www.sciedu.ca/wjel World Journal of English Language Vol. 2, No. 4; 2012 Published by Sciedu Press 32 ISSN 1925-0703 E-ISSN 1925-0711 Discourse and Commodified Identities Construction: Case Studies of Iranian EFL Learners and Teachers at Private Language Schools Azar Hosseini Fatemi 1 , Reza Pishghadam 1 & Seyyed Mohammad Reza Adel 1, * 1 English Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran *Corresponding author: English Department, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Park Square, PO box 9177948974, Iran E-mail: adelzero@yahoo.co.uk Received: September 24, 2012 Accepted: November 8, 2012 Online Published: December 12, 2012 doi:10.5430/wjel.v2n4p32 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v2n4p32 Abstract The purpose of this cultural study was the analysis of commodified identities construction in an EFL context. Our site of struggle for the analysis was a private institution and the related variables were English textbooks, six teachers and six learners as our cases. Our whole data collection took from 23 September 2010 to 30 September 2011. Our theoretical framework was inspired by constructivism and in particular Bakhtin's dialogism and we followed an ethnographic methodology in our data collection. The results of the content analysis of the textbooks, teachers and learners' data showed the existence and construction of commodified identities, though there were intra and inter variations among the teachers' responses regarding commodified identities. The results were discussed in connection with the context of language teaching and some pedagogical implications were also suggested. Keywords: Commodified identities construction; Dialogism; Private schools; Textbooks; Learners; Teachers 1. Introduction In the present study, we have tried to investigate the role of commodified identities construction in an EFL situation through a case study. Constructivism in general and dialogism in particular are our theoretical frameworks. We have probed the role of commodified identities construction in a private school with six learners and six teachers. Therefore, in what follows, we try to give a brief review of our theoretical paradigm and related concepts and then pose our related research questions for that matter. 2. Literature Review Broadly speaking, there are two perspectives or paradigm shifts in the history of identity. On the one hand, it has been treated as an essential or cognitive phenomenon that governs human action, and on the other hand, it has been considered as a public phenomenon, a performance or construction that is interpreted by other people. The shift has been a move from essentialism to constructionism or social constructivism; in other words from analyzing linguistic identity as a given and fixed aspect of who an individual or group is, to something changeable and variable as it is constructed and performed. Essentialism means 'the assumption that groups, categories or classes of objects have one or several defining features exclusive to all members of that category' (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 2000, p.77). In constructionism, the subject assumes different identities at different time. Within us are differing identities, pulling in different directions so that our identifications are continuously being modified. 'We are confronted by a bewildering, fleeting multiplicity of possible identities, any one of which we could identify with – at least temporarily' (Hall, 1992, p. 277). In the present study we have discussed commodified identities as one type of identities from the perspective of dialogism theory of Bakhtin which is constructivist. Among the very core concepts of dialogism, two important concepts, which are related to our study, are discussed briefly. For Bakhtin a word is a world. He declares that, 'an individual's becoming, an ideological process, is characterized precisely by a sharp gap between . . . the authoritative word (religious, political, moral; the word of a father, of adults and of teachers, etc.) that does not know internal persuasiveness, and . . . the internally persuasive word that is denied all privilege, backed up by no authority at all, and is frequently not even acknowledge in society'