This paper introduces the Multilingual Identity Reconstruction and Adaptation (MIRA) framework, a conceptual model explaining how language learners reconstruct their multilingual identities through ideological and socialisation processes when transitioning from officially monolingual EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts to linguistically diverse ESL (English as a Second Language) environments. The aim of the paper is to present the framework and illustrate how it emerged from an empirical qualitative study conducted as part of the author’s doctoral research. Initially conceived as a theoretical roadmap during doctoral research, MIRA was refined through a phenomenological multiple-case study examining how international undergraduate students in the United States interpreted shifts in their multilingual identities after entering a multilingual environment. Data were generated through in-depth interviews, shadowing, focus group discussions, and written reflections, capturing participants’ language ideologies and socialisation experiences across academic and social settings. The data were analysed thematically to identify patterns in how learners repositioned themselves within new linguistic environments. Grounded in post-structuralist perspectives on identity and informed by language ideology and language socialisation theories, the framework highlights how contextual transition and participation in multilingual communities foster ideological transformation, self-repositioning, and identity reconstruction. MIRA outlines three recursive phases: pre-existing ideologies, the evolving multilingual self, and reconstructed multilingual identity. By integrating ideology, socialisation, and contextual transition, the framework addresses a gap in multilingual identity research by conceptualising and empirically demonstrating how contextual change and socialisation expose learners to alternative language ideologies that enable the reconstruction of multilingual identity across contexts.

Authors:
Bahar Balaban, Aksaray University, Tuerkiye

About the Presenter(s)
C. Bahar Balaban currently works in the Foreign Languages Education Department at Aksaray University in Türkiye, conducting more research, teaching skills-based courses as well as courses in the ELT degree programme.

Connect on Linkedin
https://linkedin.com/in/cemile-bahar-balaban-2897ab31

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

Bookmark