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Graduation Term
Spring 2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Department of English
Committee Chair
Lisya Seloni
Committee Member
Rachel Gramer
Committee Member
Hayriye Kayı-Aydar
Abstract
This dissertation responds to the current necessities in US higher education, particularly in English Language Institutes serving culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) international students. It investigates the positioning acts of CLD graduate students through their narratives and in academic writing. Using positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 1990; Kayı-Aydar, 2019) and metadiscourse analysis (Hyland, 2005; Halliday, 1985) as methodological frameworks, this ethnographically-oriented multiple case study argues positioning acts are discursive practices that are socially and culturally situated, and it addresses the following research questions: (1) How do CLD graduate students describe their lived experiences during their first year in the United States while studying English? (2) What kinds of positional identities do they develop through their lived experiences in the United States while studying English? and (3) How do they position themselves and others in their academic writing? The findings of the study illustrate that the CLD graduate students (1) shift their self-positioning in writing over time and across disciplinary discourses as they experience a change in their subject positions while adapting to positions of less power, (2) rely on source texts and intertextuality before positioning themselves as knowledgeable members of their discourses in their academic writing, and (3) they are influenced by their beliefs, assumptions, and prior experiences, particularly about the place of the self in academic spaces as well as about concepts of politeness, sincerity, and humility in the way they position themselves in academic discourses. The findings presented have implications for English Language Institutes, academic (English) writing courses or pathway programs (as well as similar transitional spaces), and instructors of CLD graduate students in terms of pedagogical considerations for to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Access Type
Dissertation-ISU Access Only
Recommended Citation
Yigitbilek, Demet, "Positioning in Narrative and Writing: An Ethnographic Study of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Graduate Students in an English Language Institute" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 2109.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/2109