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“Learning English Differently in the Same Way”: Discursive Representations of Language Coaches

ABSTRACT

Based on studies on trans/indisciplinary applied linguistics and on discursive theories of language, this paper investigates discursive representations of English teaching & learning by language coaches. To this end, this study investigated enunciative regularities in a corpus of utterances of English coaches on YouTube videos, delineating four main representations: (1) one does not learn English by formal methods; (2) one learns English by avoiding their mother tongue; (3) one learns English by believing in their own potential; and (4) one learns English by establishing goals. The analyses indicate a neoliberal interdiscursivity that is updated in the supposed novelty brought by the profession and reinforces the imaginary that teaching and learning a second language is a natural and spontaneous process that can be controlled and mastered, thus exempting any conflicts and tensions inherent to the subject of language.

KEYWORDS:
discourse; English teaching-learning; neoliberalism

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