Mari Aro

Key Issues Relevant to the Studies to Be Reported: Beliefs, Agency and Identity

As pointed out in Chapter 1, this volume is a response to the recent calls for research on learner and teacher beliefs that would be not only contextual and longitudinal, but also interconnected. In other words, beliefs should be viewed in relation to other issues that play a role in learning and teaching foreign languages. These include aspects of those involved in the processes of learning and teaching foreign languages, that is, learners and teachers — their agency and identity, for example. This chapter provides background to the seven studies that will be reported later in Chapters 3–9 by reviewing the key issues addressed: beliefs, agency and identity. In the following, an attempt will be made to define the three key constructs and review developments in doing research on each in applied linguistics, or language learning and teaching, and viewing these either from the point of view of L2 learners or teachers. The chapter concludes with an overview of the chapters, making it possible to compare and contrast the studies to be reported.

Comparing and Contrasting the Studies Reported: Lessons Learnt

This volume, with its title Beliefs, Agency and Identity in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching and the seven empirical studies reported in Chapters 3–9, has explored the phenomena of believing, acting, and identifying (or identity construction), and the interconnectedness of these phenomena in the learning and teaching of English or other foreign languages.

The Book in a Nutshell

In second language (L2) learning and teaching, an emic (or insider) perspective has gained ground in the past few years. This perspective highlights the subjective nature of L2 learning: it throws light on the learner’s beliefs about the language to be learned (when compared, for example, with his or her first language (L1) or other languages he or she may know), being a learner, the learning process, and the learning contexts, all of which are charged with positive and negative experiences and loaded with personal meanings. We would argue that this is also true of aspects of teaching.