Understanding ESL Teachers' Agency in Their Early Years of Professional Development: A Three-Layered Triadic Reciprocity Framework

A comparative study on lexical and syntactic features of ESL versus EFL learners’ writing

This study analyzes the compositions of Hong Kong English as a second language (ESL) learners and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Mainland China in terms of lexical and syntactic features. A program based on the CoreNLP was developed and used to analyze written language texts, and differences in tags of parts of speech and syntactic dependencies between the two groups of texts were compared statistically to examine differences in the lexical and syntactic features of the learners’ written language. The results show significant differences in the lexical and syntactic features of learners’ writing. Specifically, in EFL learners’ writing, there is a salient group pattern of higher lexical diversity, whereas ESL compositions are more flexible in vocabulary use with higher information density, in that they use more syntactic phrases and content words. In terms of syntax, Hong Kong ESL students use more adverbials and adverbial clauses, which is advantageous in syntactic simplicity and readability over their counterparts, whereas Mainland China EFL students prefer using more specific expressions to demonstrate syntactic relations. Compared to EFL compositions, ESL compositions are more informative, coherent, and grammatical in lexical features and more readable in syntactic features, which require more attention and further improvements in terms of EFL teaching.

A narrative inquiry into the agency of an EFL teacher in Western China

Despite the increasing interest in teacher agency in the field of language teacher psychology, little attention has been paid to how language teachers enact their agency in an under-resourced environment. To address the research gap, this narrative study explored how a secondary English as a foreign language teacher in Western China enacted his agency for professional development and identified its sources. The findings revealed that this teacher enacted his agency through passionate exploration of adaptive teaching and continuous investment in autonomous learning. His agency was attributed to the interplay of his past experiences, long-term goals, teaching beliefs, and the challenging working environment. Consequently, implications for teacher agency research and practice are discussed.

An ecological approach to understanding university English teachers’ professional agency in implementing formative assessment

As a sub-realm of Language Teacher Psychology (LTP), teachers’ professional agency has gained significant attention from educational practitioners and teachers. The aim is to better discern teachers’ professional development and teaching effectiveness with a view to ensuring the quality of language teaching. International literature concerning teachers’ professional agency has noted a shift from knowledge training to vocational development in relation to teachers’ experience in decision making. Yet, little research so far has scrutinized this specific issue in Chinese university settings, and the real picture of teacher agency needs further exploration. Besides, the multidimensional and complex nature of agency identifies the overwhelming research work in understanding its contents in detail based on the previous perspectives from individuals, society, and time. To this end, the ecological understanding of professional agency reframed the theoretical basis of this study, prone to explore how teachers’ experience could be examined in relation to individual capacity, resources, and structural and contextual variables. The study was conducted in Chinese university settings in response to the research gap related to understanding professional agency. Quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations with 116 university teachers in China demonstrated that the enactment of professional agency rested on the interplay between temporal contexts, teacher capacity, and beliefs, especially in the instructional community. The findings revealed that university teachers at different stages of career development manifested variability in exercising their professional agency in relation to adapting or adopting existing teaching concepts, methods, or approaches. Mounting evidence revealed some enablers and constraints in relation to formative assessment, time impact, classroom interaction, and school culture. Emphasizing the interaction between individuals’ ability and their engagement with the professional environment, the findings provide insights into theoretical implications associated with ecological theory and enhance the practical discussion about promoting professional development for novice, mid-career, and veteran English teachers at the university level.

Toward a framework for understanding translation and interpreting teacher role identity

The purpose of this study was to present a translation and interpreting (T&I) teacher role identity (TITRI) framework for investigating how T&I teachers in China develop their role identities. There is a vast literature on language teacher identity in higher education compared to a paucity of literature on the development of T&I teacher identity. Developing a strong T&I teacher identity in the context of Chinese universities is challenging as teachers combine sub-roles of trainers/educators, researchers, and practitioners, and the context is more supportive of constructing a researcher role than trainer/educator and practitioner roles. A strong teacher identity, on the other hand, is vital since it enhances teachers' willingness to engage in professional development. This study proposes a framework based on the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) that describes how three sub-roles interact and contribute to overall T&I teacher identity. This work contributes to the scant literature on T&I teacher identity research, shedding light on how different role identities may interact throughout the professional careers of a teacher. Additionally, the framework may also foster an awareness of the impact of higher education on a teacher and, as a result, offer implications for universities in China to encourage the development of teacher identity.

A Mixed-Methods Study on Senior High School EFL Teacher Resilience in China

While teacher resilience has gained significant attention in recent years, empirical exploration of this issue is still insufficient, particularly with regard to English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher resilience in China. In this context, this study employed a mixed-methods design to investigate Chinese EFL teacher resilience. Specifically, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)-EFL Teacher Survey was distributed to 330 Chinese senior high school EFL teachers. Five volunteers in the survey sample participated in semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that resilience in Chinese senior high school EFL teachers was at a moderate to high level, and there was no significant difference in teacher resilience in relation to gender and years of teaching experience, but a small significant difference with teachers' educational background. Possible reasons for interpreting EFL teacher resilience were provided from personal and contextual perspectives. Finally, the implications of these findings were discussed for developing teacher resilience.