Zhou, JingLi, CCheng, Y2025-09-112025-09-113/08/2025Behavioral Sciences, ISSN: 2076-328X (Print); 2076-328X (Online), MDPI AG, 15(8), 1050-. doi: 10.3390/bs150810502076-328X2076-328Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10292/19787This 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.© 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/).Chinamultimodal (inter)action analysismultimodal pedagogical strategiesnovice EFL teachersteacher identity development32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences5202 Biological Psychology5203 Clinical and Health Psychology3202 Clinical Sciences52 Psychology4 Quality Education1701 Psychology1702 Cognitive Sciences3202 Clinical sciencesJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3390/bs15081050