EFL Teachers’ Identity Construction: A Case Study

The present study sought to explore how English language teachers in Iran construct their language identity. In doing so, the study also focused on the role of gender. For this purpose, six EFL teachers at an English language school, both male and female, were invited to participate in the study. The researchers asked the participants to fill out Berzonsky’s (2010) identity construction questionnaire – a Likert-scale instrument comprising 40 items – to analyze their answers descriptively. The analysis of the data showed that the participants had an almost high perception of the questionnaire’s informational style and commitment sections but had an average perception of normative and diffuse-avoidant styles. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant difference between male and female participants regarding their informational style. The implications of this study are elaborated in the paper.