A discursive approach to understanding the role of educators' possible selves in widening students' participation in classroom interaction: Language teachers' sense making as 'acts of imagination'

This chapter takes a small-lens approach to widening participation by focusing on opportunities for student participation in classroom discourse and on the role of language educators’ possible selves in creating such opportunities. Research into additional language (L2) learning motivation has firmly embraced the construct of possible selves (Markus and Nurius, 1986) – that is, L2 learners’ vivid and realistic images of their successful L2 speaking future selves – as one of the most powerful forces that shape their engagement in the language learning process and in intercultural interaction more generally (Dörnyei and Kubanyiova, 2014; Dörnyei and Ushioda, 2009). Parallel to this research, however, is a growing awareness of the crucial role that the possible selves of educators play in creating learning spaces in which meaningful intercultural encounters are facilitated (Kubanyiova, 2016; Ogawa, 2017). In this chapter, I examine empirical data from a grounded theory ethnographic study of language educators’ lives as a basis for building a theoretical and methodological case for a new approach to conceptualizing and researching the concept of possible selves in language education research

Language teacher education in the age of ambiguity: Educating responsive meaning makers in the world

Language learning happens across many sites of social interactions; those scarred by injustices, conflicts and structural violence as well as those characterised by conviviality of human encounters and acts of welcoming the stranger. This article outlines new directions for language teacher education in this age of ambiguity. I propose that its core task should involve educating responsive meaning makers in the world, that is, teachers who are critically conscious of the politics of their social worlds while, at the same time, committed to growing their capacity to respond to the particular moment of an educational encounter. I suggest that creative arts may play a crucial part in preparing language teachers for such re-envisioned roles

Teacher development in action: an empirically-based model of promoting conceptual change in in-service language teachers in Slovakia

This longitudinal mixed methods study concerns the professional development of eight non-native English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Slovakia. Raising awareness of the teacher's role in creating conducive learning environments has not traditionally been part of the aims of EFL teacher education programmes. This study therefore set out to explore the impact of a 20-hour experiential in-service teacher development course that had been informed by theoretical principles drawn from within as well as outside the domain of applied linguistics, including second language motivation research, group dynamics and educational psychology. A combination of quantitative measures (pre- and post-test questionnaires measuring students' perceptions of their classroom environment) and qualitative measures (interviews, observations, and written course feedback) were employed to assess the course impact on the teachers' conceptual change. The results show that although some traces of impact were found in the participants' teaching practice, conceptual change did not occur despite their positive appraisals of the programme. Further interrogation of qualitative data about the reasons for this outcome has led to the generation of an integrated model of Language Teacher Conceptual Change (LTCC), which accommodates and thus interprets the variable and individual ways in which the eight teachers responded to the course input. The fact that the complex and idiosyncratic growth patterns fitted comfortably into the proposed conceptual framework provides validation for the theoretical construct, and the LTCC model is therefore believed to offer an integrated, theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded framework for future research on language teacher development and for designing effective teacher education interventions

Teacher development in action: an empirically-based model of promoting conceptual change in in-service language teachers in Slovakia

This longitudinal mixed methods study concerns the professional development of eight non-native English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Slovakia. Raising awareness of the teacher's role in creating conducive learning environments has not traditionally been part of the aims of EFL teacher education programmes. This study therefore set out to explore the impact of a 20-hour experiential in-service teacher development course that had been informed by theoretical principles drawn from within as well as outside the domain of applied linguistics, including second language motivation research, group dynamics and educational psychology. A combination of quantitative measures (pre- and post-test questionnaires measuring students' perceptions of their classroom environment) and qualitative measures (interviews, observations, and written course feedback) were employed to assess the course impact on the teachers' conceptual change. The results show that although some traces of impact were found in the participants' teaching practice, conceptual change did not occur despite their positive appraisals of the programme. Further interrogation of qualitative data about the reasons for this outcome has led to the generation of an integrated model of Language Teacher Conceptual Change (LTCC), which accommodates and thus interprets the variable and individual ways in which the eight teachers responded to the course input. The fact that the complex and idiosyncratic growth patterns fitted comfortably into the proposed conceptual framework provides validation for the theoretical construct, and the LTCC model is therefore believed to offer an integrated, theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded framework for future research on language teacher development and for designing effective teacher education interventions

Learning to teach online or learning to become an online teacher: an exploration of teachers' experiences in a blended learning course

A key role in the successful implementation of any learning approach is played by teachers, so how well blended learning works will depend largely on how well teachers make the transition from their traditional face-to-face classroom roles to the wider more complex role that blended learning requires. The additional skills and the forging of a new professional identity might not come easily to all practitioners. This paper evaluates the impact that the introduction of blended learning in a distance language learning course has had on teachers. It presents and discusses findings from a small-scale evaluation study which compared quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a survey and a small number of interviews with participant observations from the researcher and the institutional end-of-course debriefing report. The paper argues that whilst technological challenges and the sheer amount of change that teachers were faced with were largely responsible for some of the negative attitudes reflected in teachers’ opinions about the course, a less obvious, broader explanation for the difficulties that teachers encountered might be found in the way that learning, teaching and training are conceptualised by both teachers and the institution. It is proposed that a transmission of knowledge approach to training fails to acknowledge and properly support the transformation of teachers’ identity that results from moving from traditional classroom-based teaching to online teaching. The shift goes beyond the acquisition of ICT skills and requires a pedagogical understanding of the affordances of the new medium and an acceptance by the teacher of his or her new role and identity

The Role of Teachers’ Future Self Guides in Creating L2 Development Opportunities in Teacher‐Led Classroom Discourse: Reclaiming the Relevance of Language Teacher Cognition

Understanding the relationship between teachers’ use of language in teacher‐led discourse (TLD; Toth, 2008) and opportunities for L2 development is a well‐established area of SLA research. This study examines one teacher's role in creating such opportunities in TLD in her EFL classes in a state secondary school by examining the inner resources that informed her interactional practices. The database comprises audiorecordings of TLD from eight lessons, pre‐ and post‐observation interviews, ethnographic field notes from multiple school visits, and repeated ethnographic interviews with the teacher. The results from a close analysis of TLD and a grounded theory analysis of the ethnographic data show that the teacher's future self guides, conceptualized as language teachers’ possible selves (Kubanyiova, 2009), had a critical influence on how she navigated classroom interaction and the L2 development opportunities that arose as a result. The findings offer new insights into the types of professional development opportunities needed to transform teachers’ discourse. By bridging two domains of inquiry—SLA and language teacher cognition—in a single study, this article sets a new research agenda in applied linguistics and responds to calls for increasing its relevance to the real world (Bygate, 2005; Ortega, 2012a)

Re‐Envisioning the Roles, Tasks, and Contributions of Language Teachers in the Multilingual Era of Language Education Research and Practice

This article lays out the proposition that the rapid changes in 21st‐century society, in which multilingualism is the norm, have presented new challenges, questions, and resources with regard to the roles, tasks, and contributions of language teachers. In line with recent research developments and in keeping with tradition, we believe it helpful to think of language teachers’ broader identity role as that of moral agent. We examine implications that such a re‐envisioning has for the knowledge base of language teachers and for the purposes and practices of language teacher education and professional development. Drawing on research in language teacher education, language teacher cognition, second language acquisition, and applied linguistics more broadly, we highlight the need to go beyond traditional notions of teachers’ knowledge of language, language learning, and language learners. We also subject to critical scrutiny the notions of effective pedagogies and reflective practice as the desired outcomes of language teacher preparation and development. Instead, we introduce critical alternatives that offer creative possibilities for educating teachers able and willing to serve student populations with diverse language learning needs across interlinguistic, sociopolitical, and historical contexts of language teaching

Language Teacher Cognition in Applied Linguistics Research: Revisiting the Territory, Redrawing the Boundaries, Reclaiming the Relevance

Understanding language teachers’ mental lives (Walberg, 1972), and how these shape and are shaped by the activity of language teaching in diverse sociocultural contexts, has been at the forefront of the sub discipline of applied linguistics that has become known as language teacher cognition. Although the collective research efforts within this domain have contributed critical insights into what language teachers know, believe, and think in relation to their work (cf. Borg, 2006), limited progress has been achieved in addressing some of the most pertinent questions asked by applied linguists, policy makers, and the general public alike: How do language teachers create meaningful learning environments for their students? How can teacher education and continuing professional development facilitate such learning in language teachers? By revisiting the domain's epistemological, conceptual, and ethical foundations, this special issue sets an agenda for reinvigorated inquiry into language teacher cognition that aims to redraw its current boundaries and thus reclaim its relevance to the wider domain of applied linguistics and to the real‐world concerns of language teachers, language teacher educators, and language learners around the world

Foreign language educators’ exposure to research: reported experiences, exposure via citations, and a proposal for action

This article reports on 2 connected studies that provide data about the flow of research to foreign language (FL) educators in majority Anglophone contexts. The first study investigated exposure to research among FL educators in the United Kingdom using 2 surveys (n = 391; n = 183). The data showed (a) some limited exposure to research via professional association publications and events, (b) negligible direct exposure to publications in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), (c) barriers to exposure caused by poor physical and conceptual access, despite generally positive perceptions of research, and (d) the importance of university‐based teacher educators for research–practice interfaces. The second study investigated the potential for indirect exposure to research from 7 professional publications over 5 years in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We systematically reviewed the extent to which these professional publications referenced 29 SSCI journals that aim to publish pedagogy‐relevant research. In our corpus of 8,516 references in 284 articles in professional journals, the mean proportion of references to all 29 SSCI journals, combined, was 12.43% per professional article. The overall mean number of references to each SSCI journal was 0.17 per professional article. The emerging picture is rather bleak, and we propose action from academic journals and researchers to promote a more international, systematic, and sustainable flow of research