Formulation of Language Teachers̕ Identity in the Situated Learning of Language Teaching Community of Practice

From sociolinguistics perspective, the concept of ‘community of practice’ is considered as a theory of learning as well as a theory of identity. It means that the community of practice may shape and reshape the identity of members of the community through providing them with situated learning or learning environment. This study, therefore, is to clarify the salient learning-based features of the language teaching community of practice that might formulate the identity of language teachers. To this end, the study examined how learning situations in two communities of practice i.e., English and Arabic developed the professional identity of language teachers. The results of the semi-structure interview with 5 language teachers (3 English and 2 Arabic) showed that there were some significant differences between English and Arabic language teaching community of practice in terms of the situated learning activities they provide for language teachers to develop their professional identity. As a result, since the community of practice can be considered as a potential curriculum in the broadest sense that which may be learned by newcomers with legitimate peripheral access, it can be considered as a main source of identity formation of language teachers. The findings of the study can be used to better understand the nature of being a professional language teacher in non-native contexts and has implications, on the one hand, for novice and experienced language teachers to open their perceptions to the ideas from non-language centers (e.g., EIL, critical pedagogy, and globalization) and, on the other hand, for teacher educators to review the content of the teacher training courses.