Languaged lives: A new perspective on teacher identity

Title
Languaged lives: A new perspective on teacher identity
Publication Date
2018
Author(s)
Ellis, Liz
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7936-7651
Email: eellis4@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:eellis4
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations
Place of publication
Australia
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/30111
Abstract
Teachers of languages generally strive to pass on their love of language in their teaching. As plurilinguals, they work with at least two languages. Students also are frequently plurilinguals, navigating between the different contexts of use of language in their various languages, practices that often go unnoticed in the education system, where they may be required to work in one language, or one language at a time, in a dedicated languages classroom. In this paper, teachers are invited to reflect on their languaged lives, or the relationship between the language(s) they teach and the languages of their histories and heritage, and which figure in determining their identity(ies). New ways of thinking about ‘proficiency’ open up spaces for valuing various levels of use and engagement with languages, and of seeing these as semiotic or meaning-making resources, which impact not only on the teachers’ lives, but how they interact with students, and how they value and acknowledge students’ various language resources, and can usefully invite students to make use of these resources in the classroom.
Link
Citation
Babel, 52(2/3), p. 15-24
ISSN
0005-3503
Start page
15
End page
24

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