| Teacher professional identity plays an irreplaceable role in the process of professional development and teaching practicum is regarded as one of the most important avenues to cultivate and construct pre-service teacher professional identity.During practicum,pre-service teacher professional identity is inevitably affected by surrounding social context.Cooperating teachers are significant others in teaching context and their influence on student teacher professional identity has been proved in much literature.It is confirmed that studying pre-service teacher professional identity during practicum is beneficial to teacher educators and school-based mentors to better guide prospective teachers and deepen mutual understanding of "teacher" profession.At present,research on the influence of school-based mentor support on pre-service teacher professional identity is relatively scarce.It is mainly concentrated on teacher educators instead of school-based mentors.The research subjects are mainly undergraduate or normal students,and rarely involve graduate students.In view of this,it is particularly necessary to deepen the domestic practice of pre-service English teachers and the construction of the internship team.This study divides mentor support into three dimensions,namely,the dimensions of management,instructional and emotional support.Professional identity of English teachers is divided into three dimensions:cognitive,emotional and behavioral identity.Through the adaptation of the "Internship Mentor Support Questionnaire" and "Foreign Language Teacher Professional Identity Questionnaire",combined with interviews and participatory observation,the purpose is to explore the influence of school-based mentor support on EFL pre-service teacher professional identity.This study,hence,is aimed to address the following three issues:(1)What is the level of school-based mentor support on EFL pre-service teachers during practicum?(2)Which aspects of EFL pre-service teacher professional identity are influenced more salient by school-based mentor support?Which aspects are influenced less salient?(3)How school-based mentor affect or influence EFL pre-service teacher professional identity?This study chooses the cohort of 2017 M.Ed.students from the Central China Normal University and uses a combination of questionnaires,interviews and participatory observation.Through the analysis and investigation of the results based on research data,it is found that:(1)Support from mentors in management,instruction and emotion is at medium-high level and emotional support is at the highest level.(2)The influence of school-based mentor support on the cognitive and emotional dimensions of EFL pre-service teacher professional identity is more prominent.The influence on behavioral dimension is less salient.(3)Mentors support EFL pre-service teachers and influence teachers’professional identity through after-class feedback and emotional encouragement and tolerance.This study has certain significance for improving the quality of domestic educational internships.It can inspire communication and cooperation between universities and practicum schools.In addition,for school-based mentors,they can better understand their roles as teacher educators during practicum and thus provide better support.Finally,for EFL pre-service teachers,this study will help them understand the ways and functions of their professional development,realize the importance of the practicum process to their formation of professional identity and inspire them to win mentors’support and take the teaching practicum more seriously. |
