Discursive Construction Of Chinese Senior High School English Teacher's Pragmatic Identity—a Case Study

This paper aims at exploring discursive construction of high school English teacher's pragmatic identity in a case study.A high school English teacher Lucy was chosen as the subject whose class was observed and recorded and semi-structured interview was also conducted with Lucy.Based on Chen's(2013)analytical framework,discursive practices concerning identity construction were analyzed in Lucy's classroom discourse to demonstrate different types of pragmatic identities constructed by her.Under the guidance of adaptation theory,the choice of certain pragmatic identity was illustrated.Through discourse analysis,person-referencing practices,speech act,discourse feature,discourse content,lexical choice were found to be discursive practices concerning identity construction,which help construct four types of pragmatic identities: authoritative teacher identity,knowledgeable teacher identity,modest teacher identity,and amiable teacher identity.Based on adaptation theory,each pragmatic identity would adapt to physical world,social world,and mental world respectively.For future studies,the research of discursive construction of high school teacher's pragmatic identity can provide a new research perspective.For teachers,the findings would enable them to better understand their identity and adjust their classroom discourse appropriately.