KIERNAN Patrick James    Department   Undergraduate School  , School of Business Administration    Position   Professor
Language	English
Publication Date	2010
Type	Bulletin of Universities and Institutes
Title	Narrative Identity in English Language Learning: Towards a Research Agenda.
Contribution Type	Sole-authored
Journal	The Bulletin of Arts and Sciences, Meiji University
Volume, Issue, Page	457,pp.23-42
Details	Speaking English is now widely recognized as being the key to international communication in the current globalised world. However, the utilitarian need for English as a useful skill for global communication brings with it a baggage of identity issues which language educators would do well to consider. This paper provides an overview of issues in identity research in relation to English language learning and outlines an approach to identity research based on narrative analysis which, could be used to explore these issues. Among other concerns, it highlights the focus on the ‘learner’ and the study of motivation; the teacher-student relationship; peer group identity viewed as a ‘community of practice’; the role of ‘culture’ in English language pedagogy and the implications of this for teaching English as a lingua franca. It argues that identity issues go a long way towards accounting for why, despite forming a major component of education in Japan (for example), English education does is not as effective as it perhaps might be. As such, the paper outlines an agenda for researching narrative identity in language teaching as a central phenomenon that helps to account for why there is no simple correlation between hours spent in the classroom and successful language learning. More specifically, it offers examples of the kind of research projects which might benefit an overall understanding of what makes for a successful learner and a successful English educational system.