Unpacking professional identities for Business English students

Professional identities are often conceived as an important goal for learners of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) (Dressen-Hammouda 2008; Smart and Brown 2002; Artemeva 2009). While this conception makes sense if we follow Lave and Wenger's (1991: 55) theory that learning is a trajectory of "knowledgeably skilled identities", little research in the field of ESP has attempted to clarify what constitutes professional identities. As Belcher and Lukkarila (2011) demonstrate, a focus on identity or who ESP learners want to become may contribute usefully to the understanding of learners' investment in language learning. An explicit description of professional identities is therefore important for understanding learning experiences in general and ESP learning in particular.