Positioning Theory in Applied Linguistics ― Research Design and Applications

This book is about Positioning Theory (Davies & Harré, 1990) and its potential applications in bilingual and multilingual contexts involving teachers, learners, speakers, and users of a second/foreign or additional language. By using Positioning Theory as a theoretical lens and analytical approach, the author illustrates how various social and poststructural concepts in applied linguistics and language teacher education, including identity, agency, language socialization, classroom participation, and intercultural communication, can be investigated and better understood. The book adds a new perspective to the growing body of multidisciplinary literature in the areas of L2 teacher education and classroom learning, and includes step-by-step guidelines for positioning analysis, insights and implications for classroom practice, as well as suggested directions for future research. It will be of particular interest to language teachers and teacher educators, as well as students and scholars of applied linguistics more broadly. 

Hayriye Kayi-Aydar is Assistant Professor of English Applied Linguistics at the University of Arizona, USA. She teaches in the MA ESL and PhD SLAT programs. Her research encompasses discourse, narrative, and English as a Second Language (ESL) pedagogy, at the intersections of interactional sociolinguistics and poststructural approaches to Second Language Acquisition (SLA). She has published in journals such as TESOL Quarterly, System, ELT Journal, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Classroom Discourse, Teaching and Teacher Education and Journal of Language, Identity, and Education.