| This study explores the academic spoken discourse socialization of students in the M-TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and MA-Applied Linguistics programs at a research-oriented state university in the southwest of America. Drawing on the theory of language socialization and the framework of community of practice, this study looks at how Taiwanese and American graduate students were socialized in a teaching methods class on ESL though case-based, small-group discussions and micro-teaching sessions. Qualitative data were collected from focal participations, including surveys, oral interviews with students and the course instructor, class observations, and audio-recording of class sessions.; Findings suggest that students were socialized into the academic discourse of TESOL though the situated construction of professional voices and expertise in teaching. The students were able to draw on their unique experience and specialization and invoke identities of a relative expert or novice, depending on the nature of the group tasks, role of interlocutors, and the nature of discussions. By engaging in small-group tasks, students constantly made intertextual connections, not only to the concepts and theories presented in the course textbook and lectures, but also to their foreign language teaching and learning experiences. This indicates that small-group discussions and micro-teaching activities not only serve an important function in enculturating TESOL graduate students into the field, but also mediating their professional developments. Also, the analysis of the interview and spoken data shows that personality issues and the type and nature of in-class activities affect students' interaction and participation more than their native/non-native speaker status and teaching experience. The results of this study reveal that academic socialization in a TESOL course is a complex, unpredictable, and bidirectional process in which the novice and experienced participants not only learn from but also impact one another. |
