Negotiating the professional space: agency, modality and stance in pre-service language teacher's written reflections

Becoming a foreign language (FL) teacher entails a negotiation process of the cognitions regarding principles for language learning and teaching (Borg, 2006). Teacher students in general as well as FL teacher students express... [ view full abstract ]

Becoming a foreign language (FL) teacher entails a negotiation process of the cognitions regarding principles for language learning and teaching (Borg, 2006). Teacher students in general as well as FL teacher students express frustration at the perceived gap between theory and practice (Kleinsasser, 2013). Previous research indicates levels of resistance that FL students express to theoretical courses in language pedagogy (Bronkhorst, et al. 2014). Unlocking some of the underlying mechanisms that shape and influence FL teacher student cognition during their pre-service training is therefore seen as highly relevant. This paper reports results from an ongoing research project where FL teacher students in Sweden, among other tasks, wrote weekly reflective log entries on self-selected aspects of FL pedagogy treated in the seminars. The data collection took place over the course of a term's study including theoretical courses and practium courses. Texts that addressed issues of language fluency and accuracy in language teaching were selected for analysis. Based on a combination of content and linguistic analysis, the log entries were analysed on several levels: thematic units (Henri, 1992); expressions of agency (Ruohotie-Lyhty, 2011); modality and stance (Hinkel, 2002); see also Luk (2008). 

The thematic analysis showed that practical concerns regarding teaching and assessment dominated. Analyses of agency, modality and stance revealed that sentences with a personal subject were marked for stance significantly more often than sentences with impersonal subjects. Conversely, sentences with personal subjects almost never occurred with epistemic modality but rather with constructions expressing obligation. In sentences with impersonal subjects, epistemic modality occurred as often as obligation. These results suggest that when language teacher students take a praxis-oriented perspective they tend to express opinions without hedging and epistemic modality. When they address issues from a more impersonal or theoretical point of view, on the other hand, their reflections are more often perspectivized and hedged. This would suggest that beginner language teacher students have fairly strong cognitions about the appropriateness and necessity of their own actions, while expressing more rounded opinions about language learning and teaching principles in general. These results will be discussed further in light of professional development.