This paper explores possibilities of using language learning autobiographies as a form of identity texts in order to produce suggestions for critical teacher education. Specifically, we examined what insights we might gain by reframing Korean pre-service teachers’ autobiographies as a form of identity texts to develop reflective teachers, who affirm their identities and language learning histories. We thematically analyzed autobiographical reflection papers on English learning experiences of 73 undergraduate students enrolled in a compulsory elementary English education course at a public university in South Korea. The analysis revealed the predominance of referral to English private education experiences and a sense of linguistic insecurity felt by these pre-service teachers, who would later teach in public schools. Based on these findings, we provide suggestions for critical teacher education to foster critical language awareness and identity investment for the students. We conclude that language learning autobiographies, while incorporating characteristics of identity texts, might be a useful tool for critical pedagogies.

In this paper, we explore how English language teacher education could be envisioned in different ways if one were to adopt a ‘social’ approach toward English language education. More specifically, drawing on our experience, which we gathered as Korean faculty members of two Canadian universities, with the help of reflexive inquiry, we highlighted the importance of fostering critical intercultural competence among language teachers. Focusing on a small-scale case study of Korean teacher candidates who participated in a short-term community-based service learning in Canada, our analysis examines how to train English teachers to develop their own intercultural understanding through experiential learning activities, so they can better develop intercultural competence among their students. We argue that a critical understanding of linguistic and cultural diversity is an essential component of English language teacher education in increasingly diverse EFL classrooms across South Korea in the era of globalization, transnationalism, and multilingual/ multiculturalism.

This paper discusses ways to understand and cope with the issues of holism, generalizability, and representativity in qualitative research. More specifically, the article argues that critical sociolinguistic ethnography can serve as a useful methodological tool to uncover complicated processes and consequences of linguistic practice in social life in an increasingly globalized world. Drawing on Heller’s (2011) framework of critical sociolinguistic ethnography, the analysis underscores how critical sociolinguistics focuses on the analysis of the processes by which social actors access and mobilize valuable linguistic resources across time and space. The paper illustrates the situated research processes of doing critical sociolinguistic ethnography through two research projects on South Korean transnational English learners conducted by the authors. The article concludes with a discussion of how critical sociolinguistic ethnography may contribute to broadening research agenda in sociolinguistics in the era of globalization.