Emotion and agency in building a Language Other Than English Teacher's research-teaching nexus

This autoethnographic study explores the role of emotion and agency in building the research-teaching nexus of a language other than English (LOTE) teacher over the course of a decade. It draws on multiple data sources provided by a French language teacher at a Chinese research university, including her academic CV, ten years of personal journals, a semi-structured interview, and narrative frames. Ultimately, the study identifies three phases of the link between the teacher’s research and teaching practices, with a particular focus on her perceived professional expertise, time and energy allocation, and the connection between research and teaching content. Specific agentic actions, such as self-talk, engagement with research, and establishing academic connections, are shown to co-occur with positive and/or negative emotions. Our findings also reveal a dynamic interplay between emotion and agency and the ways in which they work together to bridge the teacher’s research-teaching gap. The study discusses the implications of these findings regarding how to establish and strengthen the connection between language teachers’ research and teaching.