A Collaborative Autoethnography on Raciolinguistic Experiences and the Construction of Linguistic Identities During an Intercultural Exchange

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.976

Keywords:

Au-Pair, Collaborative Autoethnography, teacher identity, Raciolinguistics, English varieties, Linguistic identity

Abstract

This research is a Collaborative Autoethnography based on personal experiences as Au Pairs in the United States.  It aims to analyze the contributions of an intercultural exchange towards the construction of the teacher’s identity. It also seeks to analyze the current foreign language teaching practices in Colombia. We achieved more significant English teaching insights from our reflections, considering a flexible language structure, more comprehensive vocabulary, and English variety. Besides, this life-changing exposed ourselves to a target context that enriched our global notions and enhanced a new linguistic identity. Two years of living abroad made us think about a different teaching ideology founded on developing interest and sensibility for diverse cultures accepting broader linguistic features of the language. The results support the idea that educators shift those traditional strategies to more context-bound and intercultural ones to meet today’s needs and place the language as a means of co-construction of reality.

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Author Biographies

María Paula Campos Campos, Universidad Surcolombiana, Colombia

is an undergraduate student in Foreign Languages at the Universidad Surcolombiana located in Neiva, Colombia. She is currently in the last semester of the English program. she belongs to the GAIA research seedbed from Universidad Surcolombiana

Stephany Garzón Roa, Universidad Surcolombiana, Colombia

is majoring in Foreign Languages at the Universidad Surcolombiana in Neiva, Colombia. She is currently in the last semester of the English program. Besides, she belongs to the GAIA research seedbed from Universidad Surcolombiana.

María Paula Méndez, Universidad Surcolombiana, Colombia

is an undergraduate student in Foreign Languages at the Universidad Surcolombiana located in Neiva, Colombia. She is currently in the last semester of the English program. she belongs to the GAIA research seedbed from Universidad Surcolombiana

Jairo Enrique Castañeda Trujillo, Universidad Surcolombiana, Colombia

is an assistant professor and researcher at the Universidad Surcolombiana (Neiva, Colombia). He holds a M.Ed. with Emphasis on English Didactics from Universidad Externado de Colombia and a B.A. degree in Spanish and English from Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Colombia. He is the current president of ASOCOPI (Colombian Association of English Teachers). Additionally, he is a doctoral candidate in Education with emphasis in ELT at the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. He belongs to the research groups ILESEARCH, from Universidad Surcolombiana, and ESTUPOLI, from Universidad Distrital.

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Published

2021-12-17

How to Cite

Campos Campos, M. P. ., Garzón Roa, S. ., Méndez, M. P., & Castañeda Trujillo, J. E. (2021). A Collaborative Autoethnography on Raciolinguistic Experiences and the Construction of Linguistic Identities During an Intercultural Exchange. GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal, 23, 59–78. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.976

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