12 Preservice English language teachers and informal digital learning of English (IDLE) in Kazakhstan

Given that existing digital affordances offer contemporary language learners ample opportunities to be exposed to authentic language and culture learning experiences in online environments, this chapter adopts a critical approach for examining how undergraduate preservice English teachers negotiate and balance their language learner and language teacher identities. To do so, we adopt a qualitative research design informed by 32 semi-structured interviews with prospective English language teachers from Kazakhstani universities. Research findings allow us to address beliefs about the concept of informal digital learning of English (IDLE) and to provide possible clarifications for the results obtained. In addition, we discuss plausible explanations for the contradictions expressed by interviewees and propose further research pathways.