Alberto Mora

The complexities of being and becoming language teachers: issues of identity and investment

ABSTRACT This comparative study examines the learning trajectories of two groups of Mexican novice language teachers, three locally raised and educated ones and three repatriates from the USA. The study makes use of a combination of retrospective life-history research and the analysis of academic documents to look at the interrelationship between teachers’ identities and their degree of investment in academic and professional activities. The analysis revealed marked differences in the ways in which these two groups of teachers’ identities have been developed. While the locally educated teachers have constructed strong and articulated identities as a result of a stable family context and smooth transitions in their lives, the development of their returnee counterparts’ identities has been characterized by fragmentation due to the little, or lack of, stability in their home contexts as well as the complex and painful transitions in their lives. The paper discusses the impact that these differences have on participants’ degrees of investment in educational and work-related opportunities available to them in their contexts. Implications for researchers, language teacher trainers and applied linguistics academic program administrators are provided.

Writer identity construction in Mexican students of applied linguistics

Abstract The paper examines the connection between discursive and non-discursive features and the construction of writer identity. In particular, the paper compares and contrasts the writer identity development of two groups of undergraduate students of applied linguistics in the Mexican context, one made up of locally educated ones and the other composed of returning migrants from the USA. Through a combination of the analysis of various essays written by the participating students at different stages of their academic program and a discourse-based interview methodology, the study looks at the ways in which and the extent to which differences in international experience, professional experience and teacher education background influence the development of an essential academic identity. The results show that returnees made less use of first person pronouns and more use of sophisticated linguistic choices such as topic sentences, supporting details, and citations to strengthen their arguments and to convey their identity than their locally educated peers. However, the results also make evident the role played by non-discursive features, particularly their positioning, in the understanding of writer identity. Implications for writing instructors and further research are discussed.

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT FOR ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS. AN INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY APPROACH

Technology and the accounting information systems are implemented in an organization with the aim of improving their efficiency. Companies spend large amounts of money on these tools every year in order to improve their organizational performance. The aim of this research is to determine the influence of SMEs’ technological alignment, information management and technological infrastructure on the performance of an institution (innovation and productivity) in which accounting information systems are used. An empirical study is conducted in enterprises belonging to the service, commercial and industrial sectors in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, with the help of the SmartPLS statistical tool. The results mainly show that technology has helped raise productivity (improvement in administrative activities, in decision-making and in the use of generated information).