Identity Issues in Foreign Language Teaching in Public Schools

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the importance and relevance of identity in the educational context and how the teaching of foreign language (FL) can contribute to the process of (re)construction of the student's identity; for this, we will bring a theoretical basis of identity, how it is constructed; the role of social relations in its construction from a socio-interactionist perspective and how this can contribute to FL classes. We know that identity is flexible and always changing, it is constituted from all experiences lived by the individual and their social relationships. Thus, the student already arrives in the classroom with a bag of identities, the teacher must then, from this collection, mediate a learning process that makes sense to the student, that is, it is necessary to know the existing identities in their class and take them into account in the development of classes.