As an officially English/French bilingual country, second language education and bilingualism are part of the Canadian experience. Nevertheless, Canada largely remains two solitudes where the majority of francophones reside in Quebec and study English as a Second Language (ESL), and the majority of anglophones live in the Rest of Canada (ROC) and learn French as a Second Language (FSL) in school. In these juxtaposed regions, both native and non-native speakers of English and French aspire to be teachers of ESL (TESL) and teachers of FSL (TFSL). Language legislation, policy and planning, particularly with respect to education, has created native/non-native L2 teacher dichotomies (Holliday & Aboshiha, 2009), conditions of ‘otherness’ (Steinbach & Kazarloga, 2014; Bayliss & Vignola, 2007) and a unique crossing of language identities (Scotland, 2013). This paper presents research pertaining to the professional and linguistic identity development of pre-service ESL and FSL teachers in Quebec and the ROC respectively. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected in three phases: Online surveys completed by TESL and TFSL pre-service teachers; One-on-one interviews with TESL and TFSL pre-service teachers; and Focus-group interviews with TESL and TFSL teacher educators. Findings reveal themes related to linguistic and professional identity development, including: professional legitimacy and target language proficiency; advocacy, empathy and passion for language learning; and differences between Quebec and ROC teaching contexts. These themes are understood within a theoretical model comprising: group positioning, culture, language learning experiences and language proficiency.
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