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This book is the first to explore the constitution of language learner agency by drawing on performativity theory, an approach that remains on the periphery of second language research. Though many scholars have drawn on poststructuralism to theorize learner identity in non-essentialist terms, most have treated agency as an essential feature that belongs to or inheres in individuals. By contrast, this work promotes a view of learner agency as inherently social and as performatively constituted in discursive practice. In developing a performativity approach to learner agency, it builds on the work of Vygotsky and Bakhtin along with research on ‘agency of spaces’ and language ideologies. Through the study of discourses produced in interviews, this work explores how immigrant small business owners co-construct their theories of agency, in relation to language learning and use. The analysis focuses on three discursive constructs produced in the interview talk–subject-predicate constructs, evaluative stance, and reported speech–and investigates their discursive effects in mobilizing ideologically normative, performatively realized agentive selves.

English language --- Immigrants --- Adult education. --- Literacy programs. --- Literacy campaigns --- National literacy campaigns --- National literacy programs --- Reading programs (Literacy) --- Literacy --- Adults, Education of --- Education of adults --- Education --- Continuing education --- Open learning --- Emigrants --- Foreign-born population --- Foreign population --- Foreigners --- Migrants --- Persons --- Aliens --- Germanic languages --- EFL (Language study) --- English as a foreign language --- English as a second language --- English to speakers of other languages --- ESL (Language study) --- ESOL (Language study) --- Teaching English as a second language --- TEFL (Language study) --- TESL (Language study) --- Study and teaching --- Foreign speakers. --- Business English --- Education. --- Government policy --- Foreign students --- Vygotsky. --- agency. --- discourse. --- ideology and language. --- immigrant learners. --- performativity theory. --- second language learning.

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This volume examines the agency of second/foreign language teachers in diverse geographical contexts and in both K-12 and adult education. It offers new understandings and conceptualizations of second/foreign language teacher agency through a variety of types of empirical data. It also demonstrates the use of different methodologies or analytic tools to study the multidimensional, dynamic and complex nature of second/foreign language teacher agency. The chapters draw on a range of theories and approaches to language teacher agency (including ecological theory, positioning theory, complexity theory and actor-network theory) that expand our understanding of the concept, while at the same time presenting various analytic approaches such as discourse studies and narrative inquiry. The chapters also analyze the connection of agency to other relevant topics, such as teacher identity, emotions, positioning and autonomy.

English teachers --- Language teachers --- Training of --- Social aspects. --- Research --- Methodology. --- EFL. --- Sociolinguistics. --- Teacher agency. --- applied linguistics . --- language and identity. --- language teaching. --- social factors in language teaching. --- teacher identity. --- Literature teachers

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Discourse and ideology are quintessential, albeit contested concepts in many functionally oriented branches of linguistics, such as linguistic anthropology, critical discourse studies, sociolinguistics, and sociology of language. With many ways of understanding and utilizing the concepts, the line between discourse and ideology can become blurry. This volume explores divergent ways in which the concept of ideology may be applied in different branches of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language, critical discourse studies, and applied linguistics. The goal is to provide an overview of the ways in which these two concepts can be used separately or together, emphasizing one or the other depending on the ways in which the concepts and their relationship are defined. The volume is targeted at scholars working in various fields of linguistics in which discourse and ideology are used as theoretical and analytical tools. While the target audience includes both senior and junior scholars, a particular goal is to reach junior scholars, who often struggle with the distinction between discourse and ideology and their theoretical and methodological potential. The volume is suitable for classroom use at the graduate level.

Discourse analysis --- Social aspects. --- Data processing.