Pre-service EFL teachers’ ideologies and self-concepts:
Juggling between intelligibility and nativeness discourses
Supporting Agencies
- This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under Grant PID2022-137554NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe.
Abstract
Language ideologies, which influence how speakers perceive and value linguistic varieties, are closely intertwined with self-concept, as the way language users see themselves may influence their identity construction and their engagement with such varieties. Accordingly, this paper examines the positioning of four pre-service English teachers along a spectrum of language ideologies, ranging from native-oriented to intelligibility-oriented ideologies, and the ways these ideologies relate to their self-concepts as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) users. The participants interviewed were students enrolled in BA English Studies programs at two Spanish universities (two in Catalonia –Alfonso and Laila– and two in Andalusia –Ana and Nacho). Several small stories (Georgakopoulou, 2006) emerged in participants’ semi-structured interviews, which were qualitatively analyzed using Narrative Positioning Analysis (Bamberg, 1997). Findings revealed nuanced variations in their EFL self-concepts and ideologies towards intelligibility-nativeness, although a preference for native-speakerism appeared to dominate. Their language ideologies were observed to mediate their self-concepts, pushing them to reconcile their idealizations of native speaker norms and their growing recognition of intelligibility discourses. Overall, despite the limitations of this study, these localized narratives illustrate the diverse and sometimes contradictory landscapes of EFL learners’ self-concepts and ideologies, positioning them along the native-oriented to intelligibility-oriented continuum.
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