A Study Of The Professional Identity Of College English Teachers In The "Internet Plus" Era

The teaching concepts and modes of higher education have been updated in the"Internet Plus" era,which imposes opportunities and challenges to college English teachers in China,and stimulates the innovation of college English teachers'professional identity(TPI for short).Meanwhile,English teachers' TPI is becoming an increasingly popular issue in the field of language teacher education.However,qualitative researches on English teachers' TPI are far more than the quantitative ones,while the qualitative researches are not representative enough.In addition,the features of time background have rarely been taken into consideration in the researches.Drawing upon the Social Identity Theory,and applying quantitative and qualitative methods,the thesis aims to explore the present situation of college English teachers' professional identity,its influencing factors,characteristics,and approaches to its construction in the "Internet Plus" era.The research questions were thus designed accordingly to explore the major characteristics of college English teachers'professional identity in the "Internet Plus" era and its influencing factors,and to seek for the effective approaches to its construction.The study attempted to clarify the concepts of four items,namely identity,teacher identity,teachers' professional identity and English teachers' TPI.Referring to the existing related researches,this thesis defined college English teachers' TPI in the"Internet Plus" era,and established a theoretical structure model of college English teachers' TPI.The present study applied a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview to explore answers to the research questions and achieve the aims mentioned above.The questionnaire was tested to be valid and reliable by a pilot test.Besides,40 subjects from some colleges in eastern China were involved in the pilot test.In addition,the formal questionnaire involved 120 subjects,and 4 of them took the further interview.Moreover,SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 24.0 were applied to analyze the statistics of the questionnaires,and the data of the interviews were also analyzed for detailed information..The major findings are as follows.Firstly,this study revealed that college English teachers'TPI in the "Internet Plus" era was multiple,contradictory,and negotiable.The subjects enjoyed a rather high and relatively static TPI although confronted with stresses and problems to some extent.Their existing identity may be incompatible with new requirements on their profession.Secondly,the general level and the eight factors of their TPI were demonstrated to be influenced by many factors.Furthermore,the main influencing factors of college English teachers' TPI were analyzed from macroscopic,middle,and microcosmic perspectives.Specifically,the factors are national education policies,school culture,and personal influencing factors.Thirdly,referring to constructing approaches,the study predicted that teacher professional community and awareness of self-construction were of importance to enhance the levels of college English teachers' professional identity.The significance of the present study is three-fold.Firstly,it may have theoretical contributions to teachers' professional identity development theory by examining college English teachers' TPI with consideration of the time background,the "Internet Plus" era.This point would help to form a specific research perspective and dimension.Secondly,the questionnaire formulated in the study would be helpful to relevant large-scale empirical investigations in the future due to the fact that the 5-point Likert scale in the questionnaire was tested to be valid and reliable.Finally,the proposed approaches to constructing college English teachers'professional identity would have practical implications for college English teachers' professional development and the reform of college English teaching.