Winchester, Jules (2012) The potential impact of the teacher on student identities in the classroom in an English language teaching context. TESOL Journal, 4 (4). pp. 697-716. ISSN 1949-3533

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Abstract

This article explores the impact of the teacher on student identities within the English language classroom. Based on an empirical study, the article posits that the teacher can play a significant role in the negotiation, co-construction, and legitimisation of student identities in the language class in a number of ways: by focusing on students as intellectual and cultural resources, by giving primacy to students’ “transportable” (as opposed to “discourse” or “situated”) identities, by giving students
the communicative “tools” (i.e., linguistic, pragmatic, and
intercultural competences) in order for them to assert identities as an expression of agency, and by facilitating student participation both inside and outside the language class. It is held that the increased motivation, or “investment” in learning gained through the assertion and legitimisation of identities in the language
class can have a positive impact on language learning.
Similarly, a recognition of students’ need to exercise personal agency in their learning as an expression of their perceived identity can have an impact on motivation.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of English > Sussex Centre for Language Studies
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1025 Teaching (Principles and practice)
Depositing User:	Jules Winchester
Date Deposited:	03 Apr 2013 10:41
Last Modified:	07 Mar 2017 06:33
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43302

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