Factors affecting tesol students’ english language teacher identity development at ho chi minh city university of technology

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

---------------

LE DINH HA MY

FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY
DEVELOPMENT
AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY
OF TECHNOLOGY

Major: English Language
Course code: 8220201

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

---------------

FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY
DEVELOPMENT
AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY
OF TECHNOLOGY
Submitted to the
Faculty of English Language

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language
17,953 words
Course code: 8220201
By
LE DINH HA MY
Supervised by
TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph.D.

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022


The thesis entitled FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO
CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY was successfully defended
and approved on ………..…….. at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
(HUTECH). Academic supervisor: Dr. TRAN QUOC THAO
Examination Committee
1.NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, Ph. D.

Chair

2.CAO THI PHUONG DUNG, Ph. D.

Reader 1

3.PHAM HUY CUONG, Ph. D.

Reader 2

4.NGUYEN THI NHU NGOC, Ph. D.

Member

5.NGUYEN THI THU, Ph. D.

Secretary Member

On behalf of the Examination Committee
Chair
(full name, title, signature)

i


HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE
Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022
MASTER’S THESIS REPORT
Student name: LE DINH HA MY

Sex: Female

Date of birth: 02/05/1997

Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City

Major: English Language

Student code: 1941900034

I- Thesis title:
FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY.
II- Objectives and contents:
This study aims at exploring the factors that affect TESOL students’ English language
teacher identity development at the context of Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology (HUTECH). The research objectives are as follows:
- To investigate TESOL students’ perception of English language teacher identity;
- To find out factors that affect TESOL students’ English language teacher identity
development.
This study was conducted at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
(HUTECH) in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Thanh District. The participants were the
students who were studying TESOL course and in the teaching practicum period at
the school. In order to gain the results, I applied the mixed-method: quantitative and
qualitative, two instruments were utilized: questionnaire and semi-structured
interview so as to collect the data, both of which are applied for the students who
have learnt TESOL course.
III- Starting date: March 20, 2021
IV- Completing date: September 20, 2021
V- Academic supervisor: TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph. D.
ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR
(full name, signature)

FACULTY DEAN
(full name, signature)

ii

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:
FACTORS AFFECTING TESOL STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TEACHER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AT HO CHI MINH CITY
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY.
In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs
issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi
Minh City University of Technology.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022
LE DINH HA MY

iii


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, LE DINH HA MY, being a candidate for the degree of
Master of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of the University relating
to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care,
loan, and reproduction for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022

LE DINH HA MY

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has encouraged,
inspired, and assisted me in completing my thesis.
First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to Dr. Tran Quoc Thao,
who guided me to complete the thesis prosal as well as this thesis. Thanks to the
dedicated guidance, patience, advice and encouragement, I was able to complete the
thesis as perfectly as possible. Without his full support, this thesis would not have
been completed.
Secondly, I would like to show my thanks to Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology (HUTECH) for enabling me to collect data. I would like to thank all the
TESOL students who participated in the research, who greatly contributed to the
completion of this study.
Thirdly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu,
the Dean of English Language Department of HUTECH University as well as some
staffs in the postgraduate institute of this university, who have helped me a lot to
complete this MA course.
Last but not least, I extend my deep gratitude to my family including my
grandmother, my aunt and my uncle for their spiritual support with which I was able
to complete this MA course. I would like to dedicate this thesis in the memory of my
beloved mother; thanks to her belief I can firmly believe in my ability to complete
the course.

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ABSTRACT

Many researchers have acknowledged that the development of language teacher
identity (LTI) plays an important part in the professional development of teachers. In
this context, this study aims at exploring the factors that affect TESOL students'
English LTI development at the context of Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology (HUTECH). The study included one hundred TESOL students
participating in questionnaires and twenty TESOL students participating in semistructured interviews. The research collected data by using the mixed-methods
design. With respect to data analysis, the quantitative data was analyzed through
SPSS 20.0 for Windows and the qualitative data was analyzed by using content
analysis. The results of the study revealed the perception of TESOL students is that
in order to develop their personal identity, they need to develop their own teaching
style, experience their English language teaching (ELT), have positive attitudes
towards ELT, and believe in themselves. Besides, in order to develop a professional
identity they need to experience, learn, and receive support from colleagues, students,
peers, teacher-trainers, materials and facilities. In addition, the results also indicated
that three factors: student-teacher related factors, teacher-trainer related factors and
learning context-related factors all positively affected the development of TESOL
students' English LTI; in which the student-teacher factor has the strongest influence.
These results are hoped to contribute to a better understanding of TESOL students'
perception on the development of LTI. Besides, the study made implications that it is
necessary to give practical and profound meanings to improve the process of
developing LTI of TESOL students.
Key words: LTI, TESOL students, personal identity, professional identity,
affecting factors.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY.................................................................... iii
RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ......................................................... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................v
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................x
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................ xii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1.1. Background to the study .................................................................................1
1.2. Statement of problems ....................................................................................3
1.3. Aims and objectives of the study ....................................................................4
1.4. Research questions ..........................................................................................5
1.5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................5
1.6. Significance of the study .................................................................................5
1.7. Definition of key terms ....................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................8
2.1. Introduction .....................................................................................................8
2.2. Language teacher identity ..............................................................................8
2.2.1. Definitions of LTI ..........................................................................................8
2.2.2. Characteristics of teacher identity..............................................................12
2.3. Factors influencing TESOL students’ English LTI development ............14
2.3.1. Student teacher-related factors...................................................................14
2.3.2. Teacher trainer-related factors ..................................................................18
2.3.3. Learning learning context-related factors ..................................................21
2.4 Previous research ............................................................................................25
2.5. Conceptual framework .................................................................................28
2.6. Summary ........................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................31
3.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................31

vii

3.2. Research design .............................................................................................31
3.3. Research site ...................................................................................................32
3.4. Sample and sampling procedures ................................................................33
3.5. Research instruments ....................................................................................35
3.5.1. Questionnaire..............................................................................................35
3.5.2. Semi-structured interview ...........................................................................37
3.6. Data collection procedures............................................................................38
3.7. Data analysis procedures ..............................................................................38
3.8. Vailidity and Reliability ................................................................................39
3.9. Ethical issues ..................................................................................................40
3.10. Summary ......................................................................................................40
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................42
4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................42
4.2 Results ..............................................................................................................42
4.2.1. The perception of TESOL students’ English language teacher on developing
personal and professional identity ........................................................................42
4.2.2. Factors affecting TESOL students’ English LTI development. ..................46
4.3. Discussion .......................................................................................................56
4.3.1. The perception of TESOL students’ English language teacher on developing
personal and professional identity........................................................................56
4.3.2. The factors that affect the identity development of TESOL students’ English
language teacher...................................................................................................57
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...............................................................................62
5.1. Summary of the main findings of the thesis ................................................62
5.2. Implications of the research .........................................................................63
5.3. Limitation of the research.............................................................................65
5.4. Recommendations for further research ......................................................66
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................67

APPENDIXES .........................................................................................................77
APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE (English Version) ....................................77
APPENDIX B: ORIGINAL QUESTIONNAIRE ..............................................85
APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL (English Version) ......................87

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APPENDIX D: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW DATA ANALYSIS ...................91

Chapter 1

1,935 words

Chapter 2

6,334 words

Chapter 3

2,788 words

Chapter 4

5,560words

Chapter 5

1,336 words

Total

17,953 words

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Participants’ general information .............................................................35
Table 3.2: Reliability of Sub-Variables ....................................................................37
Table 4.1: TESOL students’ perceptions of English LTI .........................................42
Table 4.2: TESOL students’ perceptions of English LTI in terms of Personal identity
...................................................................................................................................43
Table 4.3: TESOL students’ perceptions of English LTI in terms of Professional
identity.......................................................................................................................44
Table 4.4: Factors affecting TESOL students’ English LTI development ...............46
Table 4.5: Student-teacher related factors .................................................................47
Table 4.6: Sub-factors of student-teacher related factors .........................................48
Table 4.7: Teacher-trainer related factor ...................................................................49
Table 4.8: Competence..............................................................................................50
Table 4.9: Assistance ................................................................................................50
Table 4.10: Context-related factor ............................................................................51
Table 4.11: Teaching practicum ...............................................................................52
Table 4.12: Learning materials .................................................................................53
Table 4.13: Facilities at learning environment.........................................................54
Table 4.14: Facilities at teaching practicum .............................................................54
Table 4.15: Peers .......................................................................................................55

x

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: LTI ..........................................................................................................11
Figure 2.2: Characteristics of teacher identity (Akkerman and Meijer, 2011) .........12
Figure 2.3: Conceptual framework of the English LTI .............................................29

xi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LTI

Language Teacher Identity

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

ELT

English Language Teaching

TESOL

Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages

HUTECH

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

xii


CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background to the study
More than thirty years ago, the lack of a theoretical framework was a concern
of many researchers to support language teacher education programs (e.g., Richards
& Nunan, 1990; Crandall, 2000). At that time, most classroom-based studies sought
to describe successful teaching methods, effective learning strategies, and teacherstudent interactions that were assumed to facilitate successful language learning
(Chaudron, 1988). It is clear that the role of the teacher in language teaching in the
past is the learner's input language provider. This view is supported by (Firth &
Wagner, 1997) consider teacher as “supplier” for language teaching, and the identity
of the teacher is not important. Therefore, the main foundation of language teacher
education in this period focuses on the knowledge-based learning to the teaching
practices, not in the process of teacher education development.
After that, the language teacher education has begun to realize that teachers are
also crucial to understanding and enhancing their English language teaching, aside
from the strategies or methods they apply (Richards & Nunan 1990; Freeman, 1991).
Particularly, preliminary researches about teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and so forth
(e.g., Bedir, 2019; Islahi & Nasrin, 2019) also clearly show that these attributes
cannot be seen atomically, and the teacher identity considered as a crucial component
of determining language teaching methods in the classroom. Teacher education not
only involves the application of these new teaching methodologies, but teachers must
also “understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed
across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future”
(Norton, 1997, p. 410).

Therefore, the importance of teacher identity influences the change of teacher
education. In detail, while providing appropriate teaching methods, teacher education

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is also a developing process to create professional teacher identity within schools and
in a wider social environment and the professional teacher identity teacher’s self with
reality. This view is supported by Beijaard et al., (2000) who point out that the
teacher’s professional identity affects their performance and career development.
This shift represents the interaction between teachers and students in the larger social
ecosystem; teachers are no longer knowledge input suppliers and feedback providers.
As noted by (Kanno & Stuart, 2011), teachers negotiate to accept these roles,
recognition has generated increasing interest in the development of the LTI.
Regarding to the Vietnam context, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher
education has been a priority task in meeting professional teacher education in recent
years. Therefore, many decrees, decisions, and guidelines have been issued by the
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on teaching quality requirements. In
particular, the MOET formulated a framework for teachers’ teaching competence,
which includes specific areas such as language teaching knowledge; language
learner’s knowledge; language teaching practices and so forth (MOET, 2014). It can
be seen that language teacher education in Vietnam has many advantages, but it is
not enough to help teachers achieve new professional development and ensure the
highest quality. The biggest problem is that teacher education agents cannot work
asynchronously to meet the improvement needs of teachers (Dede et al., 2009).
Within the context of the training programs at Ho Chi Minh City University of
Technology (HUTECH), it is one of the multidisciplinary universities in Vietnam.
According to the Faculty of English language at HUTECH, there are three English
Language training programs: English for translation and interpretation, English for
Business, and English language teaching (ELT). The course of ELT includes four

compulsory subjects: English teaching methodology 1 (3 credits); English teaching
methodology 2 (3 credits); Classroom language and management (3 credits); and
Teaching English to young learners (3 credits). In English teaching methodology 1
and 2, they focus on teaching theories and teaching techniques. In contrast, Classroom
language and management subject mainly concentrate on the practice, in detail,

2


students can learn how to manage the classroom effectively by practicing practical
classroom instruction. The final subject (Teaching English to young learners) can
help students grasp the teaching methods of young students as well as apply them in
practical practice. In short, HUTECH has designed and developed a framework for
English-majored students’ assessment to guarantee outcomes; however, there are
lacks of research on identify the factors affecting TESOL students’ LTI development
at HUTECH.
1.2. Statement of problems
Learning to teach is not only about the methods and content of knowledge but
also basically a struggle about who the “teacher” is. Today, it is common to talk about
forming “professional” teachers as “critical reflective practitioners” (Wallace 1991).
A further viewpoint is that teacher development is considered as part of the
transformative self-remodeling process (Danielewicz 2001). However, teacher
education faces many problems, which prevent the development of students’
discipline and practice teaching ability.
The first problem is directly related to teacher who has not yet realized the
importance of establishing personal identity. There are some factors related to
teachers including intrinsic value (Kilinc et al., 2012). For example, hobbies and
desire to be a teacher, self-awareness of pedagogy, values of social service, etc. When
students cannot “understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is
constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for

the future” (Norton, 1997, p. 410), it will be difficult for them to determine the role
of the teacher in school performances. According to HUTECH, it is also difficult for
TESOL students to determine their roles in a wide range of social environments. They
often consider teachers as just knowledge providers. On the other hand, they rarely
consider their other roles such as tutor, facilitator, etc and how their value affects
actual environmental conditions.

3


The next problem concerns the relationship between training program and
practice situation. Teaching experience is mainly established in practical working
environments such as internships. According to the research of Le Van Canh (2013),
he finds that teacher candidates learn more from teachers who work with them during
internships. However, the total time for internships in most of universities is limited,
which makes it impossible to establish a professional teacher identity. Similarly,
HUTECH’s TESOL training program focuses on providing skills and teaching
methodologies (12 credits for theories and simulations), and only 6 weeks for the
internship before graduation. Therefore, these students do not have enough time to
develop their personal identities and professional teacher identity, and they cannot
fulfill complex requirements (school culture, number of students) and perform
professionally and suitable for real life conditions.
In short, the development to be a teacher of TESOL students is influenced by
many different factors. Besides, these problems in the learning process indirectly or
directly affect the formation and development of TESOL students' identity through
the situated environment. The main reason is that they cannot identify their own
teacher's identity and they do not take a reflective attitude towards teaching and
consider their own practice seriously. Therefore, conducting a study to find out the
factors that affects TESOL students’ English LTI development at HUTECH is
neccessary.

1.3. Aims and objectives of the study
This study aims at exploring the factors that affect TESOL students’ English
LTI development at the context of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
(HUTECH). The research objectives are as follows:
 To investigate TESOL students’ perception of English LTI.
 To find out factors that affect TESOL students’ English LTI development.

4


1.4. Research questions
In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, the thesis addresses the
following questions:
1. What is TESOL students’ perception of English language teacher identity
at Hochiminh City University of Technology?
2. What are the factors that affect TESOL students’ English language teacher
identity development at Hochiminh City University of Technology?
1.5. Scope of the study
This study investigated the factors that affect TESOL students' English LTI
development at the context of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
(HUTECH). It focuses on investigating TESOL students’ perception of English LTI;
and finding out factors that affect TESOL students’ English LTI development at
HUTECH. Other issues related to English majors, such as English for translation
and interpretation, English for Business are beyond the scope of the study.
Based on the aims of the study, the participants were the 100 students majoring
in TESOL at HUTECH, who have enough knowledge to answer the questionnaire.
Other groups of English majors are not involved in the study because they are not
trained to be English language teachers. In order to gain the results, quantitative data
and qualitative data was obtained by questionnaire and semi-structured interview
respectively.

1.6. Significance of the study
This study is significant because it provides not only theoretical contribution,
but also practical contribution. The thesis is intended to add to current expertise and
analysis in the area of teacher education in a range of aspects. Firstly, the research
will contribute to the current body of information about the role of a development of
teachers in forming their identities. Secondly, the results collected in this research

5


helps to design information for student teacher education programs concerning career
improvement and identity discovery.
For lecturers, from the results of the questionnaire and students’ interviews,
teachers can determine the factors that limit the development of teacher identity in
their own teaching practice. From there, the lecturers will make positive progress in
teaching. For students, it is obvious that only after they are fully aware of the
important role of the teacher's identity and the necessity of developing their own
identity, they will be more effectively applied to teaching practice in learning foreign
languages teaching.
More importantly, once understanding and solving the problems in the research
such as the factors that affect the English language identity development of TESOL
students at HUTECH, TESOL students’ perception of English LTI at HUTECH, the
corresponding solutions will be fully determined.
1.7. Definition of key terms
Many terms must be defined for the purposes of this research in order to offer a
specific viewpoint on the topics covered.
Student-teacher: The term refers to students who are learning the ELT.
Teacher-trainer: The term refers to the teacher who guides TESOL students to
complete the teaching practicum.
Language Teacher Identity: The term is related to the way language teachers

see themselves and understand who they are in relation to the work they do. It is also
the way others, including their colleagues and students and institutions, see them.
(Barkhuizen, 2021). In the current study, it refers to how TESOL student teachers at
HUTECH see themselves and understand who they are during their internship. It is
also how other people around them (e.g, colleagues, students, etc.) see them.
1.8. Organization of the thesis

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This research is divided into five chapters.
Chapter 1 offers background to the study, statement of problem, aims and
objectives of the study , research questions, scope of the study, significance of the
study, definitions of the key terms and also organization of the thesis.
Chapter 2 shows the literature review including the information related to
language teacher identity, characteristics of teacher identity and factors influencing
TESOL students’ English LTI development. In term of language teacher identity,
personal identity and professional identity are considered theoretically. In term of
factors influencing TESOL students’ English LTI development, student-teacher
related factors, teacher-trainer related factors and learning context-related factorsare
recommended. Many research papers by international and Vietnamese scholars have
been reviewed and briefly discussed in previous study. Finally, in the literature
review, a conceptual framework is provided.
Chapter 3 is the methodology of the research paper. Research design, research
site, sample and sampling procedures, research instruments, data collection
procedures, data analysis procedures, validity, reliability and ethical issues are
presented in detail.
Chapter 4 is a description of the study's findings based on data analysis from the
questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The data is also compared and
contrasted with data from previous studies in the discussion.

Chapter 5 summarizes the main findings of the thesis and gives pedagogical
implications, limitations and recommendations for further research.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction
The main purpose of this chapter is to outline previous research related to factors
affecting TESOL students’ LTI development. It will be presented in two key terms:
LTI and factors that influence teacher identity development are studied through the
perspectives of different researchers. First in first, with regard to LTI, in addition to
the definitions, the characteristics are analyzed from many different viewpoints.
Secondly, the factors that influence teacher identity development will focus on the
student-related problems, teacher trainer-related problems and learning context
related problems. Last but not least, some popular previous studies related to teacher
identity development are reviewed and listed.
2.2. Language teacher identity
2.2.1. Definitions of LTI
Identity is related to “how people understand their relationship to the world,
how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people
understand their possibilities for the future” (Norton, 1997, p. 410). Linking to the
term “LTI”, it is used in several researches (Ball & Goodson, 1985; Nias, 1989) to
describe how the teacher understands his/herself as a teacher. This view is defined
clearly by Barkhuizen (2017), who points out that “Language teacher identities
(LTIs) are cognitive, social, emotional, ideological and historical … [LTIs] are
contested and resisted, by self and others, and they are also accepted, acknowledged
and valued, by self and others. In addition, language teacher identity are “personal

and professional, they are dynamic, multiple, and hybrid” (Barkhuizen 2017, p. 4).
Generally, the definitions of being and becoming a teacher can be revealed by
forming the tangible and intangible areas of work and life. In teacher education,

8


research has shown that self-knowledge is an important factor for teachers to establish
the nature of their work (Kelchtermans & Vandenberghe, 1994), and the experiences
in teachers’ personal lives are closely related to the realization of their professional
roles (Ball & Goodson, 1985). Briefly, there are two areas seem to have been
explained about LTI: personal identity and professional identity.
Personal identity
Each teacher will develop his own unique teaching style to a certain extent
(Feiman-Nemser & Floden, 1986). In addition, Connelly and Clandinin (1999) have
indicated that when teachers tell their stories, they tend to consider more about "who
they are" rather than "what they do". A number of studies have found that personal
narratives or life stories can express the concept of an internal phenomenon (the self)
(e.g. Kerby, 1991; Volkmann & Anderson, 1998). Erikson (1968) is very influential
in this field of developing personal identity. According to his research, the core of
Erikson's concept of personal identity is a sense of the self. Therefore, personal
identity “represents the amount of self-knowledge, synthesis, and consistency that a
person possesses over time and across situations” (Schwartz et al., 2009, p. 143). It
focuses on the individual level of self-definition (Vignoles et al., 2011), which is the
part of the self that an individual encounters as a "core" or "unique" under various
groups and positions (Hitlin, 2003). It is associated with close interpersonal
relationships and personal attributes that express individual personality (Hogg, 2011),
and is based on a sense of personal autonomy and self-determination (Britzman,
2003).
The development of teacher identity is related to the self-concept in a specific

situation, for example, school environment. The school experience provides an
important element for identity development (Beijaard, 1995). In addition, many
researchers ( Poulou, 2007; Timostsuk & Ugaste, 2010; Van Veen & Sleepers, 2006)
pinpoint that being a teacher is a very emotional experience; it not only produce

9


positive emotions, but also negative emotions. When trying to understand teacher
identity development, one should not leave these emotions alone.
From theories related to teacher personal identity, personal identity is built on
what each teacher feels, knows, and perceives as who they are. Personal identity helps
to distinguish them from the rest. Its development begins from the moment the
individual becomes aware of his own existence; it continues to be reinforced until
becoming a teacher. When the individual is aware of his or her place in society.
Professional identity
The second aspect of teacher identity focuses on the teachers’ professional role.
Student teacher professional identity is thus central to the teaching profession. It
provides a framework for teachers to formulate their own concepts of "how to be",
"how to act" and "how to understand" their job and status in society. Importantly,
student teacher professional identity is not set or enacted; furthermore, it is
established by experience and the meaning that is created of this kind of experience
(Sachs, 2005, p. 15). All professionals, including students’ language teachers, acquire
professional abilities through formal and informal learning methodologies. Teacher
education courses are designed to provide teachers with useful theories and analytical
practices. In addition, the practical experience of teaching in a professional
environment seems to have a significant impact on the internalization of the role of
teacher (i.e., Leijen et al., 2013). Regarding the above issues, Olssen (2003)
emphasize that the teachers’ professional knowledge is a part of teachers’
professional identity development. Teachers' professional knowledge not only

includes their professional teaching and knowledge, but the interaction between
theories and practices also plays a crucial role. Teachers use knowledge from
different disciplines to make teaching decisions and connect them. It is a daunting
task because the values used in scientific disciplines may vary. Similarly, several
researches have shown the importance of accumulating knowledge (i.e. Anspal et al.,
2012) and improving teaching theories (i.e. Lofstrom et al., 2010b) is an important

10


attribute in professional identity development. The teacher's identity connects the
teacher's self with reality. Beijaard, Verloop, and Vermunt (2000) point out that
teachers’ attitudes towards their professional identity will affect their performance
and career development (p. 750). Teacher professional identity is defined as the
beliefs, values, and commitments an individual holds toward being a teacher (as
distinct from another professional) and being a particular type of teacher (e.g. an
urban teacher, a beginning teacher, a good teacher, an English teacher, etc.) (Hsieh
& Betina, 2010)
Briefly, LTI is associated with the concepts of "Who the teachers are?" and
"What the teachers do?” including internal (personal) and external (social)
dimensions. In detail, the concept of identity encompasses the meaning surrounding
people and one's experience as a member in a social environment. This is not a
teacher’s fixed asset, but a development process that changes or resists as teachers
gain their own experience, self-knowledge, and adopt personal and professional
development (Tsui, 2003). This process is significantly affected by internal and
external factors, for example, the beliefs, the social environment. The definition of
LTI is summarized in figure 2.1 below.
Language teacher identity

Experience

Practice

Personal

Professional

identity

identity

The self

Community

Figure 2.1: LTI

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