Book Chapter Details
Mandatory Fields
Riordan, E. and Farr, F.
2015
Advances and Current Trends in Language Teacher Identity Research
Facilitating identity construction through narratives: A corpus-based discourse analysis of student teacher discourse
Routledge
London
Published
1
Optional Fields
Teacher identity, corpus linguistics, narrative analysis
                          

Identity has been referred to as ‘the outcome of processes by which people index their similarity to and difference from others’ (Johnstone, 2008, p. 151), and language is advocated as a conducive medium to the projection of identities (De Fina, 2006). It has been suggested that in language teacher education (LTE) contexts narratives can be told for a number of reasons, for example to solve issues or tensions, to explain motives and actions, and to understand events more fully (Vásquez, 2009, p. 260), therefore within this discipline we may examine how people shape and re-shape their identities via their narratives (Georgakopoulou, 2006).

 

From a Labovian perspective (Labov and Waletzky, 1967; Labov, 1997), this chapter examines narratives found in discussions between student teachers and tutors on an MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) programme through two different modes of communication: online and face-to-face. Drawing on discourse analysis techniques, our investigation begins with a codification of the narratives found, followed by an investigation of the topics under discussion, and, in turn, the narratives are scrutinised further to trace the nature of the identities projected by the student teachers as they move from peripheral to full and legitimate participation (see Lave and Wenger, 1991) in the professional teaching community through the duration of their programme. Our analysis highlights the importance of having both formal and informal discussions to allow student teachers differing ways of making sense of themselves as teachers in order to develop professionally.

978-1-13-802536-3
161
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