Complexities of Identity Formation 1

Complexities of Identity Formation: A narrative Inquiry of an EFL Teacher by Amy B. M. Tsui (2007)

New Words
-Our interest converged on the subject.
-I felt a sense of alienation from society.
-The coach lumped the boys and girls together in one gym class.
-She’s been posted to Washington for two years.
-Fresh vegetables are scarce in winter.
-A country bumpkin is a person from the countryside who seems stupid.
-His public persona is quite different from the family man described in the book.
-They all huddled around the fire.
-I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room.
-The thief cursed the police for finding him.
-The police intensified their investigation.
-He ascribes his poverty to his parents.
-She had the implicit trust of her stuff.
-I blamed the accident on him. = I blamed him for the accident.
-She deeply ashamed of her behavior at the party.

main points
Wenger’s social theory of identity formation (1998)
Identity formation is a dual process of identification and negotiation of meanings.
Identification
-It is the investment of self in building associations and differentiations.
-It is reificative and participative belonging.
-It is relational and experiential.
-It consists of three modes of belonging.
1 engagement-roles and relations with other people in the community
2 imagination- relations to the world beyond the community
3 alignment-power through coercion and oppression and leads to dissociation and alienation
Negotiation of meanings-the production and adoption of meanings

The ELT landscape in China
-The necessity of English communication with foreigners has increased dramatically since 1978.
-University graduates were found to be highly competent in writing and grammar, but poor in speaking and listening.
-Most middle-school graduates found it hard to converse in simple English even after 900 hours of learning.
-A large number of native speakers of English have been recruited from the West.
-In 1985 the Ministry of Education recommended CLT for nation-wide adoption. CLT was considered a new method and approach as opposed to traditional approach (TM) although Chinese learners have different cultural background from western culture.

Minfang’s EFL Learner Identities
-Most of the teachers had never found themselves in a situation where they had to use English for daily conversational.
-Students needed to change to different personae.
-Instantaneous oral participation in class required students to express opinions spontaneously without careful thinking.
-This activity went against the Chinese culture, which attaches a great deal of importance to making thoughtful remarks and not babbling before one has thought things through.
-He believed strongly that he could develop communicative competence through daily interaction with his friends.
-His English movement comes from his hard work after class, not from CLT class.
-He thinks TM is no worse than CLT.

Minfang’s EFL Teacher Identities
First 2 years
-He was assigned to teach listening skills which was considered auxiliary.
-He had an implicit belief that TM worked better.
-He did not know how to deal with the intimate relationship with his students.
-He became a popular teacher, but he didn’t want to be because it is perceived as a teacher of little substance and one who has nothing but relationships to win the students’ hearts. Too friendly, undermine authority
After the first 2 years
-He was assigned to teach the CLT course.
-He was a faked CLT practitioner and he taught in eclectic approach.
-In MA, he found the misconception of CLT.
-In PhD, he felt that the teacher’s lived experience in the classroom was the best guide for pedagogical decision-making.

Conclusion
-Competence and legitimacy of access to practice are important for identity formation as well.
-Participation is central to identity formation.
-The interplay of identification and the negotiability of meanings could generate identity conflicts. These conflicts could lead to new relations with members of the community, new ownership of meanings or identities of marginality, disengagement and nonparticipation.