Reconstructing the Native Chinese Language Teacher: A Narrative Inquiry into Beliefs, Professional Identity, and Translanguaging Practices

Abstract

While teacher beliefs and professional identity are widely acknowledged as critical drivers of pedagogical choices, the mechanisms through which a teacher’s internal belief system mediates real-time translanguaging practices remain underexplored in Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education. Addressing this empirical gap, this study investigates how an experienced native Chinese language teacher constructs her professional identities through deeply held pedagogical beliefs, and how these dynamic identities subsequently shape her classroom translanguaging decisions. Grounded in an integrated framework that conceptualises teacher beliefs, professional identity, and translanguaging as recursively interconnected dimensions of professional practice, this study adopts a qualitative single-case study of an experienced CFL teacher. Data were collected through an in-depth interview, reflective accounts of key teaching incidents, and classroom observation, followed by thematic analysis and restorying within a narrative inquiry framework. The findings show that Miss Cherry’s student-centred beliefs, anchored in learner autonomy, actual learning needs, teacher empathy, and practical relevance are articulated through the four interrelated professional identities, including chuán dào zhě (intellectual guide focused on ways of thinking), jiě huò zhě (confusion‑resolving facilitator), bilingual/bicultural mindset cultivator, and linguistic/cultural difference mediator. Rather than treating translanguaging as a mere compensatory tool for linguistic insufficiency, the teacher enacts such professional identities by mobilising multimodal semiotic resources (e.g. visual imagery, character decomposition, and etymology) for meaning-making in students’ learning of Chinese characters and establishing a dialogic translanguaging space for cross-linguistic negotiation in teaching of grammar. The study concludes that translanguaging represents a situated enactment of teacher beliefs and professional identity rather than an isolated instructional strategy. These insights highlight the importance of prioritising professional agency and identity negotiation in CFL teacher education, while acknowledging scope‑related limitations of this qualitative single‑case study.