Teachers’ Positioning Of EFL Learners’ Identities In Middle School Classroom

The study focuses on teachers positioning of young EFL learners. It aims to addressthe following research questions：How is a teacher s positioning of a student made in anEFL classroom? How does the EFL student react to the teacher s positioning of him/her?How does the teacher s positioning affect him/her?To answer the questions above, an empirical observation has been conducted duringthree months (from Mar.2013to Jun.2013) in a typical Chinese middle school classroom.Data thus collected was processed with an ethnographic approach within a framework ofthree context stages.I specifically examined teachers positioning of three focal EFL learners with adiscourse analysis on the content stage and an ethnographic analysis on the institutional andcumulative stage, in order to form a whole picture of how teachers positioning of them isconstructed and how learners react to the teachers positioning.Conclusions are drawn that teachers positioning of EFL students is made mainly fromtwo sources: contextual factors and students reflexive positioning. Positioning basedheavily on classroom contextual factors may lead to a huge misalignment between teachers positioning and learners actual identity, thus triggering learners resistance against teachers positioning in a self-destructive way. The misalignment can be avoided when teachers basehis/her positioning on learners reflexive positioning with reference to contextual factors,thus generating a comfortable environment for learners EFL study and display of learners identity. Teachers should note that privilege should not be associated with a particular kindof positioning, which may motivate students to adapt themselves to the positioning onpurpose. This may cause a repression on the display of their identity and undermining theircapacity and potential in the long run. Corresponding academic and pedagogicalimplications are summarized based on the findings from the study.