Plurilingualism as agentive resource in L2 teacher identity

Abstract

This article examines the mediating role of agency in second language teacher identity, specifically vis-à-vis the impact of native-speaker ideologies on teachers' professional sense of self in constructing an authoritative position as French teachers. The narrative analysis of one teacher's interview accounts demonstrates how this teacher circumnavigated the constraints of a native-speaker ideology by making use of the affordances of the notion of plurilingualism, as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, as a conceptual resource to rearticulate an identity as a different kind French language teacher. While some have characterized plurilingual approaches as aligning with a neoliberal agenda, the analysis shows that such a view undermines the complexity of language as a social practice and its role in mediating agency. The article argues for a close examination of the complex, socially embedded ways in which language teacher agency in language is taken up and mobilized to impact daily instances of constructing meaning within the context of second language education.