Teaching English as an International Language

Identity, Resistance and Negotiation

By (author) Dr. Phan Le Ha

Publication date:

28 March 2008

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781847690494

Building on both Western and Asian theoretical resources, the book examines how EIL teachers see themselves as professional and individual in relation to their work practices. It reveals the tensions, compromises, negotiations and resistance in their enactment of different roles and selves, especially when they are exposed to values often associated with the English-speaking West. The ways they perceive their identity formation problematise and challenge the seemingly dominant views of identity as always changing, hybrid and fragmented. Their experiences highlight the importance of the sense of belonging and being, connectedness, continuity and a coherent growth in identity formation. Their attachment to a particular locality and their commitment to perform the moral guide role as EIL teachers serve as the most powerful platform for all their other identities to be constructed, negotiated and reconstituted.

Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Language, Culture and Identity
Chapter 3 - The Politics of English as an International Language and English Language Teaching
Chapter 4 - Identity Formation: Negotiations of Apparently Contradictory Roles and Selves
Chapter 5 - Identity Formation: The Teacher and the Politics of ELT
Chapter 6 - An EIL Teacher’s Identity Formation
Chapter 7 - Teacher Identity and The Teaching of English as an International Language
References

This is an interesting and insightful book that uses both Western and Vietnamese theoretical resources to underscore the importance of understanding the shifting professional identities of a group of Vietnamese ESL teachers, as they struggle to come to terms with competing pressures, both national and transnational. It shows that these teachers stand at the vanguard of a new era in which English represents the possibilities of greater intercultural understanding but also a hegemonic globalism that poses the risks of marginalizing other languages and cultural traditions.