“M-san Again?”: Identity-in-Practice of a Japanese Graduate Teaching Assistant

Abstract

This study investigated how Rika, a Japanese graduate teaching assistant (GTA), presents her professional identity when she reports and discusses problems in an online Japanese language class with the lead instructor. By closely examining two stories told during instructors’ weekly meetings through positioning analysis, findings indicated that the GTA positions herself as a problem reporter rather than a problem solver, thus a less professional Japanese language educator. Additionally, the GTA’s representations of students’ behavior in the Japanese online class also reflect her perceptions and teaching beliefs towards Japanese language teaching. Finally, this article concludes with the implications for language teacher education regarding GTA training and online language teaching.

Keywords

• language teacher identity
• japanese
• online language education
• narrative
• positioning