Date of Award
1-22-2026
Thesis Type
PhD
Document Type
Thesis
Divisions
Faculty of Education
Department
Department of English Language
Institution
Universiti Malaya
Abstract
Among the limited studies on the teacher identity of native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, most studies focus on their multiple and changing teacher identities caused by their experience, practices, discourse, emotional labor, etc. However, the distinctive attributes that define them as a teacher have been neglected. This study was conducted to explore how NESTs construct their identity-in-practice and identity-in-discourse in the China EFL context in terms of commitment, self-esteem, agency, and self-efficacy, and to investigate how NESTs’ raciolinguistic identities influence their construction of language teacher identity. Narrative inquiry methodology has been employed in this study to interpret, analyze, and understand the participants’ story and experiences. Four participants who are from the United States and the United Kingdom were selected to take part in the study. Data were collected through three semi-structured interviews, six classroom observations, and personal documents. The findings of this study suggest that the construction of the four NESTs’ identity-in-practice and identity-in-discourse in terms of commitment, self-esteem, agency, and self-efficacy include a variety of aspects and manifestations. Some aspects and manifestations are intertwined with each other. For example, their teaching material and methods can reflect commitment and agency while their students’ performance reflects self-esteem and self-efficacy. In addition, some manifestations of raciolinguistic identity overlap with some manifestations of identity-in-practice and identity-in-discourse. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the manifestations of raciolinguistic identity can be further categorized under either identity-in-practice or identity-in-discourse. In conclusion, this study integrated the distinctive attributes of teacher identity with NESTs’ identity-in-practice, identity-in-discourse, and raciolinguistic identity.
Additional Information
Thesis (PhD) – Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2025.
Recommended Citation
Liang, Yiyun, "Teacher identity construction of native english speaking teachers in selected universities of China" (2026). Student Works (2020-2029). 1909.
https://knova.um.edu.my/student_works_2020s/1909
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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