An Investigation of Professional Identity Formations of TESOL Students in a U.S. Teacher Education Program

An Investigation of Professional Identity Formations of TESOL Students in a U.S. Teacher Education Program

This paper examines how learning-to-teach experiences contribute to the ways in which TESOL students forge their teacher identities as ELT professionals. An enhanced understanding of the teacher identity formation process can offer insights into broader L2 teaching practices since teacher identity provides the basis through which teachers make sense of their professional practices and instructional decisions. Theoretically, this study is grounded in Wenger’s (1998) notion of identity formation, which foregrounds one’s self-identification as a professional through acquisition of professional membership in a community of practice. To examine the nexus of learning-to-teach experiences and professional identity formations, two rounds of semi-structured interviews were primarily used to identify what aspects of teacher education programs as a whole are perceived to be conducive to professional identity formation. The findings suggest that most participants value metalinguistic knowledge about English for their professional performance. The study findings underscore the significance of L2 teacher education programs in establishing and reconstructing professional teacher identity, which occurs along three vectors: identity-in-discourse, identity-in-practice, and the development of discipline-specific professional knowledge (i.e., teacher language awareness). Drawing from the study findings, pedagogical implications for teacher education programs are presented.