News

ISSN Number

2632-6779 (Print)  

2633-6898 (Online)

Abstracting/Indexing/Listing

Scopus

Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory (ProQuest)

MLA International Bibliography

MLA Directory of Periodicals

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

QOAM (Quality Open Access Market)

British National Bibliography

WAC Clearinghouse Journal Listings

EBSCO Education

ICI Journals Master List

ERIH PLUS

CNKI Scholar

Gale-Cengage

WorldCat

Crossref

Baidu Scholar

British Library

J-Gate

ROAD

BASE

Publons

Google Scholar

Semantic Scholar

ORE Directory

TIRF

China National Center for Philosophy and Social Sciences Documentation

 

Home Journal Index Online First

Identity, Investment, and Poetic Autoethnography: Becoming an Agentive TESOL Professional through Critical Translanguaging

Download Full PDF

Shizhou Yang

Payap University, Thailand

 

Abstract

Poststructuralist conceptions of learner identity as investment have reshaped English language education by emphasizing the sociocultural positioning of multilingual learners. Yet, the evolving nature of language ideologies and their influence on TESOL professionals’ identity and investment remain underexplored from a decolonization perspective. In this poetic autoethnography, I examine how identity, investment, and ideology intersect in my learning and teaching experience. Drawing on earlier personal narratives, fieldnotes from my own EFL writing classrooms and an interview with me by a former student, I trace how pedagogical choices can either reinforce or disrupt dominant language ideologies, shaping learners’ and teachers’ investments in particular identities. I argue that critical translanguaging in both pedagogical and research practices offers a powerful tool for decolonization by valuing diverse linguistic resources and challenging colonial hierarchies of languages. By weaving together poetic autoethnography and translanguaging, this work foregrounds the lived experiences, plural perspectives, and creative agency of TESOL professionals and learners. It also highlights the importance of viewing language ideology as a diverse, dynamic, and evolving set of beliefs about language, which is central to identity formation among multilinguals. Ultimately, I advocate for a more expansive, critical, and humanizing understanding of identity, investment, and ideology in EFL writing education.

 

Keywords

Identity, investment, ideology, translanguaging, poetic autoethnography