Language, Identity, and Emotionality: Exploring the Potential of Language Portraits in Preparing Teachers for Diverse Learners

ABSTRACT

The present study, framed from a critical and transformative approach to teacher education, aims to investigate whether language portraits (Prasad, 2010)—the mapping of one’s language and cultural make-up on a body template—can help improve student teachers’ self-understanding about language and identities and can foster critical reflection regarding their attitudes towards linguistic diversity. This study looks particularly at how emotional engagement in autobiographical portraits and narratives of language experiences and practices could potentially facilitate personal interrogation of social assumptions and open up possibilities for greater intellectual examination of the sociopolitical dimensions of second-language teaching and learning.

Notes

¹ “English language learners (ELLs)” is used in this article to refer to learners of English at different age groups whose first language is not English or who speak nonstandard English varieties. ELLs are in fact emergent bi/multilinguals who develop their English skills through education while continuing to function in their home and/or other languages. García, Kleifgen, and Falchi (2008) in their elaborate discussions on the connotations and problems of some common labels such as English Limited Proficient Learners or English as a Second Language Learners argue that these two terms are deemed respectively too negative and not encompassing enough for those learning English as a third or fourth language. To speak to these students’ needs and challenges, they use the term ELLs as it is “a commonly accepted, popular term in discussions of this population, their designation, and the polices surrounding them” (Garcia et al., 2008, p. 7). For similar reasons, I use ELLs over emergent bi/multilinguals to discuss the existing challenges faced by these language learners and the importance of teachers’ changed perception and attitudes towards them in the school context.

² Along with changing the students’ names, the year and course title have been omitted to protect the student teachers’ privacy.