Non-native Speaker Identities Among Border-crossing Scientists and Engineers in the US Grant

I am seeking seed-grant funding to study the negotiation of their non-native English speaker identities by faculty in the disciplines of science and engineering at US universities. In this research, I pay attention to how the faculty negotiate their language expertise, how they deal with their perceived and real language-related challenges, and whether they conform to or challenge the ‘standard’ language norms in their teaching and professional communication. This topic carries a special significance in these two disciplines in the US context because they consist of a large number of students and faculty who use English as their second language.

With the help of a research assistant, I will interview 20 such faculty from various campuses at the University of Idaho, and conduct a qualitative analysis. This research will primarily help us advance knowledge on how language identities impact professions. By the end, I will be able to present my findings at a conference, produce an article manuscript, and deliver a professional development workshop. As a secondary outcome, the findings will provide insights to US universities to address the linguistic and cultural diversity in their institutions by designing appropriate professional development activities for international faculty.