A Case Study Of Teacher Identity Construction In Junior English Classroom-Based On Linguistic Adaptation Theory

English classroom teaching has always been a heated topic that scholars and educators pay more and more attention to it.There are many studies that focus on English classroom teaching from different perspectives,trying to analyze how various kinds of teaching methods have an effect on improving the quality of classroom teaching.In recent years,some scholars hold that teacher identity plays a crucial part in classroom teaching.Considering theories of conversation analysis,code-switching and turn-taking as framework,they put emphasis on exploring the characteristic of teachers' utterance in English classroom.However,there are few theses that study teacher identity construction from the viewpoint of linguistic adaptation theory.Meanwhile,most scholars regard senior high school or college English teachers as research subjects,neglecting teacher identity construction in junior middle school.As the most fundamental stage of English classroom teaching,junior English teaching should also be included in research.Employing a case study,the present thesis selects four English teachers of Shida junior middle school in Yuanping city,Shanxi Province as research subjects.Conducting a classroom observation and interviews,the research carries out an investigation of four classes taught by those four junior English teachers for five months.Utterances involved in classroom teaching activities and contents of interviews are recorded by a mobile phone in the form of recordings.Some typical and representative recordings are selected and then are transcribed into texts.Based on Verschueren's linguistic adaptation theory,the present thesis makes an analysis of transcribed texts and thus studies teacher identity construction in junior English classroom.The present research aims at answering the following three questions:(1)What kinds of teacher identities are constructed in junior English classroom?(2)How are these teacher identities constructed in junior English classroom by making choices?(3)How do these teacher identities constructed in junior English classroom adapt to teaching contexts?According to the results of the research,teachers mainly construct three types of identities in junior English classroom,including an authoritative teacher identity,a guided teacher identity and an affiliative teacher identity.These three kinds of teacher identities are not constructed concretely.English teachers tend to make different language choices on the basis of different teaching situations,which helps to construct corresponding teacher identities dynamically.Specifically,an English teacher would like to choose ordering utterances to construct an authoritative identity;while he or she tends to choose explanatory utterances to construct a guided identity;when it comes to constructing an affiliative identity,an English teacher would make choices of adopting utterances involved in greeting,intimate address and praise.These three types of teacher identities are alternative in English classroom teaching,which aims at not only assisting teachers to achieve teaching objectives smoothly,to strengthen teaching effects and to improve teaching efficiency;but also encouraging students to be able to take part in teaching activities more actively,and thus to enhance their learning efficiency.Besides,the process of making language choices and constructing diversified identities in junior English classroom adapts to communicators' physical world,social world and mental world dynamically.Not only does this process adapt to different teaching contexts,but also helps to create a harmonious classroom teaching atmosphere and to improve classroom teaching quality.Therefore,the present thesis is of great significance that employs linguistic adaptation theory to study teacher identity construction in junior English classroom.Theoretically,both teacher identity construction and linguistic adaptation theory are very popular and innovative research perspectives and theories in recent years.The present thesis conducts a research on teachers' dynamic and multiple identities in junior English classroom,hoping it will provide a new idea for studies related to English teaching.On the other hand,considering from the practical aspect,through making a detailed analysis of linguistic strategies chosen by teachers and teaching effects achieved in junior English classroom,the present thesis intends to make English teachers put much emphasis on language choices made in the classroom.Thus,it is most likely that English teachers can construct appropriate identities,which contributes to achieving teaching objectives successfully.It is fundamental for guiding teaching practice.