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Introduction
“Identity” is crucial to the inquiry into workplace/professional communication. People usually relate identity to a collection of broad (and probably simplistic) social categories such as sex, age, or occupation, and in the workplace, institutional categories such as supervisor and subordinate. These spectrum of categories are perceived as given and fixed, but in real life communications that is often not the case. Identity of a person may change according to the interaction that he is in. The layman conception of identity lacks the flexibility to illustrate this fluidity of identity, as a product emerging from various communicative activities. In light of this observation, sociolinguistics has developed a range of frameworks to describe and explain the construction of identity in local contexts (see Labov, 1972; Gumperz & Cook-Gumperz, 1982; Joseph, 2004; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005).
The identity of participants determines speech strategies available to each participant, and hence has significant influence on how interlocutors achieve their common goals at the workplace or other professional contexts. These influences include turn-taking practices, as well as the topic and direction of a conversation. They can also be reflected in the politeness strategies adopted by participants in the conversation. This section draws upon Bucholtz and Hall's (2005) influential study on the social construction of identity - how can be applied in discourse analysis - and bring upon the reflection that identity is constantly negotiated and constructed by interlocutors in an on-going talk.
Theoretical Basis
Bucholtz and Hall (2005) suggested five principles to analyse the jointly negotiated identity of participants involved in an interaction, namely:
1. The emergence principle
2. The positionality principle
3. The indexicality principle
4. The relationality principle
5. The partiality principle
IDENTITY
AT
WORK
Theory
Application
Theory
The emergence principle highlights that the identities of participants in an interaction does not pre-exist the interaction itself. One’s identity is negotiated with other participants as they begin to engage in the same interaction. It explains the fluidity of identity, as its construction is context-dependent. The number of possible identities for a person is infinite as no two contexts can be exactly the same.
The positionality principle puts one’s identity into specific positions on different levels ranging from large demographic categories to small temporary participant roles. In the workplace this may refer to the participants’ own institutional position. It is rather similar to the layman conception of identity, and it goes to show how that conception is limited to its own rights. It does, however, still form one of the many facets of identity.
The indexicality principle describes how the participants’ references for each other can be part of identity construction. To refer to someone is an attempt to identity that someone. It can be related to the positionality principle in the way that the reference term positions the referent in various categories.
The relationality principle states how one’s identity is always relative to other people’s identity. Every participant in an interaction is, of course, different in some way, and these relative differences on different aspects form part of our identity. For example, the “adequation/distinction” relation allows interlocutors to identity who in the interaction is “the same” or “different” from them. This dimension of identity can help a participant find “friends”, and draw on them for support in an interaction.
The partiality principle explains that identity is made up by parts. Various aspects contribute parts of identity and it is, therefore, very dynamic, context-bound, and constantly shifting.
Figure 1. Intersubjectivity between 5 principles
The above diagram attempts to show how the five principles relate to one another as they co-construct identity. Interlocutors' evaluation of one principle may affect the evaluation of another, hence affecting the overall analysis of one's identity. The lines connecting each bubble represent these relations, and the influences go both ways. The principles do not work alone on their own, contributing to identity separately.
For example, in an interaction, when one interlocutor calls out to another, the indexicality principle allows us to analyse how the speaker evaluates the referent. A facet of identity emerged in that act of referencing for both the speaker and referent. By choosing the term to refer to another, the speaker is also putting himself in a position relative to the referent. The partiality principle allows these dots to be connected to form a whole identity for the speaker, and all these happen in just one turn. When other participants take their turn and react to this reference, interlocutors have to adjust their previous evaluations. Something else has emerged from a turn of another interlocutor. It provides new input for every participant to reassess each of their positions, and their relations to others in the interaction. This is an on-going process, an almost completely subtextual negotiation of identity in every interaction.
These multiple simultaneous inputs affect the evaluation of each principle back, i.e. they are intersubjective. The principles form a highly interconnected web, and it sketches the outline of the identity of an interlocutor for sociolinguists. This construction process is different for every interaction, which also explains the multiplex identity of the same person in different contexts.
Law Firm
Case Study 1:
Law Firm
To further study how one identifies him/herself in a workplace, we visited a financial company to observe identity construction first-hand.
An insurance broker has at least two identities at the workplace: one constructed for extra-institutional relationships, such as between the broker and his or her clients, another for intra-institutional relationships, such as that between the colleagues. As identity is not a fixed entity, it is crucial to observe the changes in roles of participants in the interactions, and see how one relates him/herself with others in the situation to establish their identity. We conducted an ethnographical observation and several interviews at the company, focusing mainly on one of the insurance brokers, Jenny. The company has around 20 employees in total, most of which are foreigners. Only four of them have Chinese ethnicity, including two interns. Jenny used to work in a big advertising company. She started to work at the company three months ago, and this is the first time she has worked in a financial company.
One’s identity is constructed by what one says and how one acts instead of a psychological mechanism of self-classification (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). By layman definitions, Jenny's identity would be an insurance broker to both her clients and colleagues, yet, by analysing her performance and utterance, in the ways that Jenny dealt with her clients and colleagues, we could see that she was establishing her professional identity with a systematic, strategic and responsible character.
The first example is a business meeting with a client. The main purpose of the meeting was to sign a document prepared by Jenny in relation to an existing insurance deal. The meeting lasted for about ten minutes, yet their conversation was hardly related to the deal at hand. In their conversation, Jenny asked whether the client had bought safety insurance for his office. After he gave an affirmative answer, the client continued to complain about the irresponsibility of his current agent.
“每次打電話俾個經紀都搵佢唔倒”
I couldn’t contact the agent every time when I call him.
Jenny then provided some advice to him and asked about the duration of the contract.
Afterwards, Jenny explained that the main purpose of the meeting was not only to get the document signed, but also to let the client know that he could enjoy better services than what he was experiencing.
“去之前我已經諗好要講d咩，仲要排先後次序，揀一d如果時間唔多時都一定要講嘅野，所以頭先上到去，即使無咩時間，但我都完成左我嘅目的，都令佢知道我地可以提供倒更好嘅service.”
I always go through what I need to say and prioritize them before I meet my clients, which was why just now, even though we did not have much time, I still finished what I had to say and let him know that we can provide better services.
The positionality principle suggests that one’s identity is not confined to macro-level demographic categories, but extends to temporary conversational roles as it emerges and forms in the interaction negotiated by the interlocutors. In the interaction, Jenny’s role was supposed to be a service and information provider in delivering and explaining the document to her client. However, this was not how she identified herself. Her role as advice giver emerged when she led the conversation into another direction about a new business deal. Her client co-constructed the latter role when he followed Jenny’s lead and complained about his current agent. Thus, it is clear that negotiations of identity construction were clearly in place. Through the action of establishing and adopting a strategic plan for the client meeting, she positioned herself as a well-planned and systematic professional.
The next example demonstrates how Jenny constructed her own identity among colleagues. Her colleague, Keith, once introduced his own client to Jenny and let her close the deal. After he passed the client to Jenny he never asked for updates on the case, but Grace still kept him updated regularly.
“咁單生意係佢pass俾我嘅，我都有需要俾佢知道無交錯俾人，咁我就定時同佢講下我地傾到邊，等佢知道無咩事發生。”
Since I got the deal from him, it is my responsibility to let him know that he did not put it in the wrong hands, so I report our progress and let him know everything is going well.
Jenny imposed a responsibility on herself to report to Keith even without his request for her to do so. The illocutionary force here is that she constructed herself as a subordinate to Keith, even though in the institution’s organizational structure, Jenny and Keith are on the same level. Her act is sufficiently similar to a subordinate to Keith. Keith, as a participant in this interaction, co-constructed this identity when he accepted Jenny’s report. Through this act, Jenny established a responsible character among her colleagues.
The relationality principle can be applied to further dissect Jenny’s identity construction. Regarding her identity in the company, in her interaction with others, she demonstrated a more systematic style in preparation for meetings with her clients and also in handling work from her colleagues compared to her colleagues who are mostly foreigners. Her identity is constructed through the contrast with others. These characteristics stand out in the working environment because the company has a relatively relaxing culture. For example, the supervisor-subordinate relationships are very close. The subordinates can enter freely into supervisors’ office and the supervisors seldom close their doors because they want to listen to the subordinates’ chitchat. Therefore, Jenny’s supervisor commented, “Jenny is a serious person. She was from a big company,” after I told him about how she kept Keith updated. Jenny’s style of working positioned her as a responsible and serious employee recognized by her supervisor. Her professional identity also emerged when she demonstrated her skills in negotiating business deal with her client, and her sense of responsibility towards the job passed on by her colleague.
On top of these characteristics, her working style also revealed her past identity in another company as an advertising manager, which affected how she builds her identity in the current company. Due to the difference in workplace culture, her character becomes more vivid, which helps construct her professional identity. As the partiality principle proposed, one’s identity is not defined by one single parameter, it can be habitual and unconscious as Jenny did in her current company.
Jenny’s identity can be as simple as a Chinese female insurance broker, and people could attribute her linguistic choice to her profession in the workplace only. However, the two examples above support Bucholtz and Hall’s identity theory, that identity is indeed shaped by linguistics choices and interactions during the communication between interlocutors. Particular participant roles in contexts contribute to the construction of identity as much as macro-level social categories.
Reflection
When engaging in any interaction, being aware of the interlocutors’ identities may very well help facilitate achieving communication goals. In the workplace, this is especially important as workplace interactions serves to achieve common goals of the participants in interaction. Identity is not a static entity, but constantly shifting. The five principles suggested by Bucholtz and Hall allows us to analyse identity systematically and gave us a better understanding of the construction of identity. The techniques used to analyse the construction of one’s identity can be flipped and used to construct a desirable identity instead. Jenny had used the resources available to her to construct a professional identity for herself. Familiarizing oneself with the notion of identity can very well aid one in his or her career in the long run.
Lifestyle Club
Case Study 2:
Lifestyle Club
Theoretical Background
Research in 2011 by Schnurr and Zayts examines how identities of leader are negotiated and co-constructed from a social constructionist approach. It points out that constructing leader identities is a dynamic and developing process. In the paper, a case study of a newly promoted team leader in an international financial corporate is investigated. Her process of implementing, constructing and enacting her identity as a leader is deeply examined. Two major principles in identity construction framework, including relationality principle and indexicality principle, are used. Relationality principle suggests that “identities are created in an interaction through interlocutors’ practices and engagements” (Schnurr and Zayts, 2011). Indexicality principle refers to the linguistic means and forms in constructing leader identities. There are four forms in total, including using specific reference terms, stance taking, style marking and code choice. From the case study, constructing leader identities is a complex discourse. It does not necessarily mean a harmonious process, but also includes “antagonistic and challenging discourse” (Schnurr and Zayts, 2011). Moreover, the leader identity is constructed through negotiation as the identity construction is constantly changing with the interaction with the interlocutors. This makes the process of constructing leader identity complex and ever-changing.
Case study
This ethnographic research took place in a golf and lifestyle club. The club is co-managed by two bosses and they are all in their end 20s. The club is a start-up for around one year and has around 20 staffs for full time and part time, which is a relatively small-scale company. This club combines mini-golf with restaurant, bar and event space. There are two nine-hole courses, customers there can enjoy the food and drinks while having fun in playing golf. The interior design is very colorful and full of geometric shapes, this style is very popular in California and Miami in late 1980s. Its target customer is everyone, ranging from private individuals to large corporates. The club is spacious enough to organize large-scale event. Staffs in the club are not limited to local Hong Kong employees only, but also people from foreign who can only speak English. Therefore, all staffs in the club can speak English while some of the staffs cannot speak Cantonese. As a result, English is the common language in this workplace. The menu of the club is also written in English only, no Chinese menu is offered to customers.
During the research, we interviewed one of the CEOs of the club, Peter (anonymous). We asked about his leadership style and the transcript is as below:
Q: What kind of leadership style do you take in managing your subordinates?
A: I will say my leadership style is quite hands-off. I like to trust people who I think can get the job done and give
them room to do their best and I usually don’t do the micro-managing style. So, I give them room and time to do
what they are good at.
Q: How do you construct your relationship with your employees? Any relational work you did to maintain good
relationship between you and them?
A: I think the biggest thing about building relationships with employee would be trust. Trusting them in their abilities
and giving them the right time and also not putting any blame, so it would be a very positive environment. In terms
of actual thing we do to maintain relationship would be constant communication. When I am in the shop, talk to
the employees. When is outside of working hours, just get to know them a little better, their personal life, some
cases may go out, like go teambuilding or just social activities.
From the interview, Peter emphasizes the mutual trust between himself and his employees. He would pay effort to maintain good relationship with his employees. This manifests that he does not aim at constructing a hierarchical relationship with his employees, instead, he would like to construct an image as an approachable leader who is willing to trust and give his employees enough freedom to do whatever they want.
This can be proven by the physical setting of the club. With observation, the general atmosphere in the club is very relaxing with pop music and fancy lightning. When there is not much customer in the club, the staffs there will play around and dance with the rhythm of the music. The boss also walks around with a cup of champagne in his hand and chitchats with the employees. Moreover, there is no CEO office in the club. The bosses work in the restaurant area instead of sitting in the office. Staffs in the club can see what the bosses are doing completely. This relaxing physical environment and setting shows openness and shortens the gap between the bosses and the employees, favoring the construction of an approachable leader in the workplace.
Moreover, when the boss greets with a part-time employee, he pats her shoulder and hugs her. He starts the conversation by asking whether she is busy recently. The part-time employee also greets him in the same way as he does. From the interaction, it shows that he does not keep a hierarchical relationship with the employee, but he uses body language to minimize the status difference between them. There is an example further manifests this phenomena in the workplace.
1. Edwin: “Fyp? 咩係fyp?”
2. Employee: “Fyp咪係final year project囉,咁渣架,咁都吾識.”
In the conversation, the boss Edward asks an employee what is fyp and the employee replies him that fyp refers to final year project and teases him by being so ignorant, not knowing what is fyp. In this interaction, it shows that the employee teases her boss and acts casually without seeing any hierarchal difference between the boss and the employee. This example reveals the relationality principle. Identities are “never constructed in isolation but are always to some extent a conjoint process involving multiple interlocutors” (Schnurr and Zayts, 2011). The process of constructing an identity is fluid and involve others, it does not depend on the institutional setting but the interaction with interlocutors. In an institutional setting, the leader is in a higher position than the employee and thus the employee should act formal in front of the leader. However, in the conversation above, the boss, Edward, is an approachable leader among his staffs instead. Their interaction does not restrict to the institutional setting. They interact casually and there is no problem to tease her boss. Therefore, the identity of the leader in the club is, again, approachable, open and inviting, but not hierarchical.
From the observation, it is also observed that employees in the club do not address their boss with specific reference terms like “leader” or “boss”, they address their bosses by calling their name “Peter” and “Edward” directly. For example, a part-time employee of the club greets Pater, one of the bosses, with “Hi Peter! Long time no see.” This shows how indexicality principle plays. It refers to “inventories the types of linguistic resources whereby interactants indexically position self and other in discourse” (Schnurr and Zayts, 2011) The bosses of the club do not use “boss” or “leader” to address themselves and so do the staffs, they do not use these specific terms to address their bosses. This practice will minimize the status difference between the leader and the staffs. Bosses in the club show their closeness with their subordinates and they are being approachable.
Lastly, it is observed that bosses of club usually start conversation by engaging in small talk. As mentioned above, Peter greets the part-time employee by asking her current situation instead of going straight to the business. There is also another example.
1. Edwin: “咦,你食咩呀?”
2. Part-time employee: “Chicken and waffle呀.”
3. Edwin: “好無食呀咁?”
4. Part-time employee: “次次黎都食呢個,好好食.”
5. Edwin: “多謝多謝.”
The Boss starts the conversation by asking whether the food is yummy or not and engaging in non-related small talk with the part-time employee. In both cases, we can see that both bosses do not give directives directly, they will engage in small talk first. This enables them to build an image as an inviting and open leader.
However, the case study may not be comprehensive enough due to the time constraint. It would be better for us to spend more time on the site-visiting and observe for more interactions between the bosses and the employees as well as to conduct interview with the employees there to understand more about the working landscape in the club.
Elderly Home
Case Study 3:
Elderly Home
This essay is about an observation of an ethnographic study done by a group of two students. We visited an elderly home to investigate identity construction in a workplace setting, by observing the interactions in the office and conducting an interview with the supervisor of the elderly home. All names appeared in the essay have been anonymized for the participants’ privacy. Before the essay goes on, note that the old people serviced in an elderly home is referred as “members”, not “the sick”, not “the elderly”, not “patients”; but “members”.
The staff are divided into three major departments: office staff, medical staff, and chefs. While the office staff work together inside the office; medical staff, such as nurses and nutritionists, would work not only in the medical room, but also around the home for the members’ medical care. Chefs, on the other hand, work in the kitchen. Even though the three types of staff work in different areas in the home, there are surprisingly frequent inter-departmental interactions. The case study would start with an observation of the office staff, then continue with an observation of the medical staff as they distributed medicines to the members, and end with an interview with the elderly home’s supervisor.
The office’s morning started with a meeting. The agenda of the meeting included last shift’s report from nurses, regarding the requests and complaints from members; then the meeting continued with the choose of vendor for dental maintenance of members. For about half an hour the meeting proceeded, during which all the office staff would stand up, listen carefully, and actively respond; the supervisor would ask questions to others and draw conclusions for each agendum. One incident worth noting is that one of the office staff John decided to constantly interrupt the supervisor and other speakers. He proactively voiced his opinion while the supervisor was chairing the meeting, and others listening. However, the staff was apparently not surprised or troubled, they nodded or ignored his contribution to the meeting. The supervisor did not allow herself to be interrupted, as she continued speaking while John’s concerns gradually diminished. The supervisor also addressed John’s concerns later, and the others discussed it.
From this incident, we could clearly observe the identity of the staff as a group. Their active contribution to a routine meeting showed enthusiasm towards their job and the patients. Even though there were a handful of interruptions, the supervisor and the others tolerated the interrupter’s concerns. As the meeting progressed, their identity emerged to be zealous to their job and caring for the patients, i.e. professionals. Such identity only emerged after the interaction, as we would not have assumed it without observing such professionalism.
A few more identities emerged in the meeting. Take John as an example, he is a male administration staff in his fifties. From his appearance, he could be one of the most senior workers in the office. As he began to cut in and speak vigorously on dental maintenance vendor, he exerted his authority as a senior staff. It echoes with authentication and denaturalization in relationality principle of identity construction. His decision to interrupt the supervisor verifies his identity as a middle-aged man of high seniority; on the other hand, the supervisor chose to temporarily ignore his interruption for the moment until she finished speaking, it disrupted the authentication of John’s identity, by showing the supervisor herself held the highest authority.
Next to the nurse reporting what happened in last shift, stood the head nurse of the home. She would be the nurse responsible for the medicine distribution which we later witnessed. During this meeting, she participated even more actively than the others. She knew the answers to every matter on table, and she was not afraid to share her thoughts, timely and eloquently. From our observation, she was not only identified by the nurse uniform on her, but also by the way she expressed herself. She was more than the head nurse, but an active contributor to the meeting.
The scene changes to the medicine distribution before lunch. Members were sensitive about medicine. It means disease, and disease in that age signifies death. The nurses were well-aware of it. The medicine cart moved along the aisle, passing every station of chairs and beds. Each stop was brief, but friendly. “Ah Mui, time for a treat!” (阿妹,食糖喇!) The head nurse said to the old lady as she carefully poured a few pills from the bottle with a warm grin on her cheek. Two nurses followed with cups of water and bowls, making sure of the safe consumption of medicine before the cart left its stop. And it repeated until the cart was empty of pills and syrups. What we observed in the head nurse, was a professional nurse; but a friend was what the members saw when the cart passed by. The head nurse positioned herself as a professional nurse with careful and swift medicine distribution, a caretaker as she made sure the members got their daily dose of medicine, and a friend for she greeted them as she greeted an old friend. Positionality principle explained it as a person could have many identities. The indexicality principle could also be adopted in describing the way the head nurse spoke to the old lady. In the short conversation, she replaced the word “medicine” with “treat” or “candy” to be precise. Such overt mentioning of the label “treat” or “candy” instead of “medicine” shows her awareness of the taboo of medications’ implication to death. This awareness shows experience and heart-warming care for the members of the home, which established her identity as an experienced and caring nurse.
The observation ended with an interview with Ms Ng, the supervisor of the elderly home. She explained to us the day-to-day workflow in the office, as well as the elderly home. She also described her communication in internal and external aspects. For the internal communication with her staff, most of the major interactions are conducted in the morning debriefing, which she depicted as relaxed and friendly. For the external communication with governmental departments and members’ families, she divided the cases into three types. Most of the communication with governmental departments, or with colleagues from other elderly homes under the same organization, were via emails in English. It includes application of funding from Social Welfare Department of Hong Kong. Routine slips and notices for members’ families were sent via mails, for its importance and formality. For the informal interactions, such as an urgent meeting between members and their families, video calls, messages, and phone calls were utilized. Although the matching of contact method and communication purpose were allocated for effectiveness and efficiency, we cannot ignore the possibility that identity took place in the making of such decision as Bucholtz and Hall (606) emphasized the significance of agency in the partialness principle, that decisions are only in part voluntary, and in part compelled by other social factors limiting the speaker’s choices. Email is used in communication with governmental departments because of its formality and accurate and timely nature. A mailman may miss a letter, but an email rarely goes wrong. Perhaps she tried to eliminate all possible factors that would jeopardize such an important request for the home. In this case, she would establish a figure of a responsible and thoughtful leader of the home. If we observe the difference choices of contacting method she used, we can also see partial identities of her: a formal email describes a respectful figure, a casual video call reflects friendliness and care, an urgent call shows the heart-felt consideration of imminent matters. These facets of her identity construct altogether the identity of Ms Ng, the supervisor of the elderly home.
Another facet of Ms Ng reveals as she described how she solved conflicts between chefs and the nutritionist. Nutritionists proposed a healthy yet idealistic menu to the chefs, while the chefs considers it to be unrealistic and distasteful for many. This is where the supervisor intervened. She handled the quarrel by, as she said, finding the common ground for the two parties. “We are only doing this because we care about the members,” she said. The nutritionist and the chefs realized it with Ms Ng’s help, and problem solved. It is more cleverly done than it appeared to be, because not only did Ms Ng appear to be both of their ally for taking both their sides, she also said “we” care about the members, by including herself in the pronoun. She was more than a trustful leader and ally to the two parties, she was also doing her job because she cares about the members.
At the end of the interview, we compared the observation we recorded with Zayts and Schnurr’s extensive research on nurses’ roles as both the “information provider” and “counselor”. Despite the similar nature of the research group and our observation setting, we were unable to directly record the interaction between nurses and the members except during the medicine distribution. Our presence was abrupt and temporary, which would upset the members and cause unwanted troubles for the elderly home. It is one of the limitations in this observation. However, with reference to Zayts and Schnurr’s research, we were able to focus on the multiple identities of the head nurse and the supervisor.
Primary School
Case Study 4:
Primary School
This essay looks into how primary school teachers communicate and educate children, more specifically at how the teachers construct their identities in the classroom through their verbal and non-verbal actions (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005) in order to create the most effective learning environment for their students. Being too authoritative or too friendly may lead to failure in catching students’ attention in class. Therefore, in order to make the children pay attention in class, follow teachers’ instructions, and at the same time to maintain a good relationship between teachers and students, teachers have to construct an appropriate identity and image. To investigate how a teacher constructs his/her identity in a classroom through the use of a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies, I conducted an ethnographic observation in a primary school with an English teacher, Ms. Man, who had had over 10 years of teaching experience. Because it requires different skills for a teacher to educate junior and senior primary school students, I observed how Ms Man taught year 1 and year 6 students. By doing that I wanted to focus on the similarities and the differences of the teacher’s construction of identity through communicating with students of different age groups.
Given the fact that identity is never perceived as a fixed entity, but instead it is a process observed in interactions between people, it is important to look into how a teacher establishes a particular identity in different situations and circumstances (Thompson, 2018). Children in different age groups have different needs and characteristics Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to take these different needs into account and teach in ways that are suitable for the children so that the classes can be more effective in delivering messages and knowledge. It is very obvious that the teaching styles of Ms. Man in the two different classes are distinct and different, based on the needs and the characteristics of the students that she believes are important (Riyanti, 2017). She used several communication strategies such as different tone, sentence structure and choice of words that in their turn served to construct a different identity for her in year 1 and year 6 classes.
In year 1 class, she adopted the approach of being interactive and funny most of the time. By doing so she attempted to construct her identity as a lively and cheerful teacher. For example, when she was trying to explain the pronunciation and meaning of a certain word, such as ‘hit’, she would make it more memorable to students by using a joke, “Because Jayden is not paying attention, let me hit his head! Haha!’ When other students heard it, they would find it funny and laugh, “Let me hit Ms. Man’s head!” I am not going to discuss the appropriateness of this example in a primary school context (as many educators would point such violent examples may not be politically correct), but what is important here is the teacher’s attempt to appear funny, and the students’ reciprocation of laughter and the joke. Another example of this teacher attempting to be liked by the students, and to stabling rapport with them, is the reward system she used. Once again, I am not going to discuss the specific methods that the teacher used. When the students did well and answered questions correctly, they would be asked to go out to the teacher’s desk and get some candies, “Yes, you are so good! Come out baby, get some candy!” I could see that by giving awards the teacher was actively attempting to create a good impression of a good teacher who appreciates their effort and good performance. It is important to also note that in the interactions Ms. Man used a diminutive ‘baby’ to address her students, rather than ‘students’ or their names. That was another example of the teacher trying to reduce the distance between the students and her, and to establish good friendly relationship.
However, in different contexts involving different types of interaction, teachers’ roles change and hence their construction of identity and position in front of their students (Pennington and Richards, 2016). Ms. Man also maintained her authority as a teacher by being very clear and more powerful in giving instructions. Although she tried to be funny in class, sometimes when it came to important content, or when the students were out of control with their behavior so that it impacted the teaching process, she would change her tone and sentence structure. “Put it into your schoolbag. Now. Give you 20 seconds. (Start counting down)”, she said it at a slow pace and in a high volume and with a strict face because the students were disobedient and she needed to retain her power to make the students listen. Because the students could notice that she was serious through her sudden strong tone and the imperative command, they followed her instructions and put things back into their schoolbags as quickly as possible. When students were noisy or sleepy, she would give them imperative commands loudly in a serious tone, “Wake up! Don’t sleep anymore!” and “Stand up! Don’t talk!” Her change in volume, tone and sentence structure was the key to constructing her authority so that students would listen to her. I observed that through the combination of strategies of being relaxed and friendly or sometimes powerful and serious through changing her volume of speech and the speaking style could help the teacher to construct her identity as a friendly yet respectable teacher.
Ms. Man’s teaching approach was different with year 6 students as the students were more capable of paying attention to class and following instructions. Pennington and Richards (2016) maintain that a person’s sense of identity is based on one’s beliefs and values about ‘proper’ and ‘appropriate’ behaviors, so it provides guidance to monitor and assess one’s performance (2016). As Ms. Man believed that her responsibility of teaching year 6 students was to impart much knowledge into students given that students are soon sitting for examinations that directly determine their future studies, she did not spend time on jokes or chit-chats. Instead, throughout the whole lesson, she focused on the content of the textbook, asked questions and gave instructions. In other words, there classes were mainly dedicated to a range of transactional activities, rather than relational activities (Schnurr, 2008). For instance, she said, “For this table on P.15, I need someone to answer it for me. Raise up your hand if you know the answer.” She constructed her authority as a teacher by giving strong and clear instructions starting with the first-person pronoun “I’, where the indexicality principle applies as the first-person pronoun indexes the teacher’s stance of piety towards the students (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). In that context, students knew what the teachers wanted from them and thus they had to respond to the instructions. Similarly to her teaching in year 1 class, when students misbehaved and interrupted her teaching, she would use a strong tone to ask the students to behave well. That helped her to maintain her power in class. Ms. Man’s professionalism was also evident in her teaching. When they were working on a certain assignment, there was a difficult question that students could not handle it themselves; therefore, Ms. Man explained the question step by step, “This question is difficult as you might not know much about wildlife. Let me explain to you what is happening in the world now...” Her detailed explanation of her thoughts towards that question portrayed her as a professional and knowledgeable teacher. In the interview Ms. Man explained that she had spent time providing extra information outside the textbook was that she saw herself as a teacher who exposed students to knowledge of a language, as well as concept about students’ daily life. This example illustrates the positionality principle that several positions occur simultaneously when a person constructs his/her identity (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). Therefore, it can be seen that the development of her identity evolved during her teaching based on her own understanding and notion of herself as a ‘good’ teacher (Riyanti, 2017).
In spite of her powerful and professional teaching style in a rather serious and informative tone most of the time, she sometimes demonstrated her friendliness by complimenting students when they did a great job, “Good! Good!” and “Well done!” More importantly, when a student could not follow her teaching, she was patient and helpful, “It is fine that you do not know the answer. Let us answer this question together. After teaching you how to answer the question, you can try to answer the next question.” That way of teaching helped create an image of an understanding and patient teacher, so that the students could build confidence and self-esteem as well as have trust in her. By doing so, the teacher constructed the identity of a powerful, yet helpful teacher.
My analysis shows that teachers’ identity changes when teachers’ roles change in different contexts. Teachers’ identity is flexible and multiple and reflect different teaching styles when teaching different students, where their past experiences and encounters in teaching will influence and help them to shape their own identity and make their characters more concrete and distinct, as the partiality principle suggests. In order to construct a certain identity in class, they make use of communication strategies to communicate with students, including tone, sentence structure and choice of word. When facing students with different needs, they adjust their identity construction in order to fulfil their responsibility of being good teachers that are believed by themselves. I personally emphasize the significance of the construction of one’s identity as it deeply influences one’s self presentation and the interaction among people. As a teacher in the coming future, I believe a good understanding of my own identity and a proper development of my identity in front of my students are crucial to communicate with students more effectively.
Gym
Case Study 5:
Gym
Key Questions
1. How does the trainer establish and reinforce his identity/ identities?
2. Does identity shift from one to another in a gym? If so, how?
3. How did the coach/ trainers achieve their goal and what verbal/ nonverbal strategies did they employ?
Setting/environment
In this research, I have conducted an ethnographic observation of a Muay Thai boxing gym. Unlike an ordinary office workplace, the professional identity of a boxing gym is not defined by desks and employees dressed in formal or semi-formal attire. Instead, its identity is notably defined by the physical fitness of its staff members and by the more casual and comfortable setting, in a sense that every minute detail is designed to cater to and to encourage physical workouts. For example, the gym I observed is comparatively smaller than most other boxing gyms, with 8 Thai-style 6-feet heavy bags, 2 teardrop bags and a boxing ring. The trainers limit the number of students in each session to 8 in order to keep it less cramped. The setting is more compact and less formal to minimise the distance between the clients and the trainers. Currently the gym employs 3 trainers and 2 part-time assistants and has more than 200 members in total. Physical fitness is the main theme of the gym, and most communication strategies and techniques are centred around that theme.
Emergence Principle
Unlike an office workplace with a clearly defined institutional hierarchy, identity in a gym is more emergent and fluid. As in the Emergence Principle, staff members construct their identity through social interactions (Joseph 2013, 37) – sometimes as a trainer, sometimes as a sparring partner and sometimes as a friend. For example, their identity as trainers emerges, when they issue a lot of orders, directives and imperatives when instructing their clients. Being harsh to maintain distance with the clients is undoubtedly one of the speech strategies to present one’s identity as a trainer.
Harsh approach and power dynamics
As we can see, by being instructive, assertive and sometimes a bit harsh and demanding towards their clients, the trainers push the clients to their physical limits while correcting their postures and techniques, thus establishing their professional identity as a trainer/ instructor with much dedication to his students. The phrase “come on” has appeared four times. Trainers commonly use such expressions to show their encouragement, impatience and dissatisfaction with the clients’ performance, especially when a client is showing signs of physical exhaustion. The language use of technical terms, e.g. boxing combos like “jab cross 1-2” is a persona-/ group-specific linguistic system. The issuing and comprehension of such jargons showcase certain understanding and experience of the sport, on the parts of both the trainer and the client.
1. Trainer KW: 四拳一二三四! 左、右!
Jab, cross – 1, 2, 3 ,4! Left hook, right hook!
2. Trainer KW: 左upper、右upper、body兩吓!
Left uppercut, right upper cut, followed by 2 body shots on the left!
3. Trainer KW: 黎!連踢兩吓，頂、再頂!
Come on! Double kicks, knee strike, again!
4. Trainer KW: 黎! 踢高! 直拳one two左肘、右肘，左上肘，轉身肘!
Come on! High kick to the head! Jab, cross, left elbow strike, right elbow, upper elbow strike,
spinning back elbow!
5. Trainer PW: 仲有10秒，頂埋佢頂埋佢
Just 10 seconds left! Come on, come on, you can do this!
6. Trainer PW: 我地MuayThai呢，最講求Technique， 唔係一味死力, 要自己不斷練緊果時諗吓點樣打果拳、點樣徑
組合其他腳，先至進步到，你係得個大力，自己諗諗啦!
In Muay Thai, we’re talking about techniques, not brute force, we need to constantly think about
how to throw that jab or cross and combine them with other kicks, etc. That’s how you improve!
No you only rely on your brute force… Think about what I’ve said!
It is also noteworthy that the trainers keep the interactional floor and the clients mainly keep silent. It suggests a power asymmetry (Gumperz, 1982, 120) where only the trainers can issue instructions and orders while clients have no other choice but to comply, e.g. by executing the instructions. By complying, the clients also establish their own identity as students. Hence, the principle of positionality also comes into play, as the respective identities of trainers and clients emerge through the contrastive temporal and circumstantial stances and roles taken by the interlocuters.
Soft approach and friendship
In addition to their harsh speech acts, at times trainers employ different speech strategies to show their warmth and empathy towards their clients. This also allows them to minimise their distance and to neutralise the “harsher” approach. The trainers use a lot of compliments, e.g. “Good job!” to please their customers by giving them a sense of accomplishment, with regards to their performance and techniques. It can thus be deduced that the trainers’ orientation is to foster a friendlier and closer relationship with their clients.
1. Trainer PW: 細佬，你呢排d拳靚左喎!
Lil’ brother (the client’s nickname), your punches seem a lot better than before!
2. Client “Lil’ brother”: 係咪? 屋企成日練嘛
3. Trainer PW: 咁先係踢腳家嘛! 好野!
Now that’s how you throw a kick man! Good job mate!
Meanwhile, the trainers only address their clients by their first names, and sometimes their nicknames/ occupations. For example, the trainer calls the male client “Lil’ brother”, as it turns out that he is the younger brother of another female client) – to obviously build a personalised relationship with the young man as his “elder brother”, while “mate” is a common informal and friendly way to address a young man, or a friend. All these reference items aim to show a caring, supportive and softer side of the trainer towards his students/ clients.
Indexicality and labelling
The aforementioned overt mentioning of identity categories and labels is also relevant to the Indexicality Principle (Bucholtz and Hall 2005, 594), as the trainers frequently employ indicators of professions, e.g. “doc” and “barrister” as shown below, as reocentric labels for certain clients , as personalised strategies to minimise distance and build trust and friendship. The invitation of a lawsuit was also a sarcastic teasing of a law student, as “sue” is closely related to her field of studies and her future profession. The fact that both the “doc” and “barrister” have not yet practiced their profession makes the labelling rather humorous and casual, as they are just students of their respective faculties. It is to establish another identity as a friend, in addition to that of a trainer. Thus, the strong implication and presupposition of the identity position of both his clients, with labels of their future career, is a subtly powerful speech act to foster the friendship between trainers and clients. The fact that the trainer knows the personal details of the clients (such as their field of study at a university, their family composition) are also indicative of the close and trusting relationship between the trainer and he clients.
1. Client (law student): 你岩岩打到我個頭呀!
You just hit my head!
2. Trainer KW: 告我丫大狀!
Sue me, barrister!
3. Client (law student): 妖! 好痛呀!
Shit! It really hurts!
4. Trainer KW: 醫生，睇吓佢啦!
Doc, check her up!
5. Client (medical student): 吓….
Hmm…
Positionality and non-verbal language
A myriad of identities also emerge and shift temporally through non-verbal language actions, particularly in a gym setting. For example, the clients are mostly ethnic Chinese local Hong Kongers, but sometimes expatriates as well, ranging from English to South Korean and Singaporeans. This, being their distinctive macrosocial demographic categories, along with their personal backgrounds, e.g. lawyers, doctors, etc. as their local, ethnographical position, shape their unique individual identities (Bucholtz and Hall 2005, 598). Meanwhile, their identities as students also emerge, when they punch and kick the pads and bags to follow the trainers’ orders – a communication process which is co-temporal and rather interaction-specific. As for the trainers, while holding pads or punching bags and being the timekeeper for their clients, they also establish their identity not only, locally, as the trainers, but circumstantially and temporally as the pad holders; and the clients’. And of course, when both the clients and trainers put on boxing gloves while entering the boxing ring, it is obvious that their current positionality automatically helps establish their own and each other’s identities as fighters and sparring opponents, who are going to engage in a fight. Also, trainers always physically position themselves closer to their clients, namely by training, stretching and working out together – in order to minimise the distance between the 2 identities.
Relationality and how trainers are addressed
The trainers are always addressed by their first names. An important side note is that they are in their mid-twenties, significantly younger than traditional head coaches. Hence the boxing gym is different from traditional boxing schools or martial arts dojo, where the head coach is addressed as “Shifu” or “Sensei” – an apparent identity category or label to establish a clear hierarchy. Instead, new boxing gyms like I observed encourage a closer and friendlier relationships where trainers also act as buddies to clients. The trainers use their first names or aliases to shorten the distance between themselves and their clients, therefore acting as peers instead of seniors. This friendly approach falls in line with the adequation and distinction of relationality principle (Bucholtz and Hall 2005, 599), where trainer try to minimise the distance between themselves and their clients by using friendlier ways to address themselves and their clients and by showing a shared interest in the sports itself, or in general physical workout. And hence, in this case indexicality and relationality are somewhat intertwined. This observation can be linked to the age of the trainers, but of course it can also be a marketing strategy on the part of the gym; by establishing a closer relationship with the clients, the gym thus manages to keep its current clients and attract new clients in a very competitive market of the sports industry.
Relationality and Schmoozing
Other than the usual orders and instructions given by the trainers, communication strategies can be very interactive at times, as chit-chatting and schmoozing play a fundamental part in the gym interactions. While orders, directives or even compliments widen, or at very least maintain the distance between clients and trainers by creating two rather contrasting stances/ positions, small talk, on the contrary, not only minimises the distance, but also integrates the two otherwise contrasting identities into another identity – friends.
1. Trainer PW: 吓，7點半番工咁早，玩你乍係咪呀?
What? 7:30 is way too early. Are they making a fool of you?
2. Female Client 1: 唉，冇計啦，要傾contract…
Sigh… I don’t have a choice as we have a meeting for a contract…
3. Trainer PW: 至少聽講果度d早餐幾好食
At least there is good breakfast nearby.
4. Female Client 2: 你小心食到塊面腫左
Be careful not to gain a few pounds more!
5. Female Client 1: 妖
Shit
6. Trainer PW: 喂，好耐冇見，welcome back (plus a hug) ，你去exchange 點呀?
Hello, it’s been a long while, welcome back, how’s your exchange?
From the above example, we can see that the trainer teased one of his female client by suggesting her colleagues or superiors “make a fool” of her. And in response to the rather pragmatic and honest explanation of that client, he used “at least” as topic shift to bring up a lighter topic – breakfast. Then, another girl teased her again by warning her of the potential danger of gaining weight. Finally, she ended the conversation with foul language, which was however said with a friendly tone and more importantly, a smile. The above schmoozing has absolutely nothing to do with boxing or fitness, but it is vital in building friendship and minimising distance between the speakers, the other clients and the trainer as well.
The major benefit of schmoozing is that it allows interlocutors to build rapport and to defuse conflict (Boxer 2011, xiii), by showing interest in the normal daily activities of another individual (Boxer 2011, xvi) – which is rather relevant to the setting of a boxing lesson to neutralise the harsher approach of ordering and instructing. Hence, schmoozing help interlocutors navigate through social interactions by engaging others in speech and serves as lubricants (Boxer 2011, xxiii) to open up a new relationship and strengthen an old one – especially if interlocutors would like to make friend with one other.
Reflexion:
Identities shift from one to another in a gym. Contrary to the layman’s black and white perspective that trainers remain always as trainers and clients remain clients, the boundary between work and social life is usually quite blurry. From the above principles of emergence, indexicality and positionality, the interlocutors’ identity has multiple facets and shifts from time to time, which can at times depend entirely on the context. The goals of interlocutors determine their own speech strategies and thus their own temporal identities, e.g. the trainer establishes and reinforces his identities with various methods. He can be harsh to maintain distance with the clients and dominance in a power asymmetry (Bucholtz and Hall 2005, 607); or he can adopt a softer approach to encourage or give positive remarks – both as different speech strategies to reinforce his image as a trainer. The trainer can also employ techniques like schmoozing and occasional teasing to make friends with the clients. All these strategies demonstrate the fluidity of identity in workplace.
ESL Classroom
Case Study 6:
ESL Classroom
Introduction and theoretical framework
As Vanderstayy et al. (2009: 262) argue, teacher authority is essentially ‘a form of professional authority granted by students who affirm the teacher’s expertise, self-confidence, and belief in the importance of their work’. In this sense, when constructing their authoritative identity in the classroom, teachers not only do it on their own, but also rely on how students perceive and respond to their choice of language and actions. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork in a ESL classroom in a local secondary school, this essay seeks to adopt Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) sociocultural linguistic approach to identity and interaction, and shed light on the ways in which ESL teachers use language to construct their authoritative identity in the classroom. According to Bucholtz and Hall (2005: 586, 598), identity is defined as ‘the social positioning of self and other’, and always ‘acquire[s] social meaning in relation to other available identity positions and other social actors’. It is, therefore, important to take into account the social interaction between teachers and students when analyzing classroom discourse, instead of focusing on one single party. Meanwhile, identity construction is ‘in part an outcome of interactional negotiation and contestation’, which points to the necessity of elucidating how teachers respond to the contestation of their authoritative identity from students (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005: 606).
Data collection and methodology
A site visit was conducted on 6 April 2018 in a local secondary school in the New Territories. During the fieldwork, qualitative data collection methods were adopted to explore the ways ESL teachers use language to construct their identity as an authoritative figure in the context of local secondary schools. First, as this fieldwork focusses on the interactional dynamics in the classroom setting, I obtained informed consent from one of the school’s English teacher Ms. Wong (pseudonym). She received primary, secondary and tertiary education in Hong Kong, speaks Cantonese as her mother tongue and English as a second language, and has taught in the school for more than 10 years. After seeking permission, I conducted ethnographic observation and audio-recorded a 35-minute English class in which Ms. Wong taught a reading passage in her textbook and led a class discussion with 15 Hong Kong Chinese students in Secondary 4 who are locally born and raised. Meanwhile, I made field notes and jotted down questions regarding Ms. Wong and her students’ choice of language. The audio-recorded data was then transcribed, and relevant sections were selected and analyzed. Afterwards, two semi-structured interviews were carried out on the same day (one with Ms. Wong and one with the students) to help me clarify the questions in the field notes and provide a more accurate, reliable analytical reading of the classroom interaction.
Research questions
1. How does the English teacher construct her authoritative identity through language use?
2. Is the teacher’s authoritative identity contested? If so, how?
3. What are the implications of authoritative identity for teaching and learning effectiveness in the ESL classroom?
Data analysis
1. Topic control and turn-taking sequence
When constructing her authoritative identity, Ms. Wong controls the classroom interaction on both macro and micro levels. On a macro level, she acts as the topic controller who organizes the flow and structure of the entire lesson, and students are not expected to challenge her agenda (Vanderstayy et al., 2009). Directives are always expressed in the form of imperatives, occasionally with the polite marker ‘please’. She also leads the entire class to accomplish one task after another by structures such as ‘let’s move on to’, as well as the conjunction ‘so’ to signal topic shift. On a micro level, Ms. Wong also controls the turn-taking sequence in the classroom interaction. She decides who to take the next turn, and students are expected to contribute their ideas when solicited from the teacher. When students take turns without Ms. Wong’s request or permission, they would be evaluated negatively as trouble-makers. In the semistructured interview with Ms. Wong, she regarded time constraint and student discipline as major factors that determine her style.
2. Display of expertise and experience
Moreover, Ms. Wong constructs her authoritative identity by displaying expertise and familiarity with the language and the syllabus. The indexicality principle helps shed light on this aspect of identity construction. Identity relations can emerge in interaction through ‘overt mention of identity categories and labels’ and ‘implicatures and presuppositions regarding one’s own or others’ identity position’ (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005: 594). By overtly highlighting her experience as an examiner/marker in the public examination while reminding the students about other candidates’ common mistakes, Ms. Wong foregrounds her ‘epistemic authority’ to demonstrate her up-to-date knowledge about recent examination trends and make her claims more reliable and credible (Raviv et al., 2003: 17). Meanwhile, this implies that even though Ms. Wong herself is not a native speaker of English, she should be treated as someone qualified to offer constructive advice for their learning.
3. Evaluation of student performance
She also assumes a more superior role by exercising her right to evaluate students’ performance in class, based on their response to her questions. When students get the right answers or show effort, Ms. Wong expresses appreciation by adjectives such as ‘good’, ‘nice’ and ‘excellent’. She also positions herself as a more competent English speaker by pointing out and correcting students’ grammatical mistakes. This can be further explained by the relationality principle in Bucholtz and Hall’s framework. The relationality principle highlights the intersubjective nature of identity construction, acknowledging that identities ‘are never autonomous or independent but always acquire social meaning in relation to other available identity positions and other social actors’ (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005: 598). By prescribing a ‘proper’ way of expressing an idea in the discussion practice and judging S2’s response as inaccurate or inappropriate, Ms. Wong constructs her authoritative identity not by explicitly claiming that she is professional and reliable, but indirectly by showing that other students’ English is not as proficient as her, and students are supposed to pay attention and learn from her input in class.
4. Responding to students’ contestation: quoting external authoritative sources
When S4 contests her authoritative identity by quoting what his/her private tutor said and challenging Ms. Wong’s expertise, Ms. Wong clarifies S4’s doubt and refutes her skepticism. As stated in the positionality principle, identities are ‘shaped from moment to moment in interaction’, and ‘emerge in discourse through temporary roles and orientations assumed by participants’ (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005: 591). In S4’s initial challenge of Ms. Wong’s grammatical accuracy, S4 assumes the temporary role as ‘a critic of the teacher’ who attempts to override Ms. Wong’s authoritative identity. Nonetheless, Ms. Wong re-claims her role as ‘the leader/professional instructor’ by making reference to more authoritative sources, namely, the Oxford and Cambridge English dictionaries, to which S4 does not have immediate access during class time. As a result, even though S4 appears to be dissatisfied with Ms. Wong’s response, she has no choice but to remain silent and let Ms. Wong carry on.
5. Responding to students’ contestation: criticism and verbal warning
Ms. Wong’s authoritative identity is also contested by S5 and S6, who disobeys the instructions and deliberately violates the ‘English only, no Cantonese’ rule in Ms. Wong’s English classes. This kind of misbehavior is met with a verbal cue ‘shh’ to silence them, critical remarks of their response being ‘pointless’, and a verbal warning of making them leave the classroom and see the discipline teacher. In the semi-structured interview with Ms. Wong, she regards S5 and S6 as ‘problem students’ who ‘always misbehave’, ‘never listen’, and ‘push the boundary of [her] tolerance all the time’. In contrast, in the semi-structured interview with the students, S5 and S6 admit that they often score the lowest in tests and mock exams and have been losing motivation in learning English. In some sense, Ms. Wong’s authoritative identity can positively influence students’ behavior by pushing students who fail to live up to her expectations to improve, as in the case of S1 failing to prepare before class and answer her question (Oral, 2013). Nonetheless, in S5 and S6’s case, her authoritative identity can de-motivate students who are already under-achieved or losing motivation in learning English (Vanderstayy et al., 2009).
Conclusion and methodological reflection
To sum up, ESL teachers employ a wide range of linguistic strategies, namely, controlling topic shift and turn-taking sequences, showcasing her expertise and familiarity in the subject, evaluating students’ performance, in order to construct her authoritative identity. When this identity is contested, she attempts to re-claim the authoritative identity by quoting more reliable external sources, and providing criticism and verbal warning. In this sense, ESL teachers’ authoritative identity can be regarded as a double-edged sword, but when used appropriately, it can yield positive results and nurture the secondary students to maintain an interest in English and become life-long, independent learners. In this workplace investigation, I not only gain a better insight into the challenges faced by local ESL teachers in their daily work, but also apply the skills, knowledge and research methodologies learnt in the course. By combining different research methodologies, I can better understand my research site (i.e. local secondary school) and its usual practices during ethnographic fieldwork and observation, conduct an in-depth analysis of the patterns and subtleties in language use through discourse analysis, as well as encourage the interlocutors’ reflexivity about their own practices and ‘draw attention to and challenge unquestioned practices’ in semi-structured interviews (Holmes and Meyerhoff, 2003: 14). Nonetheless, there are some limitations in the data collection and analysis processes. My request of video-recording the class was rejected because of confidentiality and privacy issues. If video-recording is permitted in future research, this can provide more paralinguistic and non-verbal cues that co-occur in the classroom interaction and help us look more closely into how students’ response to ESL teachers’ authoritative identity may influence the teachers’ choice of language and actions.
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