Yagmur Raman

Although considerable amount of research has been carried out regarding the relationship between identity and language, to date, there has been relatively little attention paid to the role of code switching on teachers’ identity positionings. In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, this research investigates how novice English as a foreign language teachers position their identities while justifying the code switching instances that occur during the classroom interactions. This exploratory study adopted a case study approach and three novice English teachers were invited to participate in the research. Their classes were observed, video-recorded and they were asked to participate in stimulated-recall sessions. The results of the present study revealed positionings of multiple identities including but not limited to non-native and language learner identities. Results also indicated that novice teachers’ code switching practices showed interplay of personal, institutional and contextual factors.

This linguistic ethnographic study aims to investigate the gendered discourses that pre-service and novice in-service English as a foreign language teachers draw on when talking about their profession as teachers. Qualitative data were collected as part of a larger study on teacher professional identities in northern Cyprus, which lasted for three consecutive years with five participants. Audio recordings of the peer feedback sessions took place during the participants' third year in their pre-service teacher education; and individual interviews were conducted during their first year of profession. For the purposes of this study, these were analysed using micro-discourse analysis and discourse analysis. The results indicated that the participants drew on a number of stereotypical conceptualizations of teacher identities using gendered discourses, which revolved around looking tense, being authoritative and ‘shouting like a man.’ The main implication of these findings is the need for language teacher education to re-formulate certain modules to include a critical reflection on the part of their student-teachers regarding their conceptualizations of gender related issues and gendered identities, as well as the impact of these on their future language learners, pedagogical practices and professional development.