Migration is commonly seen as disrupting individuals' sense of continuity and agency. In current research on adult identity development, (self-)narratives are regarded as a means of making sense of self. In a study aiming at examining how identity processes were managed and produced during self-narration by immigrant women in a language learning setting, we combined an interactionist methodology with a sociocultural and dialogical perspective. Data were gathered throughout an intervention designed to encourage participants to put their personal experiences of migration into words in narrative form. Verbal interactions were analysed to identify 1) narrative discursive units, 2) processes of narrative co-construction, 3) agentic relationships in and on the narratives. Results, illustrated with various excerpts, showed that self-narratives arose from dynamic interactions in which participants displayed discursive skills in negotiating status and instructions, supported the cognitive and affective work of narrating in a foreign language, and constructed agency that challenged the poor immigrant woman image. The potential of analysing the interactional processes of co-constructing self-narratives is discussed in terms of its theoretical and methodological contributions in the field of identity research. © 2019

Agency Migration narrative Identity Language learning Social interaction

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