Exploring Interpreting-major Students’ Perceived Professional Identity

In this study,interpreting-major students’ perceived professional identity is defined as students’ dynamic perception of interpreting profession(Jackson 2016).Following Duff(2019)’s multi-scalar approach of language learners’ social development,this thesis extends the inquiry of how interpreting-major students perceive their professional identity by conducting qualitative research on interpreting-major students in a Chinese university.Based on semi-structured interviews with 12 interpreting-major students,this thesis aims to explore the two research questions:1)What are the patterns of students’ current perceived professional identity?2)What are the influencing factors of their perceived professional identity?Findings indicate that students’ perceived professional identity displays three patters:First,"the determined",this refers to students who expressed high commitment to interpreting profession.Despite difficulties and challenges faced during interpreting learning and work,they still hold positive attitude on their perceived professional identity in interpreting profession.Second,"the wavers",students who wave between willingness to perform interpreting profession and intention to give up.Third,"the exhausted",students who have made the decision to give up interpreting as their future profession.Influencing factors of these three patterns include:1)Micro level:personal attitude on language and confidence in linguistic proficiency;2)Meso level:teachers’ teaching practices at school,connection with learning community,peer competition over linguistic perfectionism and interactions at workplace as interpreters;3)Macro level:English as a valued resource,interpreting market dynamics,and neoliberalism in language learning.Based on the findings of the thesis,it is suggested that future studies address more issues on interpreting-major students’ learning experiences under influencing factors at macro,meso and micro levels.