Agency Fluctuations and Identity Transformations in Chinese English-Majors on Their Learning Trajectories

中国英语专业学生在学习历程中的能动性变化及身份转换

This paper explores agency fluctuations and identity transformations in Chinese English-majors and how they are related to the process of English learning. By tracing a group of students for four years in a Chinese university and conducting qualitative analyses to their oral narrations of learning experiences at different periods, the study has found that most participants started and ended their university life at relatively high levels of agency, with inevitable ups and downs in between. Agency fluctuations in the learners are the result of their identity positioning and repositioning within a complex and ever-changing context. Concordant or conflicting identities may co-exist within an individual learner and keep changing across different situations. Learner identities will cause increase or reduction in their investment in English learning, while their learning experience will in turn reinforce or undermine their identities. The study sheds light on the intricate relationships between agency, identity and language learning and therefore has important implications for English learning and teaching in China.

本文调查了中国英语专业学生在英语学习历程中能动性的变化及其身份的转换,并探讨了两者与英语学习的关系。作者通过跟踪六名学生的四年英语学习过程,定期与他们进行深度访谈,然后对访谈内容进行质性分析后发现,学习者的能动性在大学生活的初始以及临末阶段通常都会显现出较高的水平,在整个大学学习过程中必然出现高低起伏。能动性的波动是学习者在复杂多变的环境中进行身份设定与再设定的结果。每个学习者都会具有或和谐或矛盾的多重身份,并随着情境的变化不断进行切换。最后,本文讨论了能动性、学习者身份以及外语学习之间复杂微妙的关系,为提高中国英语专业的教学提供了有益的启示。