Transforming Pedagogical Practices and Teacher Identity Through Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis: A Case Study of Novice EFL Teachers in China
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Zhou, Jing
Li, C
Cheng, Y
Supervisor
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Journal Article
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MDPI AG
Abstract
This study investigates the evolving pedagogical strategies and professional identity development of two novice college English teachers in China through a semester-long classroom-based inquiry. Drawing on Norris’s Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis (MIA), it analyzes 270 min of video-recorded lessons across three instructional stages, supported by visual transcripts and pitch-intensity spectrograms. The analysis reveals each teacher’s transformation from textbook-reliant instruction to student-centered pedagogy, facilitated by multimodal strategies such as gaze, vocal pitch, gesture, and head movement. These shifts unfold across the following three evolving identity configurations: compliance, experimentation, and dialogic enactment. Rather than following a linear path, identity development is shown as a negotiated process shaped by institutional demands and classroom interactional realities. By foregrounding the multimodal enactment of self in a non-Western educational context, this study offers insights into how novice EFL teachers navigate tensions between traditional discourse norms and reform-driven pedagogical expectations, contributing to broader understandings of identity formation in global higher education.Description
Keywords
China, multimodal (inter)action analysis, multimodal pedagogical strategies, novice EFL teachers, teacher identity development, 32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, 5202 Biological Psychology, 5203 Clinical and Health Psychology, 3202 Clinical Sciences, 52 Psychology, 4 Quality Education, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, 3202 Clinical sciences
Source
Behavioral Sciences, ISSN: 2076-328X (Print); 2076-328X (Online), MDPI AG, 15(8), 1050-. doi: 10.3390/bs15081050
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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).