Language Learning Experiences and Learners' Agentic Responses: Exploring Potential Spaces for Using English

As the mobility of young women in hard-to-reach contexts increases, there remains a lack of longitudinal systematic research documenting how the use of a foreign language influences their access to opportunities for self-growth beyond their local urban and tribal environments. This area of study is still in its early stages. Therefore, this paper adopts an ecological theorisation of language learner agency to explore the personal, academic, and professional trajectories of Rafeef, a young tribal Saudi woman, examining how these trajectories mediate her actions and choices and vice versa. Methodologically, the study introduces an innovative three-cycle analysis procedure in which data collected from interviews, semiotic resources, and field notes were analysed and spatiotemporally situated to develop templates of narrative frames. Rafeef completed nine narrative frames between October 2022 and May 2024, providing coherent accounts of her experiences. These narratives were analysed individually and synthesised comparatively to capture how Rafeef represented, interpreted, and enacted her choices and constructed her identity through her narratives. The findings reveal Rafeef’s authentic trajectory of growth, where her language learning and personal, academic, and professional development are closely intertwined. The study highlights how language learners’ agency is not always context-bound, linear, or entirely positive, as it can be cyclical and emotionally complex, thus making the concept of agency even more nuanced.