期刊文章分类查询,尽在期刊图书馆 1.Introduction
In recent years, some universities in China have set up English-related blended learning MA programs for those who cannot participate in the full-time ones. In contrast with those full-time students, the part-time students from these blended learning programs may have more diversified learning and working background, weaker English language proficiency, limited study time, fewer opportunities to talk to their supervisors face-to-face. This study aims to explore how these part-time graduates construct their self-identities with their learning process. It is hopefully to benefit both the program administrators and the future students participating in the similar programs.
Different scholars have contributed their ideas about identity. “It is concerned with how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future” (Norton 1997: 410). Horowitz (2012: 2) said, “Identity exists in past, present, and future frames. I am ‘the me’ that was and my present contains a focus on my becoming even more me in the near future.” As far as self-identity, Gao et al. (2003: 69) described it was a psychological concept: “people construct their self-identities to understand their personal traits, potential, characteristics, interests and social demands and to find the connection between individuals and the society so as to position one’s own identities.”
Lambert (1979) was the pioneer in the study of the relationship between language and identity by proposing a social psychological model of second language acquisition. In his opinion, the achievement in foreign language proficiency involved not only cognitive factors such as aptitude, but also affective factors such as attitudes and motivation. Furthermore, he argued that the development in the proficiency in a second language had implications for the individual’s self identity, and in turn, the individual’s self-identity had implications for second language acquisition. And when individuals began to develop proficiency in the second language, they might begin to experience the changes of self-identity.
Regarding to the changes of self-identity, Lambert (1979) proposed two terms: “additive bilingualism” and “subtractive bilingualism”. Gao et al. (2003) argued that when learning a new language, the native language/culture and the target language/culture are not simply the relationship of “either…or” or “both…and”; two linguistic and cultural systems can help to promote each other instead of simply “adding to” or “subtracting from” one another. There should be an integration and interdependence between the two. Thus a new term “productive bilingualism” was proposed by Gao (1994).
Gao (1994) remarked that two languages and two cultural identities could coexist and play a positive role in the learners’ communicative activities.
Previous studies have paid much attention to the self-identities construction and development of full-time undergraduates and graduates of English and non-English majors in China (Gao et al., 2003; Li et al., 2003; Ren, 2008; Zhang, 2012; Xu & Gao, 2014). Few studies have been conducted on the basis of Chinese part-time graduates.
The research questions are as follows: 1) To what extent and in what way does English learning process correlate with the part-time graduates’ construction of self-identities? 2) Are there any connections among learners’ motivations and the macro social contexts, and the micro learning contexts? If yes, what are they? 3) What features do the self-identities of these part-time learners?
2.Research Methods
Both participants are from a blended learning TEFL MA program of a key university of China. They were enrolled in 2015. The qualitative research approach is proposed for this study. As this was a pilot study, only two participants were selected randomly from this program.
Interviews have been conducted in an informal conversational style either by Wechat or QQ. These interviews varied in length from 40 minutes to 60 minutes. Having adopted the bottom-up analysis to the transcripts from the interviews, the following common themes were found: 1) Background before participating in this program; 2) individual’s endeavor and interaction with the fellow students during the first term of this program; 3) contradictions and clashes occurred in the process of self-identity construction; 4) the intended plans for the future; 5) the predominant orientations between English learning and self-identity.
3.Two individual cases
This study aims to explore students’ identity issues about English learning in a part-time postgraduate program offered by a key university in China. The two participants were from Grade 2015, Blended-Learning MA Program for English Language Education.
Student A, in her early twenties, obtained her bachelor degree of English literature in 2014, besides she has passed TEM-4 and TEM-8. She once succeeded in the written examination yet failed in the final interview when applying for a full-time postgraduate program of one of the foreign studies universities in China. Then, she worked for a well-known educational institution as an English teacher, where she found that she fell love with being a teacher and really enjoyed the time spending with her students, yet meanwhile lacking teaching methodology theories impeded her career development. Finally, this program provided her a chance to further her study by fully satisfying her intended major and future career requirements.
Student B, an English teacher from a key secondary school of Beijing, is going to celebrate her birthday of forty soon. Out of her own occupation development’s consideration and personal interest, she chose this program.
The two students were highly contented with all the four courses in the first term of this program including their course design, instructors, teaching methods. Student A stated that although some tasks are demanding and even torturing but they all turned out to be instructive and beneficial. Student B said, “Since I’m an English teacher of the junior middle school, this program is almost tailor-made for me. Each and every course is practical and useful for my own teaching.” Student A thought the two most salient problems were: the great amount of reading lists required for each course and lacking systematic theories foundation; and still as a busy teacher, Student B was regretful that she could not yet solve the problem of lacking reading time. The two agreed that this program had impacted them positively in many ways. Through this program, they were able to surf in the state-of-the-art TEFL research and learn more skills other than English alone. Student A was impressed by one of professors’ argument that one can only speak or act with solid foundations. Student B was especially excited to have found the theory basis for her previous teaching practice. They believed that one would be returned if they work hard enough. When dealing with all the assignments and term papers, Student A was quite confident with the former but not with the latter; by contrast, Student B was fully confident with the both since she was a competent English teacher for years. When answering the question of “How do you mange to balance your work, learning and life”, Student A was relatively easy to solve this since she was free to work; and Student B regarded that work and learning were all for better life, so she quite enjoyed in the process. Upon completion of this program, Student A would like to apply for a teacher-related job while Student B would apply all she had learned from this program to her teaching. As students of TEFL major, Student A thought English not only helped her become more confident but also made her realize what she wanted in the future career.
From the interview, we can clearly see that both participants have relatively competent English language proficiency before participating in “this program”. In spite of their different background in terms of their ages, education, working experiences and intended goals for this program, they do share some common sense about their English learning and about this program: averagely, they spent around 20 hours a week in the learning of this program; they further understand what TEFL means after a term’s learning; they agree that after years’ learning of English, they love their own countries and cultures more and more and they are willing to embrace the diversity of other cultures; they acknowledge that they have advanced in their mother tongue especially their writing skills as their learning of English; they both think the university is a prestigious one of foreign languages, which attract them to participate in this program. What’s more, they are fully contented with the program itself and have truly felt their own improvement. Therefore, they would like to recommend this program to their friends.
Noticeably, they have different solutions to address their own problems in their learning process. Student A is trying to find peers’ assistance and supervision while Student B is more independent. When dealing with the great amount of assignments, Student B is more confident than Student A because the former is good at time-management and self-management.
4.Conclusion
The two students are ones who are under almost the same macro and micro contexts, yet they have their own self-identities. Nevertheless, the participants do indicate some similarities.
4.1Language learning and self-identities
The research may indicate that language learning could impact learners’ development of their characteristics, interests, values, spoken styles and future occupation, which are similar to the findings of Gao (2003), she argued that “in the foreign language learning context, English learning could be greatly involved in the self-identity construction by exceeding the instrumental language knowledge and skill mastery.”
4.2Learner’s motivations
In the foreign language learning context, being confined by the macro and micro conditions, the individual’s motivations are dependent on the learners’ understanding and evaluation on their own capacities.
4.3Features of the self-identities of these part-time learners
Generally, they are confident, extrovert and easy-going. After years of English learning, they are willing to learn from the merits of the western culture and are able to have a critical judgment on their own cultures. They cherish their opportunities to study in this program and want to be an indispensible part of the university.
It is assumed that those elder learners with some work experiences are better at manage their time and balance their life and are liable to better adapt themselves to the demanding learning.
Due to the limited number, background and the learning context of the participants, this study may have some limitations.
References：
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论文作者:曾晔
论文发表刊物:《成功》2019年第4期
论文发表时间:2019/6/24
标签：英语论文; 学习者论文; 自我论文; 语言文学论文; 期刊论文; 外国论文; 外语教学论文; 《成功》2019年第4期论文;