Clingy personas
An entangled educational linguist negotiating language and identity in EMI
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24139683 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michela Gronchi (0000-0002-9676-7673, University of St Andrews, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-27 |
| Publication date | 2026-08-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Inquiry in Language Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1542-7587 • E-ISSN: 1542-7595 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15427587.2026.2721298 |
| OpenAlex | W7204544157 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 56 |
Positioned at the crossroads of multilingualism in theory and English-Medium Instruction (EMI),or more broadly English-Medium Education (EME), in practice, this autoethnographic inquiry gives voice to feelings and beliefs that had begun slipping into silence as my professional identity solidified. It examines my positioning as a female Italian researcher within Educational Linguistics and considers how my trajectory might inform broader understandings of EMI teacher identity. Drawing on a multimodal personal archive, I trace the emergence of three interwoven personas: a phonophilic self, a multilingual advocate, and an ancestral echo. The dialogue among these personas reveals how native-speakerist ideologies remain embodied in my practice, not only through residual prestige-oriented beliefs but also through a sustained, affective fascination with the sounds of English. This tension complicates the multilingual stance promoted in Educational Linguistics, exposing a gap between the ideology I profess and the monoglossic (and monophonic) practices I often enact. For EMI, the analysis suggests that embracing a pedagogy of discomfort can create space for more honest, discipline-sensitive reflections on language, identity, and legitimacy. Taken together, these insights illuminate a single individual’s trajectory, offered not as a model but as an invitation for others to reflect on the multilingual selves shaping their own academic lives.
Embodied cognition · Identity (music) · Ideology · Multilingualism · Negotiation · Silence · Situated · TRACE (psycholinguistics) · Vietnamese · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching
Linguicism
Pedagogical Translanguaging
Disciplinary Identities
Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows
Identity and Language Learning
Emotions and Multilingualism
Road-Mapping English Medium Education in the Internationalised University
Translanguaging
Narrative Approaches to Exploring Language, Identity and Power in Language Teacher Education
The social imaginary of study abroad
English Medium Instruction
Reimagining educational linguistics
The scramble for EMI
Sites of belonging
Social structures, everyday interactions, and subjectivity—where (and how) does decolonizing begin?—Attending to desires, fears, and pains
Multiple Identities, Negotiations, and Agency Across Time and Space
From colonial celebration to postcolonial performativity
English as local designs
Content and language integration at universities? Collaborative reflections
EMI Lecturers in international universities
The Promise of Happiness
Pedagogy of discomfort’ and its ethical implications
Sticky Objects and Places
Why linguistic entrepreneurship
A confession of a ‘non-native’ speaker
Who owns English medium instruction
An ‘E’ for ‘elite’ in EMI? Global, local and elite dimensions in the promotion of English-medium university programmes
Publish (in English) or perish
English in Globalisation, a Lingua Franca or a Lingua Frankensteinia
Teacher Development in a Global Profession
Unequal English accents, covert accentism and EAL migrants in Australia
Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis
Decolonizing English‐Medium Instruction in the Global South
An Immigrant Teacher’s Politic Account of Revising Their Becoming as an Outsider
Critical applied linguistics in the 2020s
The Linguistic Repertoire Revisited
Ethical Autoethnography
Performing Autoethnography
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |