Exploring Imagined Identities and Communities among Learners of English as a Lingua Franca: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry

Authors

• Özge Kuru, English Language Education, Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul, TurkeyFollow
• Enisa Mede, English Language Education, Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul, TurkeyFollow

Abstract

Exploration of imagined identities and communities has been recognized as critical aspects in learning English as a foreign language. These two aspects perspectives differ as to how learners view themselves with respect to others through narratives and how they practise the language not only face to face but also in virtual interactions. This study aimed to explore how being a participant in virtual communities of practice affect the identity construction among English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) learners coming from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Jenkins, 2006). Specifically, we tried to find out how three Turkish ELF learners positioned themselves in their virtual communities of practice through their own re-told stories. Based on Wenger's (1998) classification on identity emergence in practice five deductive themes were derived using a constant comparative method. The narratives showed the learner's participation in virtual imagined communities give rise to an imagined identity which highlights the effect of learner's investment in the target language as well as the sense of belonging acquired through an ELF identity.

Keywords

imagined identity, virtual communities of practice, ELF, narrative inquiry

Author Bio(s)

Özge Kuru (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7987-3661) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Foreign Language Education program at Bahçeşehir University, Turkey. Her research interests include Global Englishes and teacher research. Please direct correspondence to ozgekuru81@gmail.com

Enisa Mede, Ph.D. (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6555-5248) is an Associate Professor at the Department of English Language Teaching, Bahçeşehir University, Turkey. She has authored numerous articles in indexed journals and published many chapters in national and international books. Her research interests include curriculum design and evaluation, differentiated instruction, pre-and in-service teacher education, and early bilingual education. Please direct correspondence to enisa.mede@bau.edu.tr

Acknowledgements

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Publication Date

5-19-2026

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Recommended APA Citation

Kuru, Ö., & Mede, E. (2026). Exploring imagined identities and communities among learners of English as a Lingua Franca: A qualitative narrative inquiry. The Qualitative Report, 31(5), 5889-5907.

ORCID ID

0000-0001-7987-3661