Search

This research study aims to explore tertiary TESOL teachers’ perspectives on their attitudes towards and engagement with professional development (PD) in an English language institute (ELI) at a university in Saudi Arabia. While there is a global recognition of PD as a vehicle for executing reforms and an increasing interest into how to better support the PD of in-service school teachers, there is also a need to further understanding about the influences on teachers’ engagement/disengagement in institutional PD initiatives. Informed by the basic qualitative approach, this study argues that it is important and indeed necessary to inquire into teachers’ views and experiences with workplace PD in order to deepen understanding about what influences TESOL teachers’ engagement/disengagement in workplace PD. This thesis therefore addresses an under researched topic about the influences on teachers’ engagement in institutional PD initiatives. To bridge this gap and contribute more broadly to an enriched understanding of the complexity of PD and teacher engagement in this, a three-dimension understanding of factors influencing teacher orientation to and engagement with workplace PD is employed; comprising micro (or individual teacher) factors, meso (or workplace/ institutional) factors, and macro factors such as sociocultural setting and wider discursive constructions of PD. The study employed individual semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers’ about their experiences of the professional development. Findings showed that teachers expressed negative perceptions about PD at the ELI. Unpacking this reveals a complex dynamic of conflictive discourses at the micro, meso and macro-levels. A number of themes emerged which describe teachers’ overwhelmingly negative views on PD in their workplace which are seen as completely the opposite of what they feel PD should comprise. Teachers experienced PD as policed and top-down within a wider culture of compliance at the ELI which leads them to feel professionally compromised and lacking in voice and autonomy. This culture of compliance is also seen to generate a culture of mistrust with consequences for the development of the teacher community and collaborative forms of PD. The study offers a richer and deepened understanding of teachers’ experiences with PD influenced by complex web of factors which impinge on their attitudes towards PD. It is argued that revealing this complexity is an important first step to transform institutional PD provision. The study also highlights how an examination of teacher learning as socially constructed requires that due attention must be paid to the understanding of the context in which it takes place, and the impact of this on how teachers engage with PD. Finally the study highlights the importance of understanding teacher and institution perspectives on PD as being informed by and taking place within certain discursive realities which highlight the significance of wider discourses of professionalism to the enactment and engagement with PD in the workplace. A number of recommendations for future research into PD in general and within the Saudi setting are proposed along with a number of practical steps to be taken at the ELI to help raise institutional awareness of effective PD and to encourage teachers to better engage with this.

In the past few years in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) there has been an overwhelming focus on the use of English at all levels of education, in both public and private schools. In addition, the UAE has given English a fairly central role in both the educational sphere and within society. This rapid spread of English has caused concern among members of the general public, some political figures, and the media. Much of the concern with the spread of English is that the language is taking away from young people’s attachment to and fluency in Arabic. In addition, there is a major concern that any loss of Arabic is tantamount to a loss of Arab identity. The discourse of Arabic as an identity marker needs to be assessed in order to determine the validity of these concerns. In order to evaluate this discourse, this study examines how students, who are native speakers of Arabic, perceive their Arab identity. This is done in two ways: first, by asking them to articulate their perceptions about their own Arab identities, and secondly by asking them to discuss their use of both languages. The study asks the students directly what they believe marks their Arab identity. The research for this thesis took place at an American curriculum, English medium university in the UAE. The data for the study was collected in two ways, through a questionnaire that 304 Arabic speaking students completed, followed by semi-structured interviews with 12 of those students. The findings of this study reveal that Arab youth living in the UAE have a complex Arab identity which is made up of a variety of markers or affiliations. Most participants were unable to state definitively that Arabic was the main marker of their Arab identity, or even a major marker. In a world of globalization and global English, these Arab youth have found another language in which to communicate. They see both Arabic and English as resources for facilitating communication, and do not see a strict bond between Arabic and an Arab identity. The participants view their identity as fluid and display agency in their understanding of their Arab identity and in how they use both languages. The results reveal that there is some concern with a loss of Arabic literacy, but there seems to be very little concern about any loss of Arab identity. Overall the findings show that researching Arab identity is a complicated process, and the responses that are garnered show how complex this process is in the UAE. Based on these findings, it is argued that in this particular setting within the UAE, Arabic is not looked upon as an identity marker. However, due to the paucity of research directly interrogating Arabic and Arab identity construction in the Arab world, this study recommends that further studies be carried out in other institutions of higher education in the UAE, where students may not be as proficient in English, and in other Arab nations where English is perhaps not as firmly entrenched.

It is widely recognised that parents play an important role in children’s emotional and intellectual development, including their success at school. Recently, there has been a growing awareness of the potential of parents to support and enhance children’s English foreign language learning, especially since English learning resources are easily accessible through electronic media. In appreciation of this, there has been an increased interest in recent years in finding ways to harness parental potential through the creation of home-school partnerships in many parts of the world, including in the field of teaching English as an additional language. An important point of departure for developing effective home-school dialogues is an informed understanding of what parents are already doing to support their children’s learning, as an awareness of this can help schools and governments provide parents with targeted input to assist and improve their efforts. However, to date, this remains under researched. Of the limited research that has been undertaken, very little has examined parental efforts to support their children’s learning at home in non-western settings, and research into parental support for children’s foreign language learning is virtually non-existent. In order to address this research gap, the study reported in this thesis examines parental support for young children’s foreign language learning in Saudi Arabia with respect to English T.V. viewing. Drawing upon Vygotsky’s concepts of mediation and the ZPD, it aims to examine the extent and the ways in which parents currently mediate their children’s viewing of English T.V. programmes in Saudi Arabia, the factors which impact on their mediation practices, and how this is seen to contribute to their children’s experience of English language learning. The study is comprised two stages. The first stage entails the distribution of a questionnaire to 500 parents of children aged 6-8, who are currently learning English in a number of private schools in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia in order to gain a global overview of parental perspectives on mediation. This is followed by stage 2, which aims to examine the features and quality of parent-child mediational dialogues. This is achieved by collecting recordings of the dialogues of two parent-child dyads watching DVDs of English T.V. programmes over a four-week period as well as interviewing parents and their children on the experience. The results of the study show that parents believe in the importance and value of supporting their children’s learning (both in general and with regard to their EFL learning). Moreover, they show that they are actively engaged in trying to do so. However, they also highlight a number of ways in which their mediational practices could be improved so that these are less directive and more responsive to their children’s learning needs and growing ability to self-regulate. More broadly, they highlight the need to engage with the complexity of parental mediation as an activity system in discussions of the quality of mediational practice. That is, to understand that parental efforts to mediate need to be considered alongside task, sociocultural setting and, most importantly, the child’s engagement with parental efforts. A number of implications are drawn from the results of the study. Chief among these is that research into parental mediation should look at the inter-relationship between the different elements of the parental mediational system identified and that this provides richer in-depth understandings of parental efforts to support their children than are currently available from those who seek to understand this merely as parental scaffolding. In addition, it is argued that the picture this in-depth analysis revealed provides valuable information which can be used to inform the need for home-school partnerships and the support parents need to make sure they engage in these effectively in settings such as Saudi Arabia where there is currently little appreciation of the importance of parental involvement and the concept of home school partnerships remains in its infancy. In line with the emphasis on the complex multidimensional understanding of mediation as activity as illustrated by the results of the study, it is argued that efforts to promote parental involvement should primarily focus on how parents can help promote quality learning experiences for their children.

The emergence of English as a global language has led to a huge demand for TESOL language educators around the world (Davies, 2009). This has resulted in greater intercultural encounters with the cultural Other; hence, the need to understand the experiences of these teachers to prepare teachers for their work and support them to achieve favourable outcomes of intercultural learning emerges. This is especially important in light of the failure of teacher education programs to prepare these teachers for the realities of their work and in light of inadequacy of intercultural learning theories to theorize intercultural learning based on these teachers’ experiences. This thesis sought to explore TESOL teachers’ experiences using a grounded approach that is based on the teachers’ experiences as central to their intercultural learning. Drawing upon the intercultural experiences of seven global TESOL teachers who are working in Saudi Arabia, this thesis sought to understand the types of intercultural experiences that they went through, the factors that affected these experiences and the intercultural learning that these experiences generated. Interpretative qualitative study methodology was employed in my study to examine the TESOL global teachers’ lived intercultural experiences in Saudi Arabia. Qualitative data were collected through conducting in-depth narrative interviews and examining personal correspondence (where available), with seven experienced global TESOL teachers. The findings suggested that the global TESOL educators’ intercultural experiences were enormously complex with many factors and four facets affecting these experiences. The global TESOL educators’ experiences of interculturality were mainly found to be Othering experiences. The factors related to the global educators’ social positions and the four facets were wider discourses, dispositional positions, contextual realities and situated value systems in Saudi Arabia. The findings highlighted the importance of “translocational positionalities” in understanding the TESOL global teachers’ intercultural experiences and learning. Contrary to the literature, the thesis suggests that intercultural learning was not about intercultural competencies and developmental stages, but about how the participants negotiated their positionalities and developed awareness of their positionalities in relation to the Other. The thesis also uncovered two insights that have potential to contribute to preparing and supporting global TESOL educators in global contact zones. These insights related to the educators’ need to talk about their intercultural experiences and the need to interrogate these educators’ understanding of culture. The findings and the insights offer some theoretical and practical implications for understanding intercultural learning experiences in a new light. The theoretical implications suggest a new experiential model for intercultural learning in global contact zones. The practical implications highlight suggestions for a pedagogy of dialogue for teacher education programmes to promote favourable intercultural learning outcomes.

In the past 30 years there has been a steady and growing appreciation in the literature of the importance and value of teachers' practical wisdom (TPW) - or phronesis as it is also known - to further an understanding of classroom practice and of the need to find ways to help teachers generate and share their perspectives with others. Nevertheless, the potential of this kind of knowledge (understood by Aristotle to be both practical and moral in its orientation) to contribute valuable insights to educational debates has still to be realised. Rather, educational decisions about policy and practice in many contexts (whether at a national or institutional level) are still largely driven by theoretical and technical knowledge perspectives and teacher practical wisdom perspectives are still often under-valued and remain under-represented in educational literature. One of the main reasons for this put forward in this thesis is the tendency in much of the literature to see this form of knowledge as classroom bound rather than to realise the ways in which it can inform broader pedagogical discussions. Bearing all of the above in mind, the aim of the study reported in this thesis into the TPW of 14 experienced expatriate English as a foreign language teachers (EEEFLTs) working in English language centres (ELCs) across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is threefold. Its first aim is to provide a platform for the EEEFLTs to demonstrate the contribution their TPW can potentially make in addressing syllabus related issues in the KSA ELCs they have worked and, in doing so, show how the use of TPW is not confined to the classroom. Its second aim is to increase the visibility of the participants' TPW and thus raise awareness of the importance of research into TPW and to provide a model for how this can be conducted. The study's final aim is to provide a deeper understanding of the nature of TPW. Located in the interpretive paradigm, this study uses a TPW-friendly methodology to investigate TPW: interpretive phronetic educational research (IPER), which approaches and conducts educational research through a moral and practical problem-driven lens. This understanding drives the study's methodology and all stages of its data collection and analysis and the methods used in both. The goal of such methods is an epistemological one to generate TPW whilst empowering it also by highlighting its validity and how it is easily articulated - and thus captured - and not confined to the classroom. To assist with its articulation and capture, the study employs a process defined as Problematisation: a four-stage process consisting of reflection, problematisation, deliberation and articulation which drives and shapes the semi-structured interviews the study employs and the secondary research questions that inform the primary research question. The study concludes that the EEEFLTs use their TPW as a lens (that has 12 qualities) through which to view KSA ELC syllabi and, in doing so, identify many problems with the syllabi and subsequent consequences and suggest solutions to address both. These problems, consequences and solutions have been organised under six prominent categories that represent six main problem areas to emerge from the data that suggest the syllabi are teacher, textbook and test-centred, top-down, teacher-proof and time-driven. These categories represent six problem areas that in turn reflect the problematic, negative and disempowering context from which the data informing such categories and themes have been drawn. In this study, TPW is considered disempowered knowledge as a result of the disempowering context within which it has been acquired and is used. Previous TPW studies have been conducted in more positive settings and have perhaps for this reason not focused on TPW's disempowerment. In contrast, this study takes on a much more political role as it explores TPW's disempowerment in the KSA ELC context as well as in the broader context of academia and the literature. TPW's lack of visibility in TESOL and education has several implications because unless TPW achieves greater visibility, it may fade into extinction and its potential may never be realised. This study has been conducted in an attempt to prevent this happening.

The current thesis aims to explore issues regarding the development and support of second languages when two individuals from different linguistic backgrounds come together in romantic, intimate, and meaningful relationship. Based on a thorough conceptualisation of multilingual couplehood and its place within the interdisciplinary topic of intercultural relationships and marriage, this exploratory study seeks to highlight the issues pertaining to communication, and even more precisely, language, how this impacts individual and couple identity, and its significance in multilingual couple contexts The study and presentation of the research is built on the foundation of a relational philosophy of being and knowing, particularly in line with Gergen’s (2009) understanding of ‘being-in-relation’. Arguments are presented for a relational ontology and epistemology in hopes of identifying the merits of this perspective, and to promote what I consider a more fitting understanding of identity, relationships, and second language education. On this theoretical basis, the study adopts the qualitative methodological approach of narrative inquiry to investigate the meaning of language, relationship, and identity in the contexts of four self-identified multilingual couples currently living in the UK. Data was collected by means of three stage interviews: one with each individual of the couple and a final interview with both partners present. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed and subjected to a two-stage narrative analysis. The findings have uncovered a wide variety of issues regarding intimate relationships and matters related to the development and support of second languages. While it is clear that each couple has differing attitudes and perceptions of multilingual couplehood, and ways of addressing them, there are some commonalities that have emerged, particularly in regards to the negotiation and sharing of languages, which has appeared to be a very complex issue in terms of the manifestation of language support and learning motivation within the couplehood. It has also been found that there are various ways in which partners develop and create their multilingual couple identities, which affects and also is affected by the linguistic and cultural identities of the individuals themselves. It is clear that second language development and support is a fundamentally relational process in the intimate context of couple relationships, as the detailed narratives of the couples and their linguistic journeys are highly revealing of what is clearly a complex, intricate, and relational ongoing process.

The study reported in this thesis investigates the phenomenon of ‘presence' in teaching. Past research suggests that the relationship between the teacher and student is the “keystone in student achievement, motivation and engagement and in their capacity to trust what they know” (Midgley et al, 1989; Pianta, 1999; Roeser et al, 2000; cited in Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006: 266). Despite this, a comprehensive review of the literature has revealed that the notion of ‘presence', offering a holistic, relational, situated and dynamic lens through which to explore the essential elements of classroom interaction, has been strangely neglected to date in the educational research domain (Kornelsen, 2006; Meijer et al 2009; Rodgers & Raider-Roth, 2006). Moreover, in many teaching milieus, despite there being so little clarity about what the notion of 'presence' means in teaching terms, it appears as an observational criterion in both initial and developmental teacher education programmes, where it can be used to make judgements about teachers at different stages of their careers. Contextualised within an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) school over a nine month period on site, this phenomenological study employs individual and focus group interviews with teachers, teacher educators and students, alongside classroom observations and post-observation discussions. Findings generated by the study offer a new depth of understanding about the multi-dimensionality and complexity inherent in the notion of 'presence' in teaching and allow a critical interrogation of the ways in which it is currently being used in a school context. This highlights the potential power it has as a pedagogic construct and reveals a paradoxical duality, intrinsic to the ways in which it was construed; making it more suitable for developmental than assessment purposes. In short, this study offers a valuable holistic and existential contribution to understanding the nature of teaching, by augmenting the ways in which teachers and teaching have been construed to date. In addition, by illuminating the inherent ambiguity and paradoxes in the complex, dynamic and multi-layered meaning of ‘Presence in Teaching’, the findings have strong implications for teaching practice, teacher education programmes and in particular for the practice of teacher observation in respect of observer awareness, understanding and development; all of which are discussed in the final chapter of the thesis.

This research aims to explore the effective use of modern technology and the encouragement of learner autonomy in support of English language teaching and learning at a university in Northeastern China in order to address a number of learning and teaching problems, in particular, the so-called “time-consuming, low efficiency” and “deaf and dumb English” problems. Action research was employed as a research methodology in this study. The action research project consisted of three cycles: the teaching time of each cycle was six weeks, with two teaching hours each week in each class. The 102 research participants were the second-year undergraduate non-English major students who had (or had nearly) reached an intermediate level in terms of English proficiency. Research methods included questionnaires, pre-testing and post-testing, interviews, classroom observation, learning diaries and research journal. All the data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques as appropriate. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for statistical analysis. The research findings from the qualitative and quantitative data analysis show that the students made greater progress and improvements within a very short time (6 weeks) in each cycle in terms of listening and speaking skills by the effective use of modern technologies such as computers and the internet, which were used in ways designed to promote learner autonomy and effective learning strategies. More importantly, a more novel and more effective approach to teach listening from the intermediate level to the advanced level has been discovered from this project and a new teaching model using CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) environments in a Chinese context has come into being. On the whole, the students benefitted a great deal from autonomous learning by using modern technologies, dependent upon the quantitative data such as test score changes and qualitative data such as interview and learning diaries. In the meantime, the student learning experiences, my “teacher as researcher” teaching experience, and my professional development have been improved. This study is of great significance, particularly in the Chinese context, in contributing to the current literature on English teaching and learning research, CALL research and applications such as the novel listening teaching approach and the new teaching model using the CALL environments mentioned above. Finally, pedagogical implications are discussed and some suggestions on further research are also proposed.

Learner participation in language learning opportunities has been configured differently by different learning theories. In the domain of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), the cognitive view of learning has been dominant in explaining learner participation. It has been widely accepted that it should be in the form of participation in oral activities which leads to gains in linguistic competence. The aim of this thesis is to understand the issue of learner participation from the social perspective, where a broader understanding of learning will be employed informed by the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) and others. To do so, this study investigates the forms of participation of six ESL learners in suburban Malaysia in two contexts: in-class and out-of-class. In order to understand the issue of learner participation from a social view point, data were collected using classroom observations, learners’ interviews, learner diaries, and photographs taken by them. All the data were transcribed and analysed qualitatively. In order to handle the large amount of data, the Nvivo software package was used for organisation and retrieval purposes. The findings reveal several insights about learner participation. First, learners are active agents where they constantly make decisions on what to engage with and how, and act on the norms and expectations that are imposed on them in a particular sociocultural context. Second, the six learners are members of or aspired to become members of several communities: academically successful learners; successful ESL learners; proficient speakers of the target language; the classroom; and youth. Thus, they aligned their forms of participation with these various communities. Third, learners in this study tended to distinguish between learning and other kinds of engagement. They tended to equate certain forms of participation as actions that one needed to take to learn the language; thus other forms of participation accorded less value. In this study, some insights from Communities of Practice (CoP) theory- learning as a process of gaining membership in a particular community and that learners move from peripheral to core membership- were used to understand the issue of learner participation. However, upon understanding and interpreting the data, it was found that CoP theory is limited in several ways. First, CoP focuses only on one type of community (e.g. the classroom) in one temporal dimension. Yet, findings indicate that there are several other communities that exist in the classroom at one time. Due to this shortcoming, this study has turned to the concept of ‘figured worlds’ (Holland et al, 2001). Secondly, CoP theory argues for a group dynamic. Less recognition is given to the fact that individual learners are also dynamic and agentive. Akkerman and Meijer (2011) suggest dialogical views on identity; in which a framework is provided that acknowledges the multiple, discontinuous and social nature of identity (a postmodern view), while at the same time assumes identity as being unitary, continuous and individual (a modern view). Thirdly, CoP tends to focus on a singular “identity-in-practice (Tan and Barton (2008)). Tan and Barton (ibid: 50) argue for the plurality of identities-in-practice (IdPs); rather than a singular “identity-in-practice (IdP) as suggested by Lave and Wenger (1991). The view of learning as boundary crossing seems to better describe the kinds of participation and learning that have been suggested by the findings generated in the study. Instead of looking at learning as participation in a particular community, learning as boundary crossing better captures the dynamic of learner participation in language learning opportunities, of learners as whole persons (rather than fragmented identities), and of learners as agentive beings.

This study has been undertaken using an interpretive methodology in order to examine the socially constructed views of Saudi EFL teachers and their decision-making with regards to the appropriate cultural models for EFL textbooks in Saudi public schools. The study also examines the factors affecting the teachers’ views and how they apply their beliefs in their classrooms. In addition, the study will also examine if the Saudi EFL teachers have any concerns about what they have been through and examined and accordingly investigates how they address their pedagogical decision-making in the classroom. Moreover, this study is interested in looking at EFL teachers as local teachers teaching a global language. In view of the exploratory nature of this study and its context-specificity, the naturalistic orientation of interpretive and social constructivism as an epistemological stance were selected. The research design employed a concurrent mixed methods design using an adapted version of Cresswell (1996). In this study, the participants were Saudi Arabian EFL teachers from one city in Saudi Arabia teaching in all of the three public education levels (primary, intermediate and secondary). The data collected were both qualitative (interviews and open-ended questionnaires) and quantitative (close-ended questionnaires). For the interviews, 14 male and female teachers equally interviewed, whereas for the questionnaires 280 male and female participated. The data collection of both data qualitative and quantitative occurred at the same time during my field journey in 2009 in Saudi Arabia. I used the SPSS descriptive statistics for the analysing the quantitative data and used exploratory content analysis for the qualitative data. The study findings revealed that the Saudi EFL teachers were not satisfied with the cultural content currently promoted in the Textbooks as they inappropriately contradict the local cultural values. Thus, they believe that for a better cultural content, the textbooks should therefore include a mixture of different cultures that do not mismatch with the local. And as they are controlled by some educational and social factors, they are limited to practice what they think is appropriate to apply in the classroom, therefore, their decision-making in this regards to some extent are to be controlled. In addition, the findings of the current study revealed that the Saudi EFL teachers show their openness to other cultures based on their glocal position as local Saudis teaching a global language. The conclusion of the study has some suggestion and implications to improve the cultural content of the EFL textbooks as well as implications for the EFL teachers in general and their practices and decision-making with regards to the textbook. Furthermore, the study proposed a model for the appropriate EFL textbooks for each educational level and can be applied locally in the Saudi context and globally for other similar context around the world.

In the context of post-9/11 calls for educational reform in the Arab-Muslim world, this study investigates a set of underlying claims and assumptions about the socialising capacities of English-medium education. Specifically, the study examines perceptions about the socialising effects of English-medium education from the standpoint of Arab-Muslim students at a Gulf Arab university. In assessing these perceptions, the study compares students’ perceptions on two levels: (i) on one level, it looks into students’ perceptions about the socialising effects of English-medium education in direct contrast to those of Arabic-medium education; and (ii) on another level, it contrasts the perceptions of English-medium students with those of Arabic-medium students. The research for this thesis was carried out at an international bilingual Arab university in the United Arab Emirates. Data for the study was gathered from two data collection sources, namely student questionnaires and group interview sessions. In both instances, students’ perceptions were sought on a range of contrastive issues related to a series of underlying claims and assumptions about English-medium and Arabic-medium education. Overall, 365 Arabic-speaking students from both an English-medium and Arabic-medium educational background participated in the study. Within this sample group, students were drawn from four university colleges: College of Engineering, College of Business, College of Law, and College of Shari’a and Islamic Studies. The study’s findings unveil a complex, often mixed and divided picture of students’ perceptions about the socialising roles of both English-medium and Arabic-medium education. In regard to English-medium education, it finds that though there is a general acceptance of the benefits of studying the English-language, there is also to some extent an acknowledgement of the culturally alienating effects on Arab-Muslim students. The study therefore recommends that granted the paucity of research in this area there is a need to further investigate students’ perceptions from a broader range of institutional cultures in the region.

This interpretive, mixed methods study examines newly arrived, isolated bilingual children’s experiences of schooling in primary schools. Using a theoretical stance that draws on a sociocultural and socialization framework as a process of change, involving the complex interplay between identity, agency and power, the study explores the factors that contribute to bilingual children’s experiences of schooling, how their experiences change over time, and how the children seek ways to strategically manage their situation. It also explores whether or not experiences of schooling differ between bilingual and monolingual pupils. Questionnaires generating quantitative data were completed by 29 bilingual children from various ethnic backgrounds and 162 monolingual, White British children from 12 schools. Qualitative data were generated through questionnaires with the 29 bilingual pupils exclusively. The voice of the children is central, through interview based case studies involving the perspectives of five bilingual children, their parents, teachers and monolingual peers. The findings reveal a complex picture because, although there is a sameness between bilingual and monolingual pupils, there is a distinctiveness about the bilingual group. However, a variety of experiences are noted between individuals within this group as factors interplay in complex ways. Therefore, bilingual pupils can not be considered to be a unitary group. The socialization trajectories, which include transition into school, highlight that children’s experiences vary and change over time, and are evidently affected by their relationships at school. By choosing strategic management approaches children are seen to shape their own socialization process. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the implications for gaining greater insight into the schooling experiences of isolated bilingual learners through: categorisation of children, the unitary nature of bilingualism, difference and access. Recommendations are made including policy development, teacher development and further research focusing on the voice of the isolated bilingual child.

The main purpose of this thesis is to deepen the current understanding of how the teacher self is constructed. Specifically, the study intends to integrate into this understanding the way in which language personal, professional, and student teacher identities inform this process. A special emphasis is placed on the role that language teachers’ life histories play on the construction of teacher selves. Narrative research constitutes the research design for this thesis project since I strongly believe that selves are narratively constructed through stories. This study is focused on the storied self (Chase, 2005) that is co-constructed between the researcher and narrator that reveals how personal, professional, and student teacher identities resist and interact with discursive environments in order to create and recreate a language teacher’s self. Life histories constitute the source of data collection in this study. This facilitated the construction of a broader understanding of how six language teachers’ personal, professional, and student teacher identities are shaped throughout a lifetime and the way these impact the formation of the teacher self. The results suggest that language teachers’ selves are in close relation to emotions. Language teachers negotiate their identities and emotions in order to make sense of the different sets of values that the social context presents to them. This in turn leads them to create/recreate their own teacher selves that serve as sources of agency that generates new sets of social/moral rules or stagnation that leads to the preservation of the current status quo. The thesis concludes by providing a series of suggestions tailored to the needs of the teaching context where this research took place with the purpose of fostering a continuous engagement with individual actors and socio-cultural factors that motivate transformation through reflection.

The main aim of this thesis is to explore the continuing professional development (CPD) of expatriate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers employed in the foundation English programme of federal universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In order to understand the phenomenon of CPD from the perspective of experienced teachers in the context this study explores their perceptions about CPD; along with their choice of CPD initiatives and the reasons and factors which impact on their choice. It also explores teachers’ suggestions about improving CPD in their context. It is expected that the results of this thesis will create awareness of these aspects among experienced EFL teachers, their institutions, local CPD organisations and as well as the community of experienced expatriate tertiary teachers of EFL. It is also expected that the study will raise implications to consider for improving the CPD experience of teachers in the context. Data was obtained using face to face individual and focus group interviews with volunteers who were foundation EFL teachers with a minimum of five years teaching experience in the context. Results revealed that participants in the study valued CPD as lifelong professional evolution that resulted in evident change. High preference emerged for participation in learning through participation in activities that provided opportunities for dialogue and collaboration. However, participants experienced less empowered and without a voice in the implementation of the institutional CPD agenda. Similarly disillusionment was experienced with CPD organisations’ standardized initial teacher education focused CPD. The study highlights how when teachers feel less empowered in their existing professional and occupational communities, they exercise their agency in finding alternative means of professional development. One result of this situation is the emergence of teacher initiated communities where learning takes place in an environment of mutual shared understandings. This also illuminates the existence of untapped expertise in the context which if exploited can benefit federal institutions; their teachers, CPD providers and subsequently others in the context. The main implication arising from this study is for federal universities, teachers and CPD providers to work in tandem and attempt to establish teacher learning communities of practice within the institution for situated learning within the context of practice.

This small-scale ethnographic research study investigated student perceptions of social identity and agency and the usefulness of the construct of the Community of Practice for struggling writers in the context of a pre-university EAP program. The appropriateness of socio-cultural theories in language teaching and learning today stems from social constructivist and social interactionist theories of the role of language in the discursive construction of society, knowledge and power. This study problematised these constructs in the development of writing for learners in a pre-university Higher Education context. Comparing data from focal students who were struggling with writing and from students who were more successful, the biographies of struggling students and their awareness of their futures, or imagined selves and communities, revealed not only learning histories in which they had radically different identities as learners and writers, but also a lack of clarity about their learning trajectory in the writing program. There was no apparent lack of investment in learning among the focal students, who identified themselves as weak writers, although there was frustration and anger at their predicament. The data suggest that they did not identify with the learning community at the start of the project, probably because they resisted belonging to a community which labeled them as failures. During the study a variety of means were used to elicit participants’ perceptions of their status as novice writers and to support their learning trajectory on an individual basis by elucidating the reasons for and requirements of academic writing. By the end of the study the focal students had developed more awareness of the subject positions the writing trajectory afforded them and had chosen ways in which to continue along their learning path. The Community of Practice appears to have potential as a means of supporting the roles of EAP students and teachers as members of the academic community of practice.