Understanding EFL Instructor Identity Changes During Online Teaching in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in China

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 witnesses a sudden surge of fully online classes globally. Scholarly attention has promptly shifted to explore the personal experiences and perceived challenges of students and teachers. For English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors around the world, many are required to teach online for the first time, yet studies on their teacher identity development in online teaching contexts remain limited. To address this gap, the researchers conducted a case study of three EFL instructors in a Chinese university within an online semester to understand how their online teacher identities developed and shifted. The concepts of ‘imagined and practiced identity’ and social representation theory have been adopted as the conceptual framework. The findings revealed the trajectories of three online EFL instructors as their imagined identities evolved and renegotiated into their practiced ones based on individual and contextual factors. The findings reveal a lack of rule-based identities from the participants and highlight the need for pedagogical and psychological support for EFL teachers when they transition to an online context. Recommendations are made accordingly.

Teaching and learning languages online: Challenges and responses

“…Research has noted that online teaching has a significant impact on language teachers' emotional experience, identity change, and pedagogical competence. For example, when language teachers do not find their imagined identity (e.g., an entertaining, interesting, and uplifting teacher) to be feasible in the virtual space, they necessarily take on a pragmatic identity, shifting attention to examinations and course quality ( Yuan & Liu, in press ). In a similar vein, Gao & Cui, (in press) argue that teachers’ pedagogical beliefs about teacher roles (i.e.…”

The moderating effect of participation in online learning activities and perceived importance of online learning on EFL teachers’ teaching ability

“…Considering teachers, research shows that online resources and platforms can improve their pedagogical effectiveness [ 47 ], translingual and collaborative practices [ 48 ], professional identity [ 49 ], interactional competence [ 40 ], and emotional experiences [ 50 ]. These outcomes and opportunities offered by online education inspired EFL teachers to take different roles and work on more competencies required in remote education.…”

“…In another study, Yuan and Liu [ 49 ] contended that L2 teachers’ identity shifts from imagined identity to pragmatic identity depending on the virtual space and resources. Likewise, Gao and Cui [ 61 ], examined teachers’ pedagogical beliefs about teacher roles and asserted that the use of online teaching activities depends on teachers’ beliefs about teaching.…”

Face-to-Face and Online Learning in Higher Education: Academic Achievements and Learners’ Experience in the Chinese SFL Context

“…Previous studies on language teaching in the pandemic era focused mainly on English (Erarslan, 2021; Kamal et al, 2021; Moorhouse & Kohnke, 2021; Rong & Abdullah, 2022; Sugianto & Ulfah, 2020; Yi & Jang, 2020; Yuan & Liu, 2021), few studies attempted to delve into the situation of other languages. As there are currently a large number of Chinese students learning Spanish as a second foreign language, this study aimed to enrich the empirical repository with data from a Chinese University.…”