A Qualitative Study Of Chinese Mti Students' Multiple Identities Construction

This study aims to unravel the features of MTI(Master of Translation and Interpreting)students' multiple identities,to explore the factors influencing MTI students' multiple identities construction and to further investigate the interrelationship of MTI students' multiple identities.Identity is defined by Marx & Engels(1997: 18)as “the origin,status,and qualifications of the person.It refers to the position of the person in a certain social relationship,and thus everyone has an identity”.As a static social label,identity includes not only the self-positioning of an individual but also the external orientation from others.Identity is also a dynamic cognitive process highlighting individuals' belongings or behaviors,and its purpose is to help individuals converge or diverge with the target objects or groups.Identity consists of three levels: cognition,the emotions associated with cognition,and corresponding behavior.It is continuously constructed with people's activities in society,thus having the characteristics of dynamicity and multiplicity(Eckert,2000;Norton,2000;Weedon,1987;Hall,1996;Block,2007).Language use is one of the social processes involving identity construction.Second language use influences and sometimes determines the user's identity construction,while identity construction also affects L2 user's expressions.In the process of translation practice,a translator's language conversion behavior also has an impact on the construction and maintenance of his identity,while at the same time,the translator's use of translating strategies and approaches is also under the influence of his identity.It is worth noting that much attention has been given to the identity construction in language learning and use,and few studies explore the characteristics and construction of translator identity.MTI students are translators,L2 users,and graduate students.These three identities are gradually constructed and might interact with each other during MTI students' graduate learning and translation practice,further affecting their self-cognition,professional emotions,and behaviors in translation practice.The present study aims to examine three questions:(1)What are the characteristics of the three identities of MTI students as translators,second language users,and graduate students?(2)How are MTI students' different identities related to each other? Specifically,will their translator identity be influenced by their identity as L2 users or graduate students?(3)What are the major factors influencing their multiple identities construction?A self-assessment questionnaire and an in-depth interview were used to collect data.10 MTI students participated in the study,including 4 males and 6 females with an average age of 24 years.7 participants' undergraduate majors were English,while the other 3 were from different majors.Each participant was interviewed individually in a small and quiet classroom.Before the interview,they were firstly asked to fill in the self-assessment questionnaire designed on the basis of Aspects of Identity Questionnaire(Cheek & Briggs,2013)and Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation(2005).The interview process was recorded and the present researcher took notes at the same time.After the interview,the researcher transcribed all the recording materials with an amount of 314 minutes and entered 47497 coded words into MAXQDA for coding analysis.The three-level coding method(Creswell,2007)and Salda?a's(2013)values coding method were used for data coding,focusing specifically on MTI students' translator identity,L2 user identity and graduate student identity.A total of 769 valid coded segments were used for further analysisAn in-depth analysis of the data revealed three major findings of the present study:(1)MTI students' translator identity,L2 user identity,and graduate student identity possess different features: First,MTI students' interest in graduate student identity urged them to choose the major,but their graduate student identity tended to weaken after enrollment.Second,most MTI students were not satisfied with their L2 English proficiency,leading to their weak L2 user identity.Third,most MTI students regarded translator as a bridge between the original and readers,reflecting their respect for translator identity,but they also expressed their reluctance to engage in the translator profession,illustrating their decreased translator professional identity.(2)Due to the dynamicity and multiplicity of identity,the construction and development of MTI students' multiple identities were not balanced,and there existed interactions of the three identities.For example,MTI students' recognition of graduate student identity was not high,and they reduced their investment and engagement in L2 learning,leading to a decrease of L2 user identity.The weakening of these two identities further hampered the construction of translator identity.(3)The construction of MTI students' multiple identities was influenced by the factors of the educational environment and social environment.The educational environment factors included the curriculum system,teachers,students,and training methods,while the essential factor of the social environment was related to the relatively low-income level of translators.This study has both theoretical and pedagogical implications.Theoretically,it provides empirical evidence to the study of the dynamicity and multiplicity of translator identity,which might help with a complete and thorough understanding of multiple identities construction.Pedagogically,the present study explored the features,interactions,and influencing factors of MTI students' multiple identities,offering some potentially useful guidelines for the development of MTI education.