Redrawing the Boundaries of Language Teacher Cognition: Language Teacher Educators' Emotion, Cognition, and Activity

Abstract

This article, grounded in a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, details the self-inquiry of a language teacher educator who examined her emotional dissonance regarding her mediation of the reflection journals of a teacher learner teaching an ESL class during an internship. Data from the teacher learner's reflection journals and the teacher educator's responses were analyzed to characterize the teacher learner's approach to writing the journals and the teacher educator's written responses. The teacher learner was interviewed retrospectively about her conceptualization of and past history with journal writing, her sense, and perezhivanie concerning journal writing. The analysis showed how recognizing the cause of her emotional dissonance and its effect on her mediation enabled the teacher educator to reframe her understanding of the teacher learner as a learner, and it explored the role of reflection journals in the learning-to-teach process. The article calls for a redefinition of language teacher cognition that integrates the interaction of both language teacher learner and teacher educator emotion and cognition activated in and shaped by their interactions in the learning-to-teach experience.