A Study Of The Discursive Construction Of College English Teachers’ Pragmatic Identities In Shuoke

With the rise of the postmodernist trend in Western thought,identity studies have also undergone a shift from essentialism to constructivism,and its construction has attracted considerable attention in pragmatic study owing to its dynamic,multiple,and purposeful nature in verbal communication.On the one hand,scholars have introduced the perspective of identity into the study of traditional pragmatic topics.On the other hand,scholars have studied identity constructions from a pragmatic perspective.Pragmatic identity has been used in different data for multidimensional perspective studies,and the objects of concern are extensive,including expert teachers,advertisers,media person,doctors and teachers etc.Previous studies of English teachers’ identities have sought to gain a comprehensive understanding of how discursive practices construct certain identities,and have expanded the research object from a single group of foreign language teachers in primary,secondary,and higher education to novice teachers,preservice teachers and higher vocational teachers.Research also becomes more focused,including the motives,strategies,and validity evaluation of the pragmatic identities.However,many studies are still based on classroom contexts,little attention has been paid to teachers’ pragmatic identities in contexts such as shuoke practices.In view of this,this study will focus on the pragmatic identities constructed by Chinese college English teachers in the context of shuoke practices.Based on the theoretical foundation of pragmatic identity theory,this study collected 10 first-prize videos in the university English category of the First Foreign Language Curriculum Ideology and Politics Teaching Competition,built a small corpus,and used MAXQDA data analysis software to code the data.By combining quantitative and qualitative analyses to investigate the construction of teachers’ discursive identities in shuoke practices,this study answers two research questions: 1.What types and distribution of pragmatic identities are constructed by college English teachers in shuoke practices and how are they distributed? 2.How are these identities constructed by college English teachers through discursive practices?The study found that teachers constructed four main discursive identities in the lectures,namely,information deliverer,creator,researcher,and value guider.The frequency of these identities were 45.83%,12.27%,25.00%,and 16.90%,respectively.Teachers use macro and micro discursive practices to construct different identities.At the macro level,teachers usually use discourse content of topic and connective components on discourse level to construct information deliverer identity;discourse content to construct creator identity;inferential discourse markers to construct researcher identity;and quotation of discourse content to construct values guider identity.On the micro level,imperative and interrogative sentences of lexicogrammatical choices,engagement markers,representatives and expressives of speech acts are used to construct the information deliverer;the researcher identity is constructed through jargon and representatives;and the creator identity is constructed through the use of boosters and attitude markers.Value guider identity is constructed through the use of grammatical-level of interrogatives and speech acts of representatives and commissives.Research shows that the construction of teachers’ pragmatic identities in shuoke practices is a dynamic process in which teachers need to make constant choices in relation to the shuoke practices,communicative purpose,and subject matter,and respond to various contextual factors in shuoke practices.Through rational language expressions,teachers construct their identities as information deliverer,researchers,creators,and value guiders,reflecting the deeper thoughts and ideas behind their teaching behaviors,and thus reflecting the depth of teachers’ knowledge about curriculum and teaching,unique insights into teaching design,deeper reflections on teaching practice,and deeper exploration of the ideological values and spiritual connotations contained in the curriculum.This study is an attempt to analyze the concept of pragmatic identity in the discourse of shuoke practices.In terms of theoretical significance,it enriches the theory of pragmatic identity,reveals how identity is constructed in shuoke practices and helps teachers better understand the shuoke practices and its discourse.In terms of practical value,it helps English teachers to master the approach of constructing pragmatic identity through discursive practice selection,so that they can better connote the curriculum,meet the requirements of shuoke practices,and achieve the objectives of shuoke practices.