Co-construction of learner and teacher identities in EFL classroom context

This study aimed to investigate how learners and teachers construct identities in the language classroom, what identities they actively construct in classroom interaction with their instructors and classmates, and the linguistics resources they rely on in constructing these identities. The data were obtained from 6 classroom recordings from Level 2 classes at YADYO School of Foreign Languages, Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey. The data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using Conversation Analysis (ten Have, 1997) and Frame Analysis (Goffman, 1976; Robeiro, 2006).Findings suggest that second language teacher and second language teacher identities are not single-body identities, but rather, they are composed of sub-identities of ?Classroom Manager,? ?Teach-er,? and ?Friend? for the second language teacher, and ?Student,? ?Learn-er,? and ?Friend? for the second language learner. The processes involving identity co-construction are basically framing (speakers? sending signals to the hearer regarding what he or she thinks they are doing at any point in the interaction), footing, and positioning. The study revealed that second language teacher and second language learners co-construct their identities in five different frames, Conversational Frame, Interpersonal Frame, Classroom Management Frame, Teaching Frame, and Teaching-Conversational Frame. In CF, IF, and TCF, friend identity is co-constructed by the teacher and learner. In CMF, ?classroom manager? and ?student? identities are co-constructed. Finally, in TF, ?teach-er? and ?learn-er? identities are co-constructed. Analysis of footings reveals that asking a question, prompting, acknowledging, giving a command, responding, informing, commenting, and greeting were the most common footings used in constructing language teacher identity. The footings of responding, informing, asking a question, making a suggestion, commenting, and asking for repair were the most prevalent footings used in constructing language learner identity.