MULTILINGUAL TEACHER IDENTITY IN THE GULF STATES IN EMI SETTINGS

EMI schools in the Gulf States have increasingly implemented initiatives aimed at developing students’ knowledge of multiple languages so that these may thrive in a multipolar world where multilingualism is considered a valuable asset. Research indicates that the learning of multiple languages reinforces students` knowledge of each language in their linguistic repertoire, allowing them to engage more effectively in both multilingual and unilingual interactions. At the same time, some studies indicate that the EMI format can negatively impact the learning of languages other than English if teachers are not open to implementing multilingual pedagogy. Little research has been conducted in this regard in the Gulf States, especially concerning the identity of both teachers of English and those teaching languages other than English and how this identity interacts with their pedagogical decisions. Researchers have instead conceptualized teachers as technicians who will achieve good results by implementing a given methodology. However, such an approach fails to take into account the complex identities of teachers and the nature of their relationship with the languages they teach. My presentation will report on the findings from a mixed-methods study on EMI secondary school teachers of Arabic, English, and French from the United Arab Emirates that explored their teaching practices using an ecological perspective. Drawing upon data collected via unstructured interviews, the study’s findings revealed common themes among the participants with respect to their approach to multilingualism as a resource in an EMI setting and their use of multilingual pedagogy.