This volume is the first to explore links between the Russian linguist Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical insights about language and practical concerns with second and foreign language learning and teaching. Situated within a strong conceptual framework and drawing from a rich empirical base, it reflects recent scholarship in applied linguistics that has begun to move away from formalist views of language as universal, autonomous linguistic systems, and toward an understanding of language as dynamic collections of cultural resources. According to Bakhtin, the study of language is concerned with the dialogue existing between linguistic elements and the uses to which they are put in response to the conditions of the moment. Such a view of language has significant implications for current understandings of second- and foreign-language learning. The contributors draw on some of Bakhtin's more significant concepts, such as dialogue, utterance, heteroglossia, voice, and addressivity to examine real world contexts of language learning. The chapters address a range of contexts including elementary- and university-level English as a second language and foreign language classrooms and adult learning situations outside the formal classroom. The text is arranged in two parts. Part I, "Contexts of Language Learning and Teaching," contains seven chapters that report on investigations into specific contexts of language learning and teaching. The chapters in Part II, "Implications for Theory and Practice," present broader discussions on second and foreign language learning using Bakhtin's ideas as a springboard for thinking. This is a groundbreaking volume for scholars in applied linguistics, language education, and language studies with an interest in second and foreign language learning; for teacher educators; and for teachers of languages from elementary to university levels. It is highly relevant as a text for graduate-level courses in applied linguistics and second- and foreign-language education.

This volume is the first to explore links between the Russian linguist Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical insights about language and practical concerns with second and foreign language learning and teaching. Situated within a strong conceptual framework and drawing from a rich empirical base, it reflects recent scholarship in applied linguistics that has begun to move away from formalist views of language as universal, autonomous linguistic systems, and toward an understanding of language as dynamic collections of cultural resources. According to Bakhtin, the study of language is concerned with the dialogue existing between linguistic elements and the uses to which they are put in response to the conditions of the moment. Such a view of language has significant implications for current understandings of second- and foreign-language learning. The contributors draw on some of Bakhtin's more significant concepts, such as dialogue, utterance, heteroglossia, voice, and addressivity to examine real world contexts of language learning. The chapters address a range of contexts including elementary- and university-level English as a second language and foreign language classrooms and adult learning situations outside the formal classroom. The text is arranged in two parts. Part I, "Contexts of Language Learning and Teaching," contains seven chapters that report on investigations into specific contexts of language learning and teaching. The chapters in Part II, "Implications for Theory and Practice," present broader discussions on second and foreign language learning using Bakhtin's ideas as a springboard for thinking. This is a groundbreaking volume for scholars in applied linguistics, language education, and language studies with an interest in second and foreign language learning; for teacher educators; and for teachers of languages from elementary to university levels. It is highly relevant as a text for graduate-level courses in applied linguistics and second- and foreign-language education.

This book sets out to explore the intersections between matters not frequently yoked in academic discussions: spirituality, social justice, and the learning of world languages. The contributing authors contend not only that these intersections exist, but that they are the site of issues and realities that require the attention of language educators and point to avenues of growth for the language teaching profession. The essays included seek to indicate the possibilities of a neglected area of inquiry, not only in terms of theory but also in terms of the practices of language education. Given this aim of opening up fresh questions, the book is arranged so as to show the relevance of the nexus of spirituality and social justice to teacher education (chapters 3 and 4), language classroom practices (chapters 5 and 6), and the theoretical sources that inform scholarly discussion of language education (chapters 7 and 8). The opening chapters place these explorations in a larger context by showing how they fit into existing social contexts and academic discussions.

This book explores teachers’ cognitions about the teaching of writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) and their teaching practice, as well as factors influencing the formation and reformation process of their cognition. Taking stock of Bakhtin’s dialogism as the theoretical framework, the authors argue that the formation and reformation of teacher cognition is a dialogic process. A systematic analysis of participating teachers’ cognition formation and re-formation process suggests the highly individual nature of teachers’ cognitions. EFL researchers and teachers, teacher educators, teacher education policymakers, university administrators and EFL textbook writers could draw on the findings of the study to provide better resources to implement the teaching of EFL writing more effectively. The study has adopted a mixed-methods approach, whose quantitative results show the patterns and differences of teacher cognition among teachers of different backgrounds and with different schooling, education and working experiences. The qualitative findings show in detail teachers' cognition formation and reformation processes and the factors contributing to such processes, revealing convergence and divergence of teachers’ stated cognitions, with a focus on the discrepancy between teacher cognition and teaching practice. These are useful lenses through which researchers and teachers will find significant implications for offering EFL writing instruction more effectively.

Through several unique perspectives and contexts, this volume contributes to current understanding of agency in second language learning. It includes chapters discussing theoretical, analytical and pedagogical approaches, and will serve as a key reference for researchers of language learning and teaching.

This book approaches notions of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems, through a team of expert contributors who share their evidence-based knowledge. It attempts to address the missing connections between what is recognised as 'global knowledge' and the underrepresented knowledges that are constructed across higher education.

The "native speaker" is often thought of as an ideal language user with "a complete and possibly innate competence in the language" which is perceived as being bounded and fixed to a homogeneous speech community and linked to a nation-state. Despite recent works that challenge its empirical accuracy and theoretical utility, the notion of the "native speaker" is still prevalent today. The Native Speaker Concept shifts the analytical focus from the second language acquisition processes and teaching practices to daily interactions situated in wider sociocultural and political contexts marked by increased global movements of people and multilingual situations. Using an ethnographic approach, the volume critically elucidates the political nature of (not) claiming the "native speaker" status in daily life and the ways the ideology of "native speaker" intersects and articulates, supports, subverts, or complicates various relations of dominance and regimes of standardization. The book offers cases from diverse settings, including classrooms in Japan, a coffee shop in Barcelona, secondary schools in South Africa, a backyard in Rapa Nui (Easter Island), restaurant kitchens, a high school administrator's office, a college classroom in the United States, and the Internet. It also offers a genealogy of the notion of the "native speaker" from the time of the Roman Empire. Employing linguistic, anthropological and educational theories, the volume speaks not only to the analyses of language use and language policy, planning, and teaching, but also to the investigation of wider effects of language ideology on relations of dominance, and institutional and discursive practices.

This book contributes to the growing field of foreign language teaching and testing by shedding light on mediation between languages. Focusing on cross-language mediation as translanguaging practice, the book explores what mediation entails, the processes involved and the challenges mediators face.

The growing cultural, racial and linguistic diversity in schools has changed the face of language teaching in many countries. This book presents theory and research by a group of internationally recognised scholars who address the issues and challenges for teachers and their students in increasingly plurilingual and multicultural classrooms.

This book examines how educators conceptualize their profession and (re)construct their professional selves. Drawing on a narrative-based study, it reports research that follows closely five multilingual English language teacher educators teaching in a teacher education program at a large private university. It explores their learning and teaching experiences and how they attach meaning to these experiences, the (re)construction of their professional identity, their commitment to their profession, and the various factors that mediate these experiences and understandings by analyzing their narrative accounts. In this exploration, there is a particular focus on the nature of language, identity and culture in intercultural teacher education settings. Overall, the book demonstrates the complex, nuanced, and dynamic nature of professional learning and intercultural identity construction, involving multiple, sometimes competing, discourses of professionalism in ELT. The teacher educators’ professional learning narratives provide an insight into their “struggle for voice” (Britzman, 2003) in their immediate teaching and learning context, as well as internationally. Their struggle for a voice highlights the frictions, negotiations, and dialogues with the dominant western discourses of ELT professionalism that have often been imposed on them in their profession. In addition, their teaching and learning accounts emphasize the importance of revisiting, re-evaluating, and reimagining the teaching paradigm of ELT in this teaching setting in engaging with today’s globalized world. These accounts suggest a call for pedagogical and curriculum reform in ELT that takes into account learners’ linguistic and cultural identity, and that will enable them to use English as a language that mediates their identity work as national, international and intercultural selves. This book is about English language educators’ professional learning, and will be of interest to teacher candidates, teachers, and teacher educators who wish to extend their knowledge and understanding of the dynamicity and complexity of teachers’ learning through narratives of teaching.