Identity representations of professors from an English language undergraduate course in a context of self-confrontation

Abstract

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Inserted in the community of practice of Applied Linguistics (AL) that guides the relationship between language and identity, and considering the importance of discussing teaching identities for proposing public policies for (continuing) teacher training, the purpose of this article is to analyze the identity representations of three professors from an English Language undergraduate course of a public university in the countryside of the state of Ceará projected in a context of self-confrontation. To this end, the research uses the theoretical-methodological contribution of Dialogical Discourse Analysis in interface with the theory of identity representations. Methodologically, we used simple self-confrontation to mediate the interactions and build the discursive research corpus. Three utterances were analyzed, considering the identity representations projected most recurrently during the interactions. In the analysis of the utterances, we consider the dialogical relationships between social voices, highlighting their linguistic-discursive materiality. The results point to identity representations projected by voices in tension, in attempts to adjust between what was done - in class - and what was said about what was done - in simple self-confrontation. In this dynamic, teachers project themselves as flexible, mediators of knowledge and aware of their context, tensioning, at the same time, with the identity representations that the teacher cannot have difficulty with the language, of practicing the language as training for the test and the need to speak in English throughout the hole class. We therefore point out that, through the discursivization of the activity carried out in a context of simple self-confrontation, the point of tension is promoted in which identity representations can potentially be transformed and the teaching activity better understood. The results presented here might even serve as a reflection for initial teacher training for future language teachers, because they present the point of view of professors about their own teaching activity.