Multilingual awareness and identity construction in Mandarin teachers: a sociocultural perspective on teaching practices

Wang, Chuyi and Zheng, Ying (2025) Multilingual awareness and identity construction in Mandarin teachers: a sociocultural perspective on teaching practices. In, Teacher Development in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. 1st ed. London. Routledge, pp. 167-186. (doi:10.4324/9781003463221-13).

Abstract

Interest in foreign language learning in the UK has long been low, despite various initiatives to promote multilingual education. Nevertheless, the benefits of such multilingualism approach to education transcend merely ‘knowing another language’. Teachers with multilingual awareness can potentially pass on to students an understanding that multilingualism empowers language learners to maximise their linguistic resources, such as considering linguistic knowledge as a valuable asset, developing higher cognitive flexibility and linguistic and cultural transfer and enhancing learners’ creative thinking and cultural empathy. They can also act as examples of these abilities. This study investigated Mandarin teachers’ construction and practice of a multilingual identity by exploring their journey to becoming successful multilingual educators. A total of 31 Mandarin teachers, including preservice teachers and in-service teachers, participated in the survey, and six of them engaged in semi-structured interviews to provide qualitative insights. Findings showed that teachers with multilingual awareness demonstrated increased confidence in raising students’ multilingual awareness. Building multilingual awareness into teacher education programmes is vital for fostering intercultural competence, and pedagogical cooperation among different language departments enhances students’ understanding and appreciation of multilingualism.

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Contributors

Author: Ying Zheng

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