Bill Johnston

Meet the Faculty

Associate Professor, Second Language Studies and Comparative Literature

Photo of Bill Johnston Education

Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1995

Contact Information

e-mail: billj@indiana.edu
office: Memorial Hall 303
phone: (812) 855-4968

Research Interests

Second language pedagogy, language teacher education and teacher identity, classroom discourse analysis, moral dimensions of teaching

Personal Statement

My research has been in two principal areas. The first concerns various aspects of language teacher identity, including professional identity, the relationship between teacher identity and teacher knowledge, and teacher careers and life stories. The second area is that of the moral dimensions of language teaching, in other words the often competing values that together comprise the moral landscape of classrooms and educational institutions. The latter research agenda has led to two current projects-a book I am currently writing with Cary Buzzeli of Indiana University entitled Caring for the Many: The Moral Complexities of Schooling: and an ethnography of an evangelical Christian language school in Poland, for which I collected data last year while in Poland on a Fulbright Research Fellowship, and which I am currently writing up. I also have an interest in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), and for several years have offered workshops on methodology and materials development for LCTL teachers. I have a particular commitment to indigenous language revitalization, and in recent years I've been involved in providing teacher training for teachers of the Lakota language in North and South Dakota.

As well as my research in Second Language Studies I also work as a literary translator; I have translated numerous works from Polish. I have a split appointment with the Department of Comparative Literature, where I teach classes in translation and literature. Lastly, since 2001 I have served as Director of Indiana University’s Polish Studies Center.

Courses Recently Taught

T534 Methods in Teaching ESL/EFL to Adults
T536 Research in Second Language Pedagogical Contexts
T600 Language Classroom Discourse

Books and Articles

Books:

Johnston, B. (2007). Materials development for the less commonly taught languages: A guide and resource book. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.

Johnston, B. & Walls, K. (Eds.) (2007). Voice and vision in language teacher education. Selected papers from the Fourth International Conference on Language Teacher Education. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition.

Johnston, B. (2003). Values in English language teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Buzzelli, C. A. & Johnston, B. (2002). The moral dimensions of teaching: Language, power, and culture in classroom interaction. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Chapters in books:

Johnston, B. (2009). Is dialogue possible? Challenges to evangelicals and non-evangelicals. In M. Wong and S. Canagarajah (eds.), Christian educators and critical practitioners in dialogue: Ethical dilemmas in English language teaching (pp. 35-45). New York: Routledge.

Johnston, B. (2009). Collaborative teacher development. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (eds.), The Cambridge guide to language teacher education (pp. 241-249). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Johnston, B. & Buzzelli, C. A. (2007). The moral dimensions of language education. In S. May & N. Hornberger (eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 1. Language policy and political issues in education. (pp. 95-104). Berlin: Kluwer.

Johnston, B. & Varghese, M. M. (2006). Neo-imperialism, evangelism, and ELT: Modernist missions and a postmodern profession. In J. Edge (ed.), (Re-)locating TESOL in an age of empire. (pp. 195-207). London: Palgrave.

Johnston, B. (2004). Heteroglossia and linguistic neo-colonialism: English teaching in post-1989 Poland. In S. Forrester, M. Zaborowska, & E. Gapova (Eds.), Over the wall/after the fall: Post-totalitarian cultures East and West (pp. 126-145). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Johnston, B., Pawan, F., & Mahan-Taylor, R. (2004). The professional development of working ESL/EFL teachers: A pilot study. In D. J. Tedick (Ed.), Language teacher education: International perspectives on research and practice (pp. 53-72). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Journal articles:

Varghese, M. & Johnston, B. (2007). Evangelical Christians and English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 41, 9-31.

Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B, & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4, 21-44.

Johnston, B. (2002). The rise and fall of a Dakota immersion pre-school. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 23, 195-213.

Johnston, B. & Buzzelli, C. A. (2002). Expressive morality in a collaborative learning activity: A case study in the creation of moral meaning. Language and Education, 16, 37-47.

Johnston, B. & Goettsch, K. (2000). In search of the knowledge base of language teaching: Explanations by experienced teachers. Canadian Modern Language Review, 56, 437-468.

Johnston, B. (1999). The expatriate teacher as postmodern paladin. Research in the Teaching of English, 34, 255-280.

Johnston, B. (1999). Putting critical pedagogy in its place: A personal account. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 557-565.

Johnston, B., Juhász, A., Marken, J., & Ruiz, B.R. (1998). The ESL teacher as moral agent. Research in the Teaching of English, 32, 161-181.

Johnston, B. (1997). Do EFL teachers have careers? TESOL Quarterly, 31, 681-712.

Recent Plenaries and Conference Presentations:

Johnston, B. (2009). The moral lives of language teacher educators. Plenary address at the Sixth International Conference on Language Teacher Education, Washington, DC, May.

Guerrettaz, A. M. & Johnson, B. (2009). Materials in the classroom ecology. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Denver, CO, March.

Azimova, N. & Johnston, B. (2009). Invisibility and ownership of language: Problems of representation in Russian language textbooks. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Denver, CO, March.

Johnston, B. (2008). What should a language teacher education program look like?: Beyond teacher knowledge. Plenary address given at the Second International Conference on Professional Development for Foreign Language Teachers, Medellín, Collumbia, August.

Johnston, B. (2007). Decisions, Decisions: The Moral Complexities of ESL Teaching. Keynote address given at the MinneTESOL Annual Convention, Minneapolis, MN, November.