Case Study Of Novice English Teachers’ Professional Identity In Junior Middle Schools

The initial teaching period of teaching is crucial to a novice teacher’s careerlife，as it is a process of his or her being socialized in the professional context，namely，merging into the school, professional framework and social structure. Inorder to understand the novice teacher’s growth process, this study explores theproblems that the novice English teachers are confronted with during the process ofidentity construction, analyzes the internal and external factors that influence noviceEnglish teachers’ development, and provides some suggestions for future practice.Considering the purpose of the study, narrative inquiry and case study areadopted in the eight-month study. The participants consist of two novice Englishteachers, a male and a female, who are now teaching as novice English teachers injunior middle schools. This study explores the two new teachers’ first year teachingexperience through narrative inquiry, summarizes problems that the novice teachersencountered and finds out the possible influencing factors of novice teachers’ identity.The data of study are the details of the novice teachers in the school teaching work, bymeans of classroom observation, interview, to reflect the novice teachers’ working inthe identity of the first year, and internal and external factors affecting the identity.Results show that a novice English teachers’ internal factors such as educationconcept, personality, teachers’ emotion, professional culture group, teachers, teachingevaluation system and other external factors, will affect their identity. As noviceteachers, two participants met the conflicts between ideal teaching and reality. Inteaching practice, Zhang Lin suffered from the poor teacher teaching environment,low English proficiency level of the students, who often felt confused. Lin Tao wasobsessed by the complicated and indifferent interpersonal relationship. NoviceEnglish teachers will face a number of problems from the field of teaching, socialrelationship, and other obstacles, which reflects the complexity of the novice teachers’identity. Some implications can be drawn. First of all, the novice English teachers andpre-service English teachers should make efforts to lay a solid English foundation,especially correct pronunciation, intonation, and pedagogical knowledge. Second, it isimportant and urgent for novice English teachers to realize the multiple identities oftheir career, and to handle the relationship with colleagues and students by learningand using psychological knowledge. Third, being lack of professional experience, thenovice teachers should ask for help in an appropriate way. Therefore, balancing theconflicts between the ideal teaching and teaching reality, novice English teachers needto set up professional plans. In the end, the teaching work of novice English teachersis trivial and meticulous, novice English teachers need to turn to schools andexperienced teachers for help. In order to get and improve teaching ability, noviceEnglish teachers should think deeply in the process of teachers’ professional identity,deal well with the problems like poor teaching reality, complex interpersonalrelationship, and achieve a comprehensive understanding of teachers’ professionalidentity.