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This book unpacks data from conversations with bi-/multilingual EFL teachers whose L1s are languages other than English and who are from understudied contexts – Argentina, Egypt, Estonia, Senegal, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam – to provide insights into the formation of ideal teacher selves. The author discusses the complexities surrounding the development of the teachers’ selves and motivation, as well as their intertwinement with the sociopolitical realities of their individual contexts. The work reveals how these realities, and the specific social interactions that occur therein, influence the language learning and teaching processes; it also challenges the notions of and the need for a native/non-native speaker dichotomy in the field. Expanding on Ushioda’s (2009) person-in-context approach and reflecting on the multilingual settings of the teachers, the integration of the context-specific politics of language learning and teaching is a fresh approach to work in motivation.
Focusing on EFL teachers who are not first language speakers of English and who work in diverse cultural settings, this book brings together richly illuminating insights into their motivations, experiences and professional development. As Thompson’s analysis shows, teachers’ lives, contexts and perspectives truly matter, and her account makes for compelling reading.
This book provides a detailed account of the development of a language teacher self and motivation in multilingual countries, which also informs us of the dynamic interaction, interconnection, and interdependence between teachers and contexts; and offers future research directions, such as the learning experience of the L2MSS and the interplay of dual identities (the learner and the teacher). Therefore, I would recommend the book to researchers and language teachers who endeavor to both decipher and explore the relationship between language teacher selves and contexts.
— Wenxiu Chu, Northeast Normal University, China
This monograph is thought-provoking in that it delves deeply into the professional and academic trajectories of
EFL teachers who come from diverse sociopolitical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral backgrounds. Furthermore, the qualitative data were collected from teachers from seven countries which were underappreciated in the literature, so the findings can be novel and insightful.
— Jieping Xu, Chaohu University, Hefei, China
Amy S. Thompson is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Department Chair of World Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at West Virginia University, USA. Her primary research interests involve individual differences in SLA and their interaction with multilingualism. She is co-editor, with Ursula Lanvers and Martin East, of Language Learning in Anglophone Countries: Challenges, Practices, Ways Forward (2020, Palgrave MacMillan) and has published in a range of Applied Linguistics journals.
Foreword
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Senegal: 'We English teachers, we speak English'
3. Vietnam: 'English is a privilege for me'
4. Egypt: 'Why is he comparing her to a summer’s day?'
5. Argentina: 'Learning the language will never end'
6. Turkey: 'I’m better than these guys'
7. Ukraine: 'I know how my people think'
8. Estonia: 'Teachers speak better'
9. Final Thoughts
References