Make a name for yourself: Exploring the naming and addressing practices of teachers of Chinese as a foreign language

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: The power of transnational experiences in morphing teacher identity and teaching practice

Proposal

Purpose:
The adoption of English names is a common practice amongst Chinese learners of English. Most students choose or are assigned an English name during their first English class in primary school. Although these English names may change over time, it is not unusual for Chinese nationals to use them when interacting with foreigners both in and outside of China. In the case of Chinese-born teachers of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) who are living and teaching abroad, there is little known about their naming and addressing practices. Do these teachers call themselves by their given Chinese name or by their adopted English name? What naming practices and expectations are in place in their classrooms? How are such practices related to teacher identity? Since names are inextricably intertwined with identity, and subsequently one’s teaching practice, it is important to consider the implications of CFL teachers’ naming and addressing practices in and out of the classroom.

Theoretical Framework:
Poststructural identity theories from Norton (1995), Gee (2001), and Ting-Toomey (2005) ground this study through their emphases on identity as multifaceted, fluid, and a site for (re)negotiation and power struggle in the social world. Norton’s identity theory also includes space to understand identity in relation to the social, cultural, and historical contexts of language teaching and learning both globally and locally.

Methods:
This study is part of a larger narrative inquiry project investigating teacher identity of CFL teachers living and working in the U.S. For this segment of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted in English to explore three participants’ personal naming histories as well as their past and current teaching practices related to naming and addressing. Such exploration is aimed at preserving the complexity of the teachers’ lived experiences through (auto)biographic storytelling.

Preliminary Findings and Significance:
Discourse analysis of the first set of interviews indicates great variability and complexity in the naming and addressing practices used by CFL teachers. Variation appears to be influenced by global and local contextual factors as well as individual beliefs and visions about teaching. While some of the participants had explicitly thought about the naming practices used in their classroom, others had not fully considered the implications of choosing Chinese names for their students or calling themselves by an English name when teaching Chinese language and culture. Acknowledging the power of language and hierarchical nature of most classrooms, it is crucial to further examine the ways in which teacher identity, and specifically the use of names and greetings, may impact teachers’ views of themselves, their students, and their relationships.

Authors

• Rebekah Gordon, Michigan State University

• Jiahang Li, Michigan State University