A Journey from Learning to Teach to Teaching to Learn Across Cultures: an In-depth Case Study of a Non-native Efl Teacher

The purpose of this in-depth case study was to document the tensions experienced by a non-native speaker (NNS), Peiling (pseudonym) during her one and a half years of study in a Master's language education program in the United States (US) and in her subsequent teaching practices upon returning to teach English as a foreign language (EFL) in an elementary school in Taiwan. Grounded in theories of postmodernism, the study employed narrative inquiry mediated by Peiling's voices and lived experiences to capture the complexities of identity construction relating to language teaching and learning. The findings demonstrate that much needs to be learned by both teacher educators and NNSs to foresee, examine, interrogate reconfigurate, rearticulate, seek meaning, and reflect upon the journey from learning to teach and to teaching to learn across cultures. A collaborative model was proposed to call for seeking passage through co- journeying between teacher educators and NNSs. This model urges that language teacher education programs reconceptualize the competing and contradictory systems of knowledge about language pedagogy and curriculum.