Identity, Agency and the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture

With globalization and the ever-increasing migration of professionals, issues related to learning an additional language and culture in professional contexts are prominent in many contemporary societies. Drawing upon data from an extensive research study of internationally educated professionals, this book examines the affordances and constraints to successful professional acculturation, and the relationships between identity, agency, and the acquisition of professional language and culture.

The author provides a succinct review of socially informed theories of second language acquisition, and presents a unique analysis of identity and agency that incorporates the work of Erik Erikson and George Herbert Mead with Vygotskys sociocultural theory and Lave and Wengers community of practice framework. Given the pervasive problem of the underemployment of internationally educated professionals in many contemporary immigrant-receiving societies, this book makes a timely contribution that not only advances scholarship but also has important practical and policy implications.

<br/>>

Ping Deters is a Professor at the English Language Institute, Seneca College, Toronto, Canada.

Acknowledgements \ 1. Globalization and the Migration of Professionals \ 2. Social Perspectives on Identity and Agency in SLA Research \ 3. Qualitative Research in SLA \ 4. Affordances and Constraints in the Acquisition of Professional Language and Culture \ 5. The Professional Acculturation Journeys of Two Schoolteachers from Different Times and Places \ 6. Professional Integration in Two Contexts: A Chemical Engineer in Canada and an Architect in Denmark \ 7. The Lived Professional Acculturation Experiences of a Teacher from Hong Kong: A Longitudinal Case Study \ 8. From Local to Global: Research Findings and Their Application to Other Contexts \ Notes \ References \ Appendices \ Index