Introduction

Language teachers’ professional practice has been made increasingly complex and challenging due to changing educational conditions, especially language policy shifts and curriculum reform in many contexts. As ‘the one language-one nation ideology of language policy and national identity is no longer the only available one worldwide’, they face more challenges in their professional practice (Hornberger 2002, p. 29). Yet, very little research has examined specifically the complexity of becoming language teachers in multilingual contexts. This book is a collection of studies that we have undertaken to explore and understand the challenges that one faces in their journey to becoming language teachers in one of such multilingual contexts, namely Hong Kong. The issue has always fascinated us because Hong Kong has such dynamic complex conditions for individuals to pursue a career in language teaching. These complexities will be thoroughly examined in this book and deserve being mentioned briefly here.