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CHAPTER 4 Results and Findings
As the purpose of the study is to explore an English teacher’s professional identity development across formal and informal educational contexts through all of her English learning and teaching process, the learning and teaching stories of the English teacher informant, Jenny, are presented in this chapter to provide a broad picture of her background. The stories are divided into several critical phases based on chronological order and the main events occurring at each phases relevant to her professional identity formation are provided. Through the results depicted in this chapter, the interactions between the teacher informant, her learning and teaching contexts and the accompanying impacts on her teacher identity and professional development are revealed.
Jenny’s Prior Formal Schooling
This section presents Jenny’s prior formal schooling experience from elementary school to university. Two subsections of Jenny’s formal schooling experience are described as follows: the first one focuses on her learning of English language and her perception towards English language; the other is about her schooling experience and her initial conception toward teachers and teaching.
Jenny’s English learning story. Jenny learned English in Taiwan, never studying abroad. In the summer vacation before Jenny entered a junior high school, she started her English learning in a cram school where English teaching could be described as traditional. That is, oral speaking ability and practice were not
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emphasized. Jenny narrated,
[… our learning in the cram school] was not about learning oral speaking happily. [Instead,] we [treated English learning] as [a kind of] abstract knowledge. [We] just read the articles from the textbooks. My [English]
learning background did not have any oral speaking practice. (Excerpt one:
Narrative 031912)
Basically, Jenny in her cram school before junior high school was required to read articles from the textbook and memorize the K.K. phonics. For her, the requirements was actually quite easy to meet as she described,
I would just make use of the time during TV commercial to memorize the vocabulary, and it could be about ten minutes. […] Anyway, I could cram the vocabulary words in a very short time. [In fact,] my grades were very high and [I often took the tests] very smoothly. [I] just felt free and relaxed for my [English] learning, and did not think junior high English was difficult at all.
(Excerpt two: Narrative 031912)
Moreover, sometimes Jenny felt that the pace of instruction was so slow that she could actually read the textbooks and learn everything by herself. Most of the time, in fact, she did the self-studying in class regardless of following the teacher’s instruction, but she still had good performance and was sometimes complimented by the teacher.
English language learning in the junior high school was no obvious difference for Jenny, either. The instruction given by formal school teachers mainly focused on the same grammatical patterns and reading skills as what she had learned in cram schools. Jenny’s English learning therefore was not challenging at all during junior high school years, both in the formal school and the cram school. The encouragement from her English teachers in the two learning contexts brought confidence to her. She provided some examples of teacher’s praise for her English performance in the cram
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school and the formal school.
[In the cram school], my English learning went very well when I was about to become a freshman in junior high school. [I] learned cursive writing [at that time]. And I still remembered at that time the teacher mentioned two names who wrote good cursive writing among a hundred students: one was me and the other was the student sitting next to me. (Excerpt three: Narrative 031912)
One of my junior high school [English] teachers encouraged us to mark K.K.
[phonics]. That is a very traditional way of learning English, […] to encourage us to write K.K. for bonus points. […] And I usually did it for bonus, and then most of [the phonics] I wrote were correct, so the teacher had a really good impression of [me]. (Excerpt four: Narrativ031912)
In Jenny’s senior high school years, she found that English learning was not as easy as before and her English ability could not be improved without a great deal of effort. However, Jenny’s interest in English did not wane since she has favorable past impression of English learning. She said,
In junior high school, [I] could read [English textbooks] faster than [the pace of instruction given by] the teacher. [I] just did not think it should take any efforts.
That is, I had a feeling that I obtained [all the English knowledge] without making any efforts. And in senior high school, [I] felt that I always made mistakes in identifying parts of speech and could not make up sentences for compositions. [I] began to feel that English ability was not easy to develop. The feeling [of learning English] became different. But the positive impression before [still worked]. When I did not gain [as much as before], [when I] was not encouraged, or did not gain the bonus points, I did not become to dislike the school subject. [I] probably had drawn enough benefits from it [before], so
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there was a kind of savings for me to consume. (Excerpt five: Narrative 031912)
Jenny’s own hobby, reading, also helped to maintain her interest in English learning.
She remarked,
The reason that I liked to enter the English department in high school is because I read a lot [of novels] at the senior school stage. The extracurricular reading material of mine since childhood is novels, of course, Chinese novels. But I found they were actually translation versions when I was young. In the author introduction of the book page, the name of the author in Chinese was translated from some English words [that I could] not understand. […] [I found that the novels] were written in English and hoped to read their original versions. […]
The main motive of my choosing English department is that I wanted to read the original versions, though actually I did not read then at all. I thought the reason I chose English department is maybe because of books. […] I found it was very strange that I was in Taiwan yet the books I read are all translations, and I began to want to study the language. (Excerpt six: Narrative 031912) Jenny loved reading, and many novels she had read were originally written in English.
She therefore became interested in the original versions of those novels and also in the language. Both previous smooth learning experience and her personal interest in novel reading led her to choose to study social sciences in the later two years of senior high school and finally pursued advanced education an the English department during university.
Jenny’s holistic schooling experience. In Jenny’s prior schooling experience before becoming an English teacher, many of the teachers she met positively
impressed her, and she held deep affection for her teachers. She liked the teachers
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who had positive interaction with students and had true concerns for students in their own ways.
Teachers represented knowledgeable intellectual in Jenny’s student life. In the second year of elementary school, Jenny liked her homeroom teacher. The teacher firstly introduced herself as a graduate from a college, which impressed Jenny very much and she thought studying in a college must be great. The following is Jenny’s description.
I liked my homeroom teacher in the second year of elementary school, and I always have a deep impression [of her]. And [she once introduced that] she [graduated] from Tunghai University. So, [I] felt that studying in a college was great and the teacher was great. It was a positive impression, which may be related to my own life, the life out of school, my family background, in which there was no university at all. Because I was young at that time, in my life there were just my father, mother, and an elder sister, and none of them studied in a college. (Excerpt seven: Narration 03192012)
Jenny’s homeroom teacher in the fifth and sixth years of elementary school, on the other hand, had more frequent and intimate interaction with Jenny and her
classmates. She said,
The teacher in the fifth and sixth years of elementary school is impressive because that was the first time that I had such joyous time in [my] life. Then in [my] impression, the relationship between [the teacher and the whole class] was close. We all played together. It was not true [for the teacher and us] to play together actually. [But I] felt [we were] very close. (Excerpt eight: Interview 052912)
During Jenny’s senior high school life, the homeroom teacher in the second and
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third years impressed her greatly with the paper-and-pencil interaction on a weekly journal. Jenny once expressed a stupid idea yet actually important for herself on the journal. She thought it was just a small thing, but the teacher treated it seriously. She seemed to understand her feeling and responded with positive comments on the journal. Jenny described the idea and the teacher’s response,
I was a shy person, shy to all unfamiliar things. So, it was really stupid. Near my home there was a park that was being built. The park was on both sides of a bridge. So a bridge in the middle connected the park. I just felt, just imagined, and felt it was wonderful. [I] really wanted to hang around in the park, and then cross the bridge from this side to that side of the park. […] In fact, to go to an unfamiliar environment and do such a thing without any purposes is truly weird.
Then, I wrote in my weekly journal that [I] hoped one day I would do this thing.
[That is] to overcome the unfamiliar feeling and do such a thing. Ya, then she […] encouraged me, or was positive to my idea, and said, “ya, hope you can do so one day.” I felt so touched. (Excerpt nine: Interview 052912)
Jenny was an introverted person and afraid to try new, unfamiliar thing. Yet the teacher’s comments on the journal made Jenny feel touched for she felt the teacher’s concerns about students. The sharing and the teacher’s feedback on the journal was a kind of positive interaction for Jenny. In addition, when the classmates asked some personal questions, the teacher always answered without reservations. In Jenny’s mind, the teacher treated the students sincerely and candidly without talking like a
bureaucrat or holding onto a teacher’s authority.
In Jenny’s schooling experience, it is clear to know that the teacher-student interaction between most of the teachers and her left positive impression on her. The good impression generated her deep affections toward the teachers as well as
favorable feelings toward teaching jobs.
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Jenny’s Teaching Experience in Informal Educational Contexts
This section presents Jenny’s initial teaching experience and teacher
professional development with shifts between different informal educational contexts.
By starting to access English teaching in informal educational contexts, Jenny integrated her favorable English subject matter and teaching aspiration to capture a general understanding of English teaching.
First teaching experience in a kids’ English center. Jenny began her English teaching job in the second year of university. One of Jenny’s senior high school friends wanted to apply for a part-time teaching job and asked Jenny to do it with her.
Jenny had been interested in teaching, yet she was unsure about her competence and thought that she might not overcome her introvert personality to teach in front of many students. Nevertheless, this best friend’s company and encouragement made her feel more comfortable and then helped her take a big step to enter English teaching profession. The owner of a regional kids’ English center did not really set strict qualifications for English teachers, so Jenny and her friend successfully got the job there without any teaching experience. She expressed the meaning of the first English teaching job as,
At that time [I] thought kids’ English was beginning level, and I could try [teaching] with a friend’s company. It is also what I am interested in. Of course, being interested in [teaching] was still the core reason. Some of my other friends may think that I took the job because this person did it. [But] if she did something else that I was not interested in, and I would not have done it simply because of her. […] I always think that I am a person who just swims with the
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current, letting the nature take its course. [I] swim with the current to the place I want. […] for me, it was just the first try. At that time I did not know the
payment [of an English teacher]. But I just thought that [I] [wanted] a
comfortable workplace to be familiar with this [profession]. Even though the payment was really low, I did not care about it, for what I needed was an intial try. (Excerpt ten: Narrative 031912)
Through the first part-time English teaching job, Jenny knew that she liked teaching and interaction with students.
However, the kids’ English center was not an ideal context for professional advancement from Jenny’s viewpoint. Jenny stated,
Basically, while the feeling of [teaching] there was good and I liked the job, that [I] liked the job means that [I] would hope to have a further development in this field. But that was a very small-scale cram school, in which I thought the potential for career advancement was low. What I meant is not the promotion.
Instead, I was just a novice, and the colleagues around me were also new and they were not really good at teaching. […] Because the cram school owner was more of a master of socialization. […] she socialized with the mothers of the students and used this as a strategy to keep the enrollment. She kept the students in such a way but it was not because of good teaching effects. I liked teaching, and to continue teaching in the same cram school was also a way to go. But if I wanted to obtain a better ability or have a [better learning model], I did not think I would get it [from this particular cram school]. (Excerpt twelve: Narrative 031912)
In addition to the primary drawback about advancement potential mentioned in Jenny narrative, the cram school owner asked teachers to conduct a student
achievement presentation by themselves without providing any assistance. As a
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novice teacher, Jenny had no idea how to do it. Due to her introverted personality, she did not join any clubs or hold any extracurricular activities before. English teaching was a big step for her at that time, not to mention conducting a student achievement presentation. Therefore, she was under great pressure. She was too anxious to feel relaxed and to fall asleep for approximately a week until the activity ended. Jenny thought the original purpose of her first try of English teaching had been achieved;
namely, she already had a rudimentary understanding about English teaching job and obtained a certain degree of confidence in teaching in the kids’ English center, and therefore she resigned and ended her first six months of English teaching.
Later English teaching in different informal educational contexts. After the first English experience, Jenny’s later informal teaching experience had two shifts in three phases. When Jenny was going to become a senior in university, she began to think about the job after graduation. She liked teaching, and teaching job was also a good choice when taking both Jenny’s interest and reasonable financial rewards into consideration. Therefore, she intended to prepare herself for a full-time job after graduation by starting part-time teaching and becoming familiarized with English teaching again at that time. Jenny chose to work in a larger-scale chain institute of kids’ English, as she said,
I could not move into a cram school for a full-time job right after graduation from university. I was not brave enough to do so. Yeah, so I thought I needed to start from a part-time teaching job, it was like the situation [of my first teaching]
in which I started from a lower threshold. I thought I needed to try something not so exciting. [Starting teaching job] from zero was a too big step for me. I felt I could try another part-time teaching job as a preparation, which I know I needed. Then I considered the previous kids’ English center that I worked for
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was not a chain institute which I wanted to try [to teach in]. […] I also felt that my ability was only enough to teach kids’ English. Ya, so, but I wanted to try [teaching] in a chain institute to have a clearer guidance for learning how to teach. Those chain institutes had at least a systematic operation which [I] could observe. (Excerpt thirteen: Narrative 031912)
Before long, Jenny received part-time teaching jobs at two different chain institutes of kids’ English after posting an online resume. Unlike the first teaching job in which her teacher-student interaction was casual just like an elder sister playing with little children, she was now expected to act like a teacher in a respectable manner due to the formal atmosphere of the teacher’s offices and other colleagues’ serious working attitudes; she also needed to communicate with parents about student’s learning in the chain institutes. However, Jenny’s profound awareness of her teacher role came from students’ reactions as she described,
During the year when I stayed in [the chain institutes of] kids’ English, I developed an obvious consciousness of being a teacher because some of my students had more intimate relationship with [me], and they were more adorable [for me]. Sometimes when [I] praised them, I would see their glorious smiles.
Suddenly I found that probably because [I] had a teacher role to play or because [students] liked you as a teacher; therefore when they heard your praises, they would have shiny feelings. (Excerpt fourteen: Interview 052912)
As Jenny was about to graduate, she considered seriously about her future career when she was a senior. Jenny once considered studying in a TESOL graduate program which was practical for future jobs, yet she found she was not interested in the relevant theories at all. Furthermore, she spent one more year than the normal duration to finish university studies, so she was under a certain degree of pressure and felt that she should catch up with her peers to have a job right after graduation. Finally
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Jenny chose to continue teaching right after graduation, yet she considered making a shift of teaching contexts. In fact, she was required to teach with the same materials in the chain institutes of kids’ English. From her own perspective, therefore, her
professional development would be confined to teaching with the same materials if she continued to stay there. On the other hand, she felt more confident over her current English teaching competence and wanted a higher-level professional development. She narrated,
Actually I was a bit explorative as I applied for jobs after graduation, that is, I attempted to try different kids’ English or junior high English cram schools.
[But] I did not want to [stay in] the same chain institutes of kids’ English. I did not want [the type of cram school] where native-speaking English teachers conducted the main teaching, because I did not want to play a subordinate role for English-speaking teachers, in which all I needed to do was interpretation [between native-speaker teachers and the students]. […] I wanted English teaching but not to be a baby-sitter. So I just made an exploration at that time.
[…] The types of cram schools that I had interview experiences included those that emphasized oral speaking. […] But I thought my English oral speaking was not competent enough. […] I finally chose an exam-oriented [cram school], because I was more familiar with exam-oriented English learning when being a student. Yeah, so finally I choose a junior high English cram school. (Excerpt fifteen: Narrative 031912)
Among several types of informal teaching contexts, Jenny finally made a choice at her will. Jenny’s decision led her to a new English teaching context at a progressive pace which allowed her to harmonize the teaching job she expected to do and her perceived limitation in personality and English competence.
Jenny successfully obtained a full-time job being an English counseling teacher
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at a junior high English cram school after graduation. Counseling teachers had to do after-class reviews for lower-achiever students in addition to whole-class instruction in order to improve students’ test results. During counseling, Jenny answered all the
at a junior high English cram school after graduation. Counseling teachers had to do after-class reviews for lower-achiever students in addition to whole-class instruction in order to improve students’ test results. During counseling, Jenny answered all the