Identity Performance and Negotiation of Multilingual English Language Teachers in New Zealand - a Multiple Case Study
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Identity Performance and Negotiation of Multilingual English Language Teachers in New Zealand - A Multiple Case Study By Apsara Kalpanie Wimalasiri A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics Victoria University of Wellington 2021 1 Dedicated to Appachchi for bringing me up to be multilingual in a highly monolingual background, and for foreseeing my academic life way before I started the journey 2 Abstract Identity is constituted in and through language (Norton, 2005) demonstrating social, political and cultural ideologies of individual selves in interaction. Exploring identities of individuals as language users, learners and teachers allows linguistic and applied linguistic researchers to disclose meanings behind complex language related behaviours. This supports insights for the development of language education. In the current study, I explore identity performance and identity negotiation of multilingual English language teachers (MELTs) in New Zealand (NZ). I define MELTs as English language teachers who speak any other language(s) in addition to English. Exploring how MELTs perform and negotiate their identities in NZ is important due to several factors. First, people in society have various ideological assumptions regarding multilingual teachers involved in teaching English in an English speaking country; therefore, MELTs are required to negotiate their linguistic and social identities to suit the expectations of the institutions and students they serve. Secondly, there is no known study in NZ focused on MELT identities, even though the population of NZ is diverse, comprised of multilingual communities. Thirdly, revealing identity negotiation of MELTs supports language teacher educators to understand language teacher identities with regard to classroom realities. This provides insights to develop language teacher education programmes accordingly. I employed four different research methods: semi-structured narrative interviews, identity portraits and classroom observations followed by stimulated recall sessions to explore how MELTs perform negotiated identities in the classroom (RQ 1) and what ideological and interactional functions are served when they perform negotiated identities (RQ 2). Data from narrative interviews provided insights to understand teacher identities revealed through their biographies and classroom stories. In addition, teachers‘ narratives revealed how teacher identities are constructed and positioned while being negotiated in their stories. Identity portraits and the recorded interactions provided insights to understand how teachers make semiotic links to various linguistic and social identities they perform as English language teachers, providing various indexical meanings to those identities. I observed how teachers perform negotiated identities in interaction with students through classroom observations. I also conducted 3 stimulated recall sessions to investigate teacher responses for classroom scenarios. Triangulated data from all the sources generated themes answering the two research questions. The findings of the study show that MELTs perform multiple negotiated identities in interaction with students and myself with reference to the micro and macro social contexts in which they are situated. MELTs also demonstrate positive and negative identity practices in the classroom based on their English language and English language teaching ideologies. Furthermore, MELTs‘ identity performances were observed to serve various ideological and interactional functions in the classroom. For instance, their negotiated identities support them practicing either monolingual or multilingual friendly language teaching. Moreover, some MELTs employ their negotiated linguistic identities to translanguage in the classroom, catering to the language needs of multilingual students. They also negotiate their teacher identities based on contextual factors. Thus, the findings of my study support language teacher educators, researchers and administrators to understand the contribution of MELTs towards English language education in New Zealand. 4 Acknowledgements I express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Corinne Seals for her guidance throughout the completion of this research. Thanks for your encouragement to bring out the best researcher self in me. I take this opportunity to thank my participants for their valuable time and contribution in my research. Dory, Olga and Cindy, thanks for your humbleness. I would like to thank the most humble academic staff and colleagues in LALS for their constant support. Thanks Mohammed for the useful academic insights and inspiration during the initial phase of the research. Thanks Anna, Mark and Natasha for the best friendship and emotional support provided when it was needed most. Thanks Priska and Xin from the welcoming neighbourhood and Aini and Jenny for partnering the conference tour. Thanks Janet, Bernie, Matthew, Patrick and Alastair for all the support throughout last year. I extend my thanks to Jo o and Harisu for being the family in New Zealand. Thanks Jo o for the technical assistance provided. Thanks Hiroshika and Baligh for bearing me at Maru. Thanks Sri Lankan Wellingtonians, Erandi, Chethana and Rasika for including me in their circle. Thanks Hesadi and the Victoria Sri Lankan group for ―ourness‖. My heartiest thanks to Kethaki, Ms Mihiri, Dr. Shreemali, Raji, Osanka, Thilini and Charu for our virtual meetings and discussions. Thanks UOC group: Cha, Mela, Ksha, Tsha, Ud and Upex for love and friendship extended via virtual spaces. Finally, thanks my two moms, and three sisters for bearing my long silence due to academic commitments. Thanks Miyasiya for managing my research time line with constant reminders, being patient on my academic moods and committing one whole year of our family life for this research. 5 Contents Chapter 1-Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 10 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 Background ........................................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 English Language Teaching (ELT) in New Zealand ........................................................ 12 1.3 Rationale ............................................................................................................................... 13 1.3.1 Research questions .......................................................................................................... 14 1.4. Theoretical underpinnings .................................................................................................... 14 1.5 Thesis outline ......................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2-Literature Review ................................................................................................................... 18 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 18 2.2 Poststructuralism .................................................................................................................. 18 2.3 Multilingualism ..................................................................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Translanguaging in the language classroom .................................................................... 21 2.4 Identity .................................................................................................................................. 22 2.4.1 Language teacher identity ............................................................................................... 27 2.4.2 Social identity theory....................................................................................................... 29 2.4.3 Linguistic identities of the language teachers .................................................................. 31 2.5 Identity negotiation of language teachers ............................................................................... 33 2.5.1 Identity negotiation as an investment by language teachers ............................................ 34 2.5.2 A conceptual framework for understanding Language Teacher Identity (LTI) ............... 36 2.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 3 - Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 39 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 39 3.2 Employing a multiple case study research design to explore teacher identities ...................... 39 3.2.1 Participants ..................................................................................................................... 41 3.3 Research Design .................................................................................................................... 42 3.3.1 Data Collection Methods ................................................................................................