Interest in international student identity has grown considerably over the last few years. In the context of international education, the emphasis on identity and the individual student may also be seen as an emerging response to the tendency of discussing international students and their identity-related experiences in homogenising ways. While there is considerable discussion about how international students’ sense of self is affected by cultural differences in higher education, a theory of identity is not always in place. The purpose of this paper is to bring together three theoretical perspectives on identity that are designed to account for specific cultural, social, and linguistic influences on identity construction. These perspectives are examined with examples from data-based case studies. This paper identifies the unique affordances of each perspective while also highlighting their mutual role in challenging broad discourses that have unfavourably defined international student identity.
As Farrell and Jacobs (2020) have put it, the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach represents a paradigm shift for second language education. However, despite its popularity and importance, Farrell and Jacobs maintain that CLT is not interpreted or applied uniformly across teaching contexts. Essentials for Successful English Language Teaching offers second language teachers a comprehensive pedagogical framework which they can draw on to effectively implement the principles of CLT in the second language classroom. The book, now in its second edition, is divided into 11 chapters that explore eight interconnected strategies for successful second language education. The core chapters follow a consistent and clear structure which brings theory and practice together by discussing each of the eight essentials, presented as the titles of each chapter, in relation to how they may affect the roles, expectations, and experiences of teachers and students. Additionally, each essential is introduced to the reader through a resonating vignetterevised from the first edition-that reflects the latest insights concerning CLT methodology as well as teachers' everyday realities.In Chapter 1, Farrell and Jacobs contextualize the eight essentials specifically within the CLT methodology. Farrell and Jacobs explain that CLT is often only partially adopted by second language teachers and that the (partial) application of CLT varies significantly across educational contexts. In response, the authors rightly construct a practical and holistic framework of CLT that helps equip teachers to not only effectively implement CLT itself, but also promote second language learning that is socially-oriented. Chapter 2 introduces the first essential: "Encourage Learner Autonomy." Through this essential, Farrell and Jacobs position the student as an active participant in curricular choices, while simultaneously as "responsible for their own learning" and the learning of their peers (p. 19). In this chapter, the authors clearly demonstrate the importance of an agency-informed view of the student and of a curriculum that reflects students' individual realities.Chapter 3 expands on what seems to be the foundation for all essentials: "Emphasize the Social Nature of Learning." This fascinatingly detailed chapter is perhaps the most practical and practice-focused one from which teachers learn how to see students as a community rather than as "separate, decontextualized individuals" (p.
This paper draws on the theoretical concepts of individual agency and academic buoyancy to explore the ways in which three multilingual international students responded to and overcame the challenges they encountered while studying at a university in Canada. This investigation is situated within and against the discourses of deficit and disruption that have traditionally surrounded the accounts of international students who use English as an additional language (EAL) in institutions of higher education. Methodologically conceptualized through the lens of portraiture, which focuses on identifying goodness in participants, this paper presents the portraits of the three students with an attention to the physical and sociocultural contexts where the students were embedded. Individual semi-structured interviews and observations of the host institution were conducted in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the students' experiences. Findings indicate that the students' challenges were complex, found primarily in the linguistic, academic, and social dimensions, and originating from both structural and individual factors. Simultaneously, the students strategized and employed agency by seeking support in conventional and alternative ways and by refusing to conform to institutional expectations. This paper is concluded with a discussion about the importance of considering the context when examining multilingual international student agency.
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