Researcher/Writer Identity: Exploring Awareness, Manifestations and Implications of EFL Scholars’ and Applied linguists’ Identities

Abstract

Interest in both Identity and Academic Writing and Discourse has recently remarkably resurged. This has been so in both applied linguistics and discourse studies. As a result, many dominant ideas, practices, and paradigms have been criticized, challenged, or re-considered. The paper casts light on identity features and manifestations in the academic writing/research discourse of EFL/applied linguists in the context of a Saudi college. Identity research has been significantly under-researched in Majmaah University and KSA in general. The study seeks to answer:1. Do researchers’ identities manifest themselves in the academic/research discourse of applied linguists and EFL scholars? If so, in what ways can these identities and self-manifestations appear in the academic and research discourse of applied linguists and EFL scholars? To what extent, if any, are applied linguists and EFL scholars/ researchers aware that they represent themselves in their academic and research discourse/writing? We used a mixed-method design to amalgamate data from two primary instruments: questionnaire and interviews, which were analyzed using SPSS and thematic analysis together with some qualitative methods of analysis. Findings suggest that researchers do display themselves in research employing various identity, agency, and voice strategies/ techniques and that they are broadly aware of this experience, that these identities are represented via a myriad of linguistic/discourse ways, and that they appear to be aware of this process. The implications of these identity manifestations and self-externalizations for research discourse theory and practice, academic writing, language, and research education were explored and discussed.