Deconstructing narrative identity in English language teaching: an analysis of teacher interviews in Japanese and English

Abstract

This thesis is the third of three modules, and explores narrative identity in interviews with English language teachers. It offers an analysis of how speakers used linguistic resources to construct identities for themselves during life story interviews. Both interviewer (the author) and interviewees (21 native English speakers and 21 native Japanese speakers) taught English in Japan. All interviews were conducted in the interviewee’s native language. The analysis therefore consists of a contextualised cross-linguistic description of the linguistic resources employed by speakers for expressing identity. I use this analysis to address the role of the ‘native speaker’ in English language teaching in Japan (introduced in Module 2) through a fresh analysis that includes the perspectives of ‘non-native’ teachers. In terms of theory, this module offers a response to the general question: ‘What differences are there between narratives told in Japanese and English?’ (posed in Module 1). In turn, my answers to this are used to inform pedagogic proposals (the principal focus of Module 1) on the development of a pedagogic model of narrative suitable for Japanese learners of English