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ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9676-7673

Keywords

English Medium Instruction, Teacher Identity, Native Speakerism

Special Issue

Emerging Scholar Summaries 2026

Abstract

Teaching in English Medium Instruction (EMI) programs can significantly reshape educators’ professional identities particularly when English is not their first language. This article summarizes a previously published phenomenological study with three Italian EMI educators in educational linguistics. Drawing on creative fortune lines to trace their experiences, the study showed that participants’ disciplinary field played a central role in their lived identity, intersecting with issues of language teaching and native-speakerist ideologies. The findings also revealed a heightened awareness of multilingual competence across English and other languages, which contributed to identity formation, alongside a pronounced tension between their professional selves expressed in Italian versus English. Overall, these insights highlight the complex negotiation of identity for EMI educators and shed light on broader questions of language, expertise, and legitimacy in an increasingly globalized higher education emotionscape.

Abstract - Translated

L’insegnamento nei programmi di English Medium Instruction (EMI) può trasformare profondamente l’identità professionale dei docenti, soprattutto quando l’inglese non è la loro lingua madre. Questo articolo riassume uno studio fenomenologico già pubblicato, condotto con tre docenti italiani di Linguistica Educativa impegnati nell’EMI. Basandosi sull’uso creativo delle fortune lines, lo studio originale mostrava come il campo disciplinare dei partecipanti svolgesse un ruolo centrale nella loro identità vissuta, intrecciandosi con questioni di didattica delle lingue e ideologie di native-speakerism. I risultati evidenziavano inoltre una maggiore consapevolezza della competenza multilingue, tra inglese e altre lingue, che contribuiva alla costruzione identitaria, insieme a una marcata tensione tra il sé professionale espresso in italiano e quello espresso in inglese. Nel complesso, queste riflessioni mettono in luce la complessità della negoziazione identitaria per i docenti EMI e offrono spunti più ampi sulle dinamiche tra lingua, expertise e legittimità in un emotionscape universitario sempre più globalizzato.

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