Identity in Colombian English Language Teaching Journals: A critical literature review

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to determine how identity has been approached in Colombian scholarship within the field of English Language Teaching and Learning (ELT&L), during the last two decades, as published in the most important journals of Colombia that deal with matters of language education, bilingual education, language teaching and learning. It also seeks to determine how the theory on identity has evolved. The journals CALJ, GiST, HOW, ÍKALA, and PROFILE (listed in alphabetical order) were selected because they fulfilled four requirements pre-established for this critical literature review, namely a) to issue articles in the field of foreign language education, b) to publish in English, c) to report works about the Colombian context with Colombian participants (or theoretical papers in the field), and d) to be available online at the time of the search. With these prerequisites in mind, a careful search was carried out in each journal website, looking for articles that dealt with the identity.