

Phase two

8 case studies data from different sources (varied in each case study) collected over a period of 1 to 3 academic semesters: classroom observations by researcher written reflections by participants surveys of students conducted by researcher follow-up interviews other document data, including official teaching evaluations, and course feedback from students conducted by teachers

Figure 3.1

Phase three

in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 individuals who have professional contact with IETs: K-12 school and school district administrators college administrators K-12 professional development facilitators college professional development facilitators mentors

Triangulation: Multiple methods and perspectives

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data. The sources of data varied for each case study participant, depending on their teaching situations and their preferences. The triangulation of various forms of qualitative data collection methods helped to increase the depth of understanding, and to reduce any bias that may result from reliance on one form of data. Figure 3.1 provides an overview of the multiple perspectives and sources of data in this study.

3.2.2.1 Pilot study In preparation for the main study, I conducted a pilot study (exploratory case study) with three participants: an elementary school teacher from Iran, a secondary school family studies teacher from Hong Kong and a secondary school English teacher from India. I conducted two interviews with each participant; each interview lasted one to two hours. The initial interview was not recorded and was an informal conversation to exchange information. These conversations helped me to establish rapport with the participants and to develop the interview schedule. The second interview was semi-structured and audio-recorded. The purpose of the pilot study was threefold: (a) to develop an interview schedule and to determine whether the interview questions were appropriate; (b) to gain experience with the research and interview procedures, which included an explanation of the research study and ethical considerations, as well as practical matters such as testing the quality of recording equipment; and (c) to do a preliminary analysis of the interview data. Transcribing and analysing the pilot data enabled me to make decisions regarding transcription conventions and to reflect upon different approaches to coding and analysing the data. My pilot data also enabled me to conduct a preliminary analysis of the data to determine the suitability of the theoretical frameworks (sociocultural theory and the community of practice framework) that I was interested in using to interpret the data.

3.2.2.2 Interview procedures and data The in-depth, semi-structured interviews for the first and third phases and the follow-up interviews for the case studies in the second phase all took place at times and locations that were convenient for the participant. Locations for the interviews included a seminar room at a university, schools and colleges where the participants worked, coffee shops that were convenient for participants to access and in a few cases, in the participants’ homes.


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Table 3.5 Summary of interview data Phase

Number of interviews

Average length of recorded portion of interviews

Range in length of interviews

Phase 1: In-depth, semi-structured interviews

34

69 minutes

41–121 minutes

Phase 2: Case studies Open-ended, follow-up interviews

15

48 minutes

18–82 minutes

Phase 3: In-depth, semi-structured interviews

15

45 minutes

25–74 minutes

Total

64

Recorded time = 3699 mins ≈ 62 hours

All of the participants received the interview questions prior to the interview (see Appendix A). All of the interviews were audio-recorded, with the permission of the participants. Table 3.5 lists the length of the recorded portion of the interviews. The entire interview was longer as I normally chatted informally with each participant at the beginning of our meeting, and then asked for permission to record. Often, after we had discussed all the questions on the interview schedule and I had turned off the recorder, our conversations continued for some minutes longer to bring closure to our meeting. In total, I conducted 64 interviews; the total recording time was approximately 62 hours. During the interviews, I also took notes by hand. Immediately after the interview, I listened to each recording in order to conduct a preliminary and ongoing analysis of the main themes while data collection was in progress. If there was any information missing or unclear, I followed up by email. In a few cases, the participants offered additional information that they wanted to share and had not mentioned during the interview. After the interviews, I sent the participants an email to thank them for their participation and to confirm that I would send them the full transcript once the transcription had been completed. I also invited them to provide me with a pseudonym.

3.2.2.3 Case study data As shown in Table 3.6, the data collected for each case study varied. Case study data included written reflections, classroom observations, follow-up interviews and surveys of students. The type and frequency of data collected

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were negotiated with each case study participant, and depended on their circumstances and preferences. In total, I conducted 59 hours of classroom observations, received 21 written reflections, surveyed 69 students in 4 different classes and collected 157 other pieces of document data. Written reflections were sent via emails from participants. At the beginning of the case studies, I sent each case study participant an email with general suggestions regarding topics for reflection. The written reflections provided an additional source of first-person narratives and were particularly important for the participants Audrey and Lucy, whom I was not able to observe in classrooms as they were both seeking entry into the education system. Written reflections (learner diaries and journals) have been used successfully in a number of recent socioculturally-informed SLA studies, for example, Norton (2000), Miller (2004) and Morita (2004). The advantage of diaries as a form of data is that they allow the participants the time and space to reflect on issues and experiences that are important for them. Another advantage of diaries is that they are time sensitive, that is, a participant can write whenever a significant event happens. In addition, written reflections kept over a period of time enable a participant and a researcher to reflect upon and analyse any changes in perceptions of experiences over time and thus, provide longitudinal data. On a practical note from a researcher’s point of view, a challenging aspect of using learner diaries as data is that diary writing requires the time and space to write and reflect. Also, not all individuals enjoy journaling. In my study, I was hoping to receive regular bi-weekly reflections from the case study participants. However, this did not happen, perhaps because of constraints of time and inclination. Classroom observations were conducted with the six participants who were at different stages of entry into the education system: Bud and Emily were both contract teachers in the K-12 system, Estrella and Adnan were post-secondary contract faculty and Helena and Peter were full-time college faculty. As shown in Table 3.6, the observations varied according to the teaching contexts of the participants. My original intention was to schedule the observations evenly over the course of an academic term. However, a 3-week long college faculty strike in the second half of the term impacted upon when the observations took place for the participants in the college division. This is also an example of the need to be flexible when conducting qualitative research. During my visits to the participants’ classrooms, my role was primarily an observer. I sat at the back of the classroom and took notes by hand.


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Table 3.6 Summary of case study data Participant

Division/ subject

Stage of entry/ certification

Data sources

1. Bud Belarus

• Elementary • French immersion

• Long-term contract • Not yet certified

• 2 day-long school visits: ≈ 14 hours total • 3 follow-up interviews • 2 written reflections

2. Audrey Jamaica

• Elementary

• Substitute teaching • Interim teaching certificate

• 2 follow-up interviews • 7 written reflections

3. Emily • Secondary Hong Kong • Family Studies

• Long-term contract • Certified by Ontario College of Teachers (OCT)

• 3 school visits: ≈ 15 hours total • 3 different classes observed and surveyed • 6 class observations • 3 follow-up interviews • 1 written reflection and other document data, e.g., certification process, course feedback from students

4. Lucy Kenya

• Secondary • Chemistry and Physical Education

• Not yet certified

• 1 follow-up interview • 6 written reflections

5. Helena Bulgaria

• College • General Science

• Full-time, permanent contract

• 3 college visits • 2 different courses observed • 3 class observations: 6 hours total • 3 follow-up interviews • 2 written reflections • document data, e.g., course materials, outlines, course feedback from students

6. Peter Poland

• College • Chemical Engineering

• Full-time, permanent contract

• 3 college visits • 3 different courses observed • 3 class observations: 6 hours total • 1 follow-up interview

7. Estrella Philippines

• University • Spanish and French

• Short-term teaching contract • Seeking OCT certification

• 4 university visits • 2 different classes observed • 4 observations: 9 hours total • 1 class surveyed • 2 follow-up interviews • 3 written reflections • document data, e.g., official teaching evaluations, professional portfolio

8. Adnan Pakistan

• College • Health Sciences

• Part-time teaching contracts at private and public colleges

• 3 college visits • 2 courses observed • 3 class observations: 9 hours total • 1 follow-up interview • document data, e.g., course information

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The exception was when I visited Emily; on all three occasions I also spent the lunch hour with Emily and her department colleagues. During these lunch hours, my role was a participant observer as I was able to take part in their conversations and at the same time, observe the interactions between Emily and her colleagues. These visits were valuable in increasing my understanding of the themes that had emerged in the participants’ interviews. In all cases, my observations confirmed the IETs’ perspectives on their challenges and successes in the classroom. In two cases, Emily and Estrella, I was able to survey the students at the end of the semester. The surveys were completed voluntarily and anonymously. The open-ended questions in the survey elicited general feedback regarding the course and teaching, as well as one specific question related to internationally educated teachers. The survey was designed in this way so that the teachers would also benefit from the feedback. Following standard procedure regarding student evaluation surveys, I compiled the results and sent them to Emily and Estrella after the term had ended and the marks for the students had been submitted. My intention was to conduct longitudinal case studies, so I planned multiple instances of data collection over time. However, as I discussed earlier in the section on case study research, a longitudinal case study must show change and development. According to this criterion, four of the case studies – Bud, Audrey, Emily and Lucy – qualify as longitudinal case studies as they showed change in the participants and development in their professional acculturation. While the other four case studies – Helena, Peter, Estrella and Adnan – enabled me to obtain a deeper understanding of the experiences of these participants, I did not find evidence of change over the course of these case studies. In contrast, many of the retrospective narratives of participants who were established in the system, including Merida and Evelyn who are the focus of Chapter 5, were also longitudinal because of their accounts of their language development and professional acculturation over time. 3.2.2.4 Limitations of study This study was limited to the perspectives of certain groups of individuals. For example, I did not interview parents or colleagues. In addition, this study relied on participants’ self assessment and self report of language acquisition and proficiency, which is a limitation. However, the verbatim transcripts of the interviews with IETs provided another indication of their language proficiency. My observations were limited to a few visits of each


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participant, so I could not gather the depth of data that would be possible in an ethnographic study where I would spend more time in a participant’s teaching context. Also, because my observations were not recorded, it was not possible to capture the interaction between the teachers and their students in detail. Such a study would no doubt provide important insights into the professional discourse acculturation of IETs.

3.2.3 Data analysis In this section, I describe my data processing and analysis: converting data to texts, member checks, coding and other data analysis procedures.

3.2.3.1 Converting data to texts According to a number of qualitative interview researchers (e.g., Kvale, 1996, Oliver, Serovich, & Mason, 2005; Riessman, 1993), analysis of interview and narrative data begins with the transcription and decisions regarding how to represent a live conversation in a text format. All of the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. I engaged two companies to complete the initial transcription of most of the recorded interviews, but I checked and reformatted all of the transcripts according to my transcription conventions (see Appendix B). For example, transcripts included repetitions in speech, incomplete utterances, overlapping and interrupted speech and descriptions of nonverbal sounds such as laughter and sighs. For the classroom observations, I took notes by hand and later inputted my notes into rich text format (RTF) files. Other textual data, for example, written reflections sent via email, surveys of students and other documents were also converted to RTF files.

3.2.3.2 Member checks All of the interview transcripts were sent to the participants for verification and approval. Given the personal nature of the information conveyed in the interviews, and the fact that one of the reasons for using first-person narratives as data was to give voice to the participants, member checks of the transcripts were an important component of the study. The participants had the opportunity to review the transcript and to make any corrections, deletions or other changes that they wished to make. Some of the participants edited their transcripts slightly for content and grammar, but overall,

80


few changes were made in the transcripts. Appendix C provides a summary of the changes made by the participants. The rationale for having member checks at this stage is because ethically, I wanted the participants to see how their spoken words appeared in text, and to feel comfortable with the form and content of the narratives before the data were made public. As discussed, given that a transcript is a textual representation of a conversation, the participants were also checking my understanding and interpretation of their speech. Thus, this was the first level of analysis of the interview data. 3.2.3.3 Coding procedures All of the text files were coded using ATLAS.ti, a qualitative data analysis software program. Prior to coding each interview transcript, I listened to the recording to get a sense of the whole interview and the interview context. The texts (interview transcripts, written reflections, field notes) were coded for content. Each text was segmented into meaning units that were assigned a code. Ratner (2001), from the field of cultural psychology, defined a meaning unit as a coherent and distinct segment in a text that can be composed of any number of words, but must preserve the psychological integrity of the idea being expressed (paragraph 4). Ratner also maintained that meaning units can only be identified once the researcher is familiar with the entire text/transcript and thus, can determine what constitutes a coherent and distinct theme. I completed open coding of the texts, following a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2001; Strauss & Corbin, 1998); that is, I coded inductively, developing codes by using the method of constant comparison (Merriam, 1998). However, as Dey noted, ‘an open mind is not an empty head’ (cited in Bong, 2002, paragraph 15). I agree with Bong’s contention that there is a tension between having a hypothesis/theory and keeping an open mind when coding data. Merriam (1998, p. 183–184) stated that categories (codes) should ‘reflect the purpose of the research,’ should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive, should be named in a way that clearly reflects what is in the data and should be conceptually congruent. Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 65) also offered the following rule of thumb regarding coding: ‘Assign the single most appropriate (“better,” more encompassing) code among those related to a given research question.’ Guba and Lincoln (cited in Merriam, 1998, p. 185) stated that ‘there should be a minimum of unassignable data items, as well as relative freedom from ambiguity of classification.’ Merriam further stated that ‘the set of categories should seem plausible given the data from which they emerge, causing independent investigators to agree


81

that the categories make sense in light of the data’ (p. 185). I followed the above guidelines in my coding of the data. Appendix D provides two examples of how I segmented and coded the data. 3.2.3.4 Intercoder and intracoder agreement checks After I completed the coding of all of the data, I checked the consistency of my coding by completing intercoder and intracoder agreement checks, as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). For both the intercoder and the intracoder agreement checks, 12 per cent of the data set was randomly selected for re-coding. I opted to check whole transcripts and texts that amounted to 12 per cent of the data set, rather than a similar proportion of all transcripts and texts because it was important to have a sense of the complete interview (and other texts), in order to better contextualize the text. Also, as mentioned above (Ratner, 2001), a number of qualitative researchers advise the reading of the entire text before segmentation and coding. I trained two coders to recode the data. An intercoder agreement rate of 84 per cent was achieved before discussion. I discussed areas of disagreement with the coders, and after discussion, an agreement of near 100 per cent was reached. I achieved an intracoder agreement rate of 97 per cent. As I was using the constant comparative method, and was continually reviewing my coding, intracoding agreement was unproblematic. Differences in intracoding agreement were mainly due to later additions of codes to a segment. 3.2.3.5 Other data analysis procedures After open coding the data, further analysis of the textual data was approached in several different ways, following Kvale (1996): meaning condensation, categorization and interpretation. Meaning condensation involved listening to and reading the interview transcripts to get a sense of the whole conversation and to identify major themes. This was important to get a sense of the whole interview in order to contextualize the coding. Categorization involved grouping the coded meaning units in the textual data. This strategy was useful for identifying dominant themes for my first research question regarding the affordances and constraints to successful professional acculturation. Interpretation involved writing memos linked to meaning units in the texts. I wrote 77 memos during my coding of the data. Many of these memos related to the concepts of identity and agency, and the relationships between identity, agency and the acquisition of professional language and culture,

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which was my second research question. Analysis for the second research question was more interpretative and holistic. The memos enabled a more in-depth analysis of complex concepts. The final stage of analysis involved interpreting the findings through my theoretical concepts, that is, examining whether or not the data provided evidence for my theoretical conceptions of the relationships between identity, agency and acquisition of professional language and culture. 3.2.4 Ethics, the researched and the researcher Ethical considerations in qualitative research include informed consent, confidentiality, reciprocity and the relationship between the participants and the researcher. Throughout the research process, I made efforts to conduct my study with ethical considerations and respect for the well-being of the participants in mind. 3.2.4.1 Informed consent and confidentiality First of all, participation in this study was entirely voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. I included the interview schedule with my information letter to give potential participants the opportunity to review the questions prior to consenting to participating in the study. Another major ethical issue involves protecting the privacy of the participants through confidentiality and anonymity. Regarding confidentiality, my information letter and consent form clearly stated how the data would be accessed, stored and used. Regarding anonymity, pseudonyms were used for all participants and institutions. However, anonymity is problematic for participants in an in-depth interview study as the amount of details given about an individual may identify them to those in their social and professional contexts. For this reason, all of the participants were sent a copy of their interview transcripts and were given the opportunity to review their transcripts, and to remove or alter details that may identify them or that they did not wish to include in the study. Member checks of transcripts also gave the participants the opportunity to confirm the accuracy of the transcription and to clarify any details. 3.2.4.3 Reciprocity Kvale (1996) maintained that participants in interview research generally enjoy sharing their experiences and opinions. For some individuals, participating


83

in an in-depth interview may be therapeutic, or may increase their selfawareness and understanding. Many of the IET participants appreciated the fact that a researcher was interested in their experiences, and appreciated the opportunity to tell their stories. Participating in the study was in itself an act that affirmed their professional identity. The participants may have also gained satisfaction from taking part in the study by contributing to findings that may potentially assist other high-skilled immigrants in achieving professional success. 3.2.4.4 Relationship between participants and researcher Another ethical issue regarding in-depth interviewing and case study research is the nature of the relationship between the participants and researcher. Johnson (2002) stated that in-depth interviewing has distinct ethical considerations, as the information sought ‘usually concerns very personal matters, such as an individual’s self, lived experience, values and decisions, occupational ideology, cultural knowledge or perspective’ (p. 104). In-depth interviewing also entails a greater involvement of the researcher’s self, as there is a natural tendency to self-disclosure in order to build rapport and trust. Johnson further noted that an effective in-depth interview resembles talk between close friends because of the development of rapport and intimacy between the researcher and the participant. However, although resembling an intimate conversation, a clear difference is that the purpose of the talk is to gather research data. Thus, for ethical reasons, it was especially important for the participants to have the opportunity to review their interview transcripts after our meeting, and to make sure that they felt comfortable with what they disclosed during our conversation. Regarding the case study data, as I mentioned earlier, the methods of data collection for the case studies were negotiated with each participant. This was done to respect the preferences and the comfort level of the participants. For example, the questions on the student survey that was distributed in two of the participants’ classes were approved by the participants in advance. 3.2.4.5 Position of researcher As the researcher is the main research instrument in a qualitative research study, it is essential to provide some information about the background and position of the researcher. I shared some commonalities with the IET

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participants in this study. First of all, I am an experienced teacher and have taught in both the K-12 and college systems in Ontario; thus, I have a good understanding of the professional contexts of the IETs in this study. I also had the experience of applying for re-certification in another country (Germany), as well as in another Canadian province (British Columbia). Thus, I could empathize with the experiences of IETs trying to enter a different education system as an ‘outsider.’ In addition, as I discussed in Chapter 1, I am a first-generation immigrant. Although my immigration and acculturation experiences in Canada were different from my IET participants because I came here at a young age and I had learned English as a child, I was also an adult immigrant to Germany. I moved there for the first time at the age of 30, and had to learn the German language and culture as an adult. Because of my own immigration experiences, I could empathize with the immigrant professionals in this study. I am a visible minority and a woman. This helped me to connect with many of my IET participants, many of whom were women and members of visible minority groups. On the other hand, this may have also affected my interviews with the phase three participants, most of whom were white and Canadian born. That is, my being a visible minority and immigrant to Canada, which helped me to develop rapport with the IET participants, may have affected my rapport with the phase three participants who were not visible minority. For example, it may have affected what these participants chose to say regarding issues related to race and discrimination. Thus, as discussed in the first part of this chapter, in qualitative research, it is essential to take into consideration the background of the researcher and how that may impact the research process.

Chapter 4

Affordances and Constraints in the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

In this chapter, I discuss my findings concerning the affordances and constraints to the successful professional acculturation of internationally educated teachers (IETs) in Ontario. The findings presented in this chapter are derived from a thematic analysis of the complete data set, which comprised phase one interviews with 33 IETs1, phase two case studies of eight IETs and phase three (hereafter referred to as P3) interviews with 15 individuals who work with IETs, namely, administrators, professional development facilitators and mentors. As I discussed in Chapter 3, all of the textual data were segmented into meaning units, open coded and then grouped into topics. This chapter is divided into four sections. First, I describe the participants in greater detail. I then present the findings related to the constraints and affordances to IETs’ successful professional acculturation in the Ontario public education system. Finally, I discuss the main themes, and their relationships to issues of identity, agency and communities of practice. In my selection of interview excerpts to illustrate the various themes, I have tried to include the voices of as many participants as possible.

4.1 The Participants 4.1.1 Phase one and two participants: Internationally educated teachers Tables 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 list the participants according to teaching division and stage of entry into the Ontario public education system. The tables also provide demographic and professional background information about the participants, which I summarize below.

Table 4.1 Phase one and phase two (case study) participants – elementary division Pseudonym (*self selected)

Teaching subject/ grades

Teaching employment status (at time of interview)

Country of origin

Gender

Approx. First English age language(s) learning (years) [L1] background [L1, ESL, EFL]

Teaching Teaching Number experience experience of years (total years) (in Canada) in Canada

1.1

Wanda

Gr. 4 – 6

Full-time

India

Female

50–59

English, Hindi

English as L1 in home and school in India

34

9

9

1.2

Serena

K – Gr. 3

Full-time

India

Female

30–39

English

English as L1 in home and school in India

9

5

6

1.3

Merida*

Special Ed, Full-time Gr. 1 – 3

Venezuela Female

40–49

Italian, Spanish

ESL as adult 11 in Canada

8

13

1.4

Bud* French Long-term (case study) immersion, contract Gr. 4

Belarus

Male

30–39

Belarusian, Russian

EFL in school in Belarus

10

Identity, Agency, and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

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Identity, Motivation and Autonomy in Language Learning (Second Language Acquisition)

Language Acquisition and Learnability

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Practical Identity and Narrative Agency

Language and Culture: Reflective Narratives and the Emergence of Identity (ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series)

Strategic Language Learning: The Roles of Agency and Context (Second Language Acquisition)

Language and Ethnic Identity

Culture, Identity, and Politics

Language and ethnic identity

Culture, Identity, and Politics

Culture, Identity, and Politics

Second Language Acquisition of Articles: Empirical findings and theoretical implications (Language Acquisition and Language Disorders)

Language and Social Identity

Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar (Second Language Acquisition)

Speaking and Instructed Foreign Language Acquisition (Second Language Acquisition)

Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Foreign Language Acquisition (Second Language Acquisition)

Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy

The Acquisition of Swedish Grammar (Language Acquisition & Language Disorders)

Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory

Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory

Input and Evidence: The Raw Material of Second Language Acquisition (Language Acquisition & Language Disorders)

Telicity in the Second Language (Language Acquisition and Language Disorders)

Language and Professional Identity: Aspects of Collaborative Interaction (Palgrave Studies in Professional and Oganizational Discourse)

The Kashubs Today: Culture - Language - Identity

Language, Culture and Cognition: A Collection of Studies in First and Second Language Acquisition

Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity

Creolization of Language and Culture

Identity, Agency, and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self (Second Language Acquisition)

Language Acquisition and Conceptual Development (Language, Culture and Cognition)

Identity, Motivation and Autonomy in Language Learning (Second Language Acquisition)

Language Acquisition and Learnability

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Practical Identity and Narrative Agency

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Strategic Language Learning: The Roles of Agency and Context (Second Language Acquisition)

Language and Ethnic Identity

Culture, Identity, and Politics

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Culture, Identity, and Politics

Culture, Identity, and Politics

Second Language Acquisition of Articles: Empirical findings and theoretical implications (Language Acquisition and Language Disorders)

Language and Social Identity

Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar (Second Language Acquisition)

Speaking and Instructed Foreign Language Acquisition (Second Language Acquisition)

Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Foreign Language Acquisition (Second Language Acquisition)

Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy

The Acquisition of Swedish Grammar (Language Acquisition & Language Disorders)

Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory

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Input and Evidence: The Raw Material of Second Language Acquisition (Language Acquisition & Language Disorders)

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Language and Professional Identity: Aspects of Collaborative Interaction (Palgrave Studies in Professional and Oganizational Discourse)

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