Critical Autoethnographic Narrative for Language Teacher Identity Development

Abstract

English language teacher education requires a shift from a solely skills-based approach to one that addresses identity development and prepares teacher-learners to engage with issues of identity in the classroom. This article demonstrates the use of a critical autoethnographic narrative (CAN) assignment (adapted from Yazan, 2019) to foster language teacher identity development around these issues as a foundation for pedagogical praxis. The CAN assignment was developed for a sociolinguistics in education course required as part of a master’s degree program in educational linguistics, which enrolls primarily international students, at a prestigious private university in the northeastern United States. Authored by the instructor and two teacher-learners who were enrolled in the course, the article provides an overview of the course structure and key readings as well as prompts for a series of five short memos intended to stimulate reflection on and application of course topics, which included language varieties, speech communities, language ideologies, gender and sexuality, globalization, English as a Lingua Franca/World Englishes, and native-speakerism, to their own language-related experiences, identities, beliefs, and practices. At the conclusion of the semester, students compiled their memos into cohesive first-person narratives with references to the texts which influenced their thinking. Based on completed narratives and teacher-learner feedback, the CAN assignment achieved the goal of fostering critical reflection on sociolinguistic aspects of English language learning and teaching. Taking an autoethnographic approach in line with the assignment, the article includes excerpts from teacher-learners’ memos and CAN papers examining the roles that various languages have played in their personal and professional development and the connections between social environment, language, and identity. The article closes with recommendations for implementation of the assignment to foster awareness and foster practical application of sociolinguistic concepts.