Negotiating Identity in Modern Foreign Language Teaching

"A fully theorised mosaic of insights into the lives of language teachers, set in the challenging context of British educational policies and social attitudes, which often provide little support or encouragement for language teaching. The chapters analyse a range of complex and dynamic features, including the identities, agency, attitudes, relationships and emotions of the authors. Their explorations will stimulate readers to reflect on their own geographical, intellectual and affective journeys to becoming language teachers and researchers."
-- Jim Coleman, Emeritus Professor of Language Learning and Teaching, The Open University, UK

"This is a timely collection which offers an original and diverse contribution to the field of language teacher identity framed by the use of qualitative methodology and a focus on contemporary foreign language teachers.  The studies detailed in each of the chapters will undoubtedly spark a number of interesting debates and furtherempower teachers as researchers to develop their own work and share it with a wider public.  The chapters describe and reflect on how important it is to engage language teachers at different points of their careers to advance contemporary multilingual linguistic studies that match the needs of current students."
-- Ana de Medeiros, Director of the Modern Language Centre, King’s College London, UK

 This edited book examines modern foreign language teachers who research their own and others’ experiences of identity construction in the context of living and teaching in UK institutions, primarily in the Higher Education sector. The book offers an insight into a key element of the educational and socio-political debate surrounding MFL in the UK: the teachers’ voices and their sense of agency in constructing their professional identities. The contributors use a combination of empirical research and personal reflection to generate knowledge about MFL teachers’ identity that can enhance how they are perceived in the social and educational establishments and raise awareness of key issues affecting the profession. This book will be of particular interest to language teachers, teacher trainers, applied linguists and students and scholars of modern foreign languages.

 Matilde Gallardo is Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, UK, where she also teaches Applied Linguistics.