A Study On English Teacher Identity Of Junior High Schools In Frontier Minority Areas Of Yunnan Province

As early as the 1980 s,the study of foreign language teachers formed a craze,but the content focused on the teaching methods in the teaching process.Since the 21 st century,influenced by sociocultural theory,scholars have begun to expound the theory and practice of teacher education.The exploration on English teacher identity has gradually become a hot topic in the theoretical research of teacher development and education.Foreign scholars have achieved fruitful results in theoretical research on the definitions,characteristics,and development approaches of English teacher identity.Relatively speaking,there are few studies in China.The existing findings are chiefly attained on the basis of abroad achievements,but neglect the differences of English teachers in China.There are a large number of junior high school English teachers in ethnic minority areas in China,and their unique situation and pressure provide opportunities for research.The English teacher identity research provides a new perspective for understanding English teachers there.At present,more and more scholars have begun to pay attention to the study of English teacher identity in minority areas.Therefore,this study aims to explore junior high schools English teacher identity in frontier minority areas of Yunnan Province,and hopes to provide useful information for the development of English teachers and teacher education.Based on the relevant research of sociocultural theory and teacher identity,this study utilized quantitative and qualitative research methods.First of all,310 questionnaires were delivered to English teachers of 52 junior high schools in Dehong and 266 valid copies were collected for the statistical analysis.And then,the author interviewed 50 English teachers who participated in the survey of questionnaires.Finally,the research selected 15 representative teachers to conduct in-depth interviews and observations attempting to discover the current condition and main influencing factors of junior high school English teacher identity in Dehong.Instruments for quantitative research include questionnaires and SPSS data analysis software.“The Questionnaire of Dehong Junior high Schools English Teacher Identity” was modified from the “The Questionnaire of Senior High Schools English Teacher Identity” compiled by Xun(2012).Nationalities and teaching regions have been added to the basic information part,reflecting the characteristics of the ethnic areas.The scale consists of 40 items involving eight factors: vocational values,vocational belongingness,English teaching beliefs,English proficiency,job involvement,perceived organizational support,behavior tendency,and attitude about educational reform.At the same time,the process of in-depth interviews and observations was recorded,and was classified according to the reasons that the interviewed teachers chose to be a junior high school English teacher in Dehong.Finally,the software was used to analyze the questionnaire statistically.The mean and standard deviation were adopted to compare the overall level of teacher identity and the similarities and differences in various aspects.And by analysis,the research also found the main influencing factors of teacher identity.The results show that the overall level of junior high school English teacher identity in frontier minority areas of Yunnan is relatively high.Compared with nationality and gender,regional differences and teaching experiences have a greater impact on their identity.According to the data,teachers have good grades in vocational identity and personal identity,which illustrates that most junior high school English teachers in Dehong have a strong sense of teacher identity and are willing to make great contribution to it.In addition,the analysis also finds that they have low level of situational identity and professional identity,especially in terms of perceived organizational support and English proficiency.It can be concluded that junior high school English teachers are not satisfied with their existing teaching conditions and their own interests.And there is a strong demand for the improvement of English language skills and professional development.Therefore,the thesis draws the following enlightenment:(1)In order to reduce urban-rural gap,government must increase economic investment to improve teaching condition and to raise the wages of rural teachers.(2)Schools ought to encourage teachers to adapt to local conditions,and admit their contribution to decrease their pressure.(3)Teachers should pay attention to professional development and enhance English proficiency and confidence.