Conference Agenda

Language policy is an integral part of English as a Second Language (ESL) programming since it mandates how ESL support is organized. In Ontario’s secondary schools, different types of ESL programs exist. While some schools offer only English ESL courses, others additionally provide students with ESL subject specific courses (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007).

This program variety has resulted in a myriad of studies, investigating consequences of different programs (e.g., Dabach, 2014; Thompson, 2015). Yet, if we understand school as sorting mechanism (Domina et al., 2017), we see how language also serves as a marker of difference, which divides students into the ones who are perceived to be sufficient in English and the ones who are not. The sorting of students has long been subject to scholarship concerned with “academic streaming”, the practice of grouping students according to perceived cognitive abilities. Streaming has repeatedly been identified as complicit in reproducing inequality, since racialized students and students of low-socioeconomic status are overrepresented in lower track courses (Oakes, 2005; Terrin & Triventi 2023).

It is rather peculiar then, that while academic streaming has overwhelmingly been identified as reproducing inequality, streaming based on language still remains intact. In this paper, I investigate how ESL policy might be complicit in reproducing inequality. To do so, I apply Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2013) to ESL policy and curricular documents from the 1960s-1990s, answering the following research question: how did ESL policy contribute to racial and linguistic inequality within schools?

Understanding the discourses shaping the histories of these documents, helps to critically question and possibly shift our current thinking about ESL programming. To undertake this work, I draw on raciolinguistics (Rosa & Flores, 2017) which shifts our focus away from students’ language practices identified as insufficient and instead investigates the insufficiencies of a system itself.

Studies show that teacher attrition in different disciplines has been a chronic global challenge in the past two decades. In the sphere of English as a second language (ESL) teaching, the profession has seen an increased attrition of new teachers within their first five years. One potentially complicating aspect could be a close association of language teaching with identity, leading to the possibility of political contention in language instruction. Although numerous scholars discuss critical shortages of ESL teachers, there seems to be limited current literature addressing attrition rates for multilingual and racialized ESL teachers. This suggests that these educators might have a gap in the theorization of identity and agency. The proposed narrative multi-case study aims to comprehensively examine the identity-building and agentic experiences of a group of Arabic-speaking female Muslim (ASFM) ESL teachers in teacher education programs and their workplaces; its goal is to suggest ways to implement teacher identity approaches that impact teacher agency in their education programs and workplaces. My research aims to provide information which will help improve retention rates for this understudied group. My research questions pertain to how the experiences and perspectives of ASFM ESL teachers deepen our understanding of ESL teacher attrition and the factors that sustain ESL teachers in their profession. To these ends, pulling inspiration from Barkhuizen’s short story analysis and Kayi Aydar’s levels of analysis, I propose a multi-case study that centers teachers’ lived experiences through narrative research focusing on teacher attrition, retention, and identity and agency formation. The narrative analysis will allow me to work closely with the participant in a meaning-making process called “restorying” that combines the participant's stories with my understanding of these stories.

This study investigates an online English-learning website affiliated with China Daily, a newspaper owned by the Chinese government, aiming to understand the government's efforts to project a positive image of China domestically and internationally through acquisition planning. Since mid-2019, the newspaper's English learning column, "Word of the Day," has undergone a transformation. The once light-hearted and informal feature introducing learners to daily phrases now delves into more serious topics and incorporates extracts from President Xi Jinping's speeches in its second half. The newspaper asserts that by reading "Word of the Day," readers can gain a better understanding of China and present a positive image of the country to the world (October 2023).

Examining vocabulary and phrases from the end of the Communist Party of China's 20th National Congress (October 21, 2022) to November 19, 2023, among the 260 phrases analyzed, the most frequently mentioned topics were China's economic, technological, and social development, occurring 56, 42, and 36 times, respectively. Public diplomacy topics, such as the Asian Games and the Winter Olympics, followed closely. Notably, Xi Jinping's signature project, the Belt and Road Initiative, was mentioned only three times. Sensitive subjects like Taiwan and Ukraine were conspicuously absent, implying that the Chinese government is presenting a rapidly developing and peace-loving image to its local readers. It is plausible that the government aims to guide English learners in China to portray a positive image of the country globally.

Remarkably, the United States was referenced only twice from late 2022 to 2023. The column highlighted Chinese-U.S. cooperation on climate change and the Philadelphia Orchestra on November 17 and 14 (2023), respectively, in close proximity to Xi Jinping's meeting with Biden, signaling the close connection between politics and foreign language education in China.

Research on the pedagogical benefits of plurilingual approaches in post-secondary ESL (e.g. Galante, 2022) continues to grow, yet the practical and ideological challenges in implementing plurilingual approaches in Canadian HE persist (Van Viegan & Zappa-Hollman, 2020). This paper examines the potential for plurilingual pedagogies to promote inclusion in Canadian university ESL classrooms. It draws upon Foucault’s notion of “power” as embedded and enacted through social practices and identities (1980a). Foucault’s “power” brings criticality to how instructors’ discursive construction of plurilingual/pluricultural ESL learners operates within coalescing macrostructures of: 1) neoliberal Anglophone higher education; 2) the multi/plurilingual turn in language education; and 3) the discourse of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Methodologically, this study is situated at two large Canadian universities. Participants included 10 ESL instructors, with primary data collection involved in-depth interviews (n=10), observations of participants’ teaching (n=3,), and post-observation interviews (n=3). Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis was used to analyze data at the microlinguistic level, intermediate level (interview as social practice), and macro level (social structures) (2015). Findings reveal the centrality of instructor identity in shaping discursive representations of 1) inclusion through monolingual classrooms; 2) equity through students’ proactivity; 3) professionalism through neutrality; and 4) plurilingualism through difference. Action is needed to challenge the dominant discourse that benefits the majority in Canadian ESL.

Fairclough, N. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis: the critical study of language.

London and New York. Longman.

Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977

New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

Galante, A. (2022). Affordances of plurilingual instruction in higher education: A mixed methods study with a quasi-experiment in an English language program. Applied Linguistics, 43(2), 316-339.

Van Viegen, S., & Zappa-Hollman, S. (2020). Plurilingual pedagogies at the post-secondary level: Possibilities for intentional engagement with students’ diverse linguistic repertoires. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 33(2), 172-187.