Professional Identity Development of Pre-service EFL Teachers through Discourse Socializaion Practices

The active participation of several pre-service EFL teachers in discourse socialization practices facilitated learning in a collaborative learning community. The participants shared their personal practical experiences, scaffolded their peers and engaged with assigned academic texts. Their engagement in collegial discussions and with academic texts developed their professional identity in several aspects. Through involvement in discourse practices, the participants underwent the process of identity construction as a legitimate member of their discourse community. As a non-stop process, the identity construction of the participants was continuously influenced by their prior learning and teaching experiences, knowledge from disciplinary materials and fieldwork experiences as pre-service English teachers. The influence of the discourse practices was overwhelming as they experienced a shift of professional identity to feel like relative experts. The participants reconstructed their identity. They felt more committed to their EFL local community and they saw themselves as members who could be more contributing to their local community. The group discussions provided enough chances for the participants to feel like a community member and voice their professional identity through participating in discussions.

Keywords:

discourse community , collegial discussion , Professional identity , student teaching